LAPIS-LAZULI CYLINDER OF SUMERIAN TRADITION 423

of a pard, the ' rhytons' in the shape of bulls and bulls' heads with their
trefoil or quatrefoil inlays, must be ultimately derived from old Sumerian
sources. Among the finds described in the present Volume, a remarkable
addition to this series has offered itself in the painted
terra-cotta flower so closely recalling the ' flower-cones'
from Ur, dating back to the Twenty-ninth Century before
our era.1 The tradition, indeed, of the contemporary floral
jewellery such as is seen on that Sumerian site may well
be recognized in the exquisite gold work from the Early
Minoan tombs at Mochlos.

The comparative knowledge that we now possess of
the earlier Chaldaean culture has made it also possible
to trace the true connexions of a gold mounted cylinder
of lapis lazuli obtained from the North-West part of the
Palace site in the early days of the Excavation,2 but of
which no full account or illustration has as yet been
published.

Go back
to Sume-
rian Age.

Lapis-
lazuli
Cylinder
from
Palace
Site:
its early
character-
istics.

Fig. 3-10. Lapis-
lazuli Cylinder,
with Gold Cap-

PING. (§.)

Gold-mounted Lapis-Lazuli Cylinder.

This remarkable cylinder was found, 40 centimetres
deeper than the M. M. Ilia; stratum, in the 'Initiatory
Area' just beyond the Western border of the 'North Lustral Basin' and
is shown, enlarged to two diameters, in Fig. 3if). It is set with a gold
cap above and below, that above surmounted with a granulated circle.

A development of the engraved designs (three diameters) is given in
Fig. 350.3 In the centre is the Man-bull Eabani, apparently seizing an ibex
by the horn, with a post-like emblem between. Right and left of this
central episode are pairs of the crossed rampant beasts inherent in this
cylinder style,* in the one case a lion and bull, in the other a lion and
ibex. Outside this animal group stands the flounced figure of a Goddess.

In the narrower upper register of the cylinder, from right to-left, after
a spray and a small human head, appears the winged dragon of Marciuk—

Tradi-
tional
Sumerian
types on
Cylinder.

1 See above pp. 124, 125, and Figs. 94,95.

- Knossos,Report, 1900, pp. 67, 6S. I there
observed that .the style ol' the mythological
designs in the lower register ' shows no trace
of distinctively " Hittite " or Syro-Cappadocian
elements'.

3 Drawn by Monsieur E. Gillieron, pere.

'' Where a design is continuous, as on
a cylinder, such overlapping figures are
valuable to the engraver as supplying an
element of elasticity in a composition, which,
while having neither beginning or end, has
to be contained within its circuit.