DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6247#0072
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further security, the device on the base was first dippe*d into some red liquid, which colour
would be imparted to the impression. A precisely similar mode of making secure the door
of a shunah, or corn magazine, is practised in Egypt at this day ; and that it was an
ancient custom also in Assyria we know, from the fact of Mr. Botta finding the fragments
of a seal at the door of a chamber in the palace of Ehorsabad ; and to this custom also the
King of Babylon's question to Daniel, "Are the seals whole," has reference, when he was
about to enter the temple of Bel, as recorded in the apocryphal book of Bel and the
Dragon, i. 17.
The second conjecture is, that they were used for the same purpose as those small cones found
by Mr. Loftus in the building at Werka, namely, for inserting into a wall built of earth.
See Loftus' Travels in Chaldsea and Persia. London, 1857.
Mr. Samuel Sharpe, on the other hand, is of opinion that they were presented to the temple
as gifts, or as the record of a gift, because the word for gift, or hill, is the same in the Coptic,
and also because they always bear some religious inscription on the base. This conjecture
is confirmed by those bas-reliefs where we see the king on his knees presenting similar
cones to the god of the temple (see No. 496), and also by the small stone pyramids, about
12 inches high, which have been found in Egypt, and which in the same way have been
used as typical of a gift, because the words gift, hill, and pyramid are the same.
It has been suggested that they may have been used for stamping pastry, to ornament bread
or cakes.
VASES OF TERRA COTTA.
468. Vase, of elegant form, covered with a black glaze, and ornamented with Fine clay.
some red horizontal lines. 4*inches h^h-
4(39. A double vase, of curious form, but bearing no device in paint or sculp-
ture
Fine clay.
4j inches high.
further security, the device on the base was first dippe*d into some red liquid, which colour
would be imparted to the impression. A precisely similar mode of making secure the door
of a shunah, or corn magazine, is practised in Egypt at this day ; and that it was an
ancient custom also in Assyria we know, from the fact of Mr. Botta finding the fragments
of a seal at the door of a chamber in the palace of Ehorsabad ; and to this custom also the
King of Babylon's question to Daniel, "Are the seals whole," has reference, when he was
about to enter the temple of Bel, as recorded in the apocryphal book of Bel and the
Dragon, i. 17.
The second conjecture is, that they were used for the same purpose as those small cones found
by Mr. Loftus in the building at Werka, namely, for inserting into a wall built of earth.
See Loftus' Travels in Chaldsea and Persia. London, 1857.
Mr. Samuel Sharpe, on the other hand, is of opinion that they were presented to the temple
as gifts, or as the record of a gift, because the word for gift, or hill, is the same in the Coptic,
and also because they always bear some religious inscription on the base. This conjecture
is confirmed by those bas-reliefs where we see the king on his knees presenting similar
cones to the god of the temple (see No. 496), and also by the small stone pyramids, about
12 inches high, which have been found in Egypt, and which in the same way have been
used as typical of a gift, because the words gift, hill, and pyramid are the same.
It has been suggested that they may have been used for stamping pastry, to ornament bread
or cakes.
VASES OF TERRA COTTA.
468. Vase, of elegant form, covered with a black glaze, and ornamented with Fine clay.
some red horizontal lines. 4*inches h^h-
4(39. A double vase, of curious form, but bearing no device in paint or sculp-
ture
Fine clay.
4j inches high.