Identifier: archaeologyofcun00sayc (find matches)
Title: The archæology of the cuneiform inscriptions
Year: 1908 (1900s)
Authors: Sayce, A. H. (Archibald Henry), 1845-1933 Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (Great Britain). General Literature Committee
Subjects: Cuneiform writing Civilization, Assyro-Babylonian Assyria -- Antiquities
Publisher: London : Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge New York : E. S. Gorham
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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Asia meant the extension of Babyloniancivilization, an integral part of which was its script. Here, then, is an explanation of the archaeologicalfact that the graves of the copper and early bronzeage in Cyprus, which mark the beginning of civiliza-tion in the country, contain numerous seal-cylindersmade in imitation of those of Babylonia.1 Examplesof the seal-cylinders from which they were copiedhave also been discovered there. Among them is thecylinder on which Naram-Sin is adored as a god,another is an extremely fine specimen of the stylethat was current in the age of Sargon of Akkad.2Along with the seal-cylinder it is probable that the 1 In the later bronze or Mykenaean age the seal-cylindersare of a different type, and are engraved on a black artificialpaste resembling haematite (Myres and Ohnefalsch-Richter,Catalogue of the Cyprus Museum, p. 32). 2 Sayce, Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archceology,1877, v. part ii. ; Bczold, Zeitschrift fur Keilinschrift, 1885,pp. 191-3.
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BABYLONIA AND PALESTINE 141 clay tablet was also introduced to the people of theWest. Though the clay tablets found by Dr. Evansand others in Krete may not go back to so remote adate, the linear Kretan characters belong to the samesystem of writing as the Cypriote syllabary, and aninscription in the letters of this syllabary on a seal-cylinder from the early copper-age cemetery ofParaskevi near Nikosia has recently been publishedby myself.1 We may infer that the prototypes of thetablets of Knossos or Phaestos once existed in Cyprusand Syria, though in the damp climate of theMediterranean the unbaked clay of which they weremade has long since returned to its original dust. A few centuries after the age of Sargon of Akkadwe find Gudea, a Sumerian prince in SouthernBabylonia, bringing limestone from the land of theAmorites, blocks of alabaster from the Lebanon,and beams of cedar from Mount Amanus, for hisbuildings in the city of Lagas. Gold-dust and acaciawood were at the same time impor

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