Abstract
V. SOME months ago the Rev. Greville J. Chester brought to this country a quadrangular hæmatite seal found near Tarsus. Though this seal shows, in certain particulars, some analogy with the Yuzgât seal, yet it gives little or no additional aid in the decipherment of the inscriptions. It presents, nevertheless, features of very great interest. Prof. Sayce scarcely goes beyond the merits of the seal when he says that it possesses a “unique and splendid character; nothing like it has ever before been brought to the notice of European scholars.”2 The seal is engraved not only on the base (1), but also on the four sides, while opposite the base the stone was so cut as to serve the purpose of a handle. On four out of the five engraved faces are to be seen two figures—one seated and one standing. These may be supposed to represent men or deities, or possibly, in some cases, ideal personages. At first sight it may seem difficult to discern any general aim or connected purpose in the curious figures depicted. On more attentive examination, however, there is seen to be exhibited a pervading principle of tri-unity, especially as exemplified in the triangle and the trident. Moreover, while on three faces of the seal (1, 2, 5) there are figures with the “pig-tail” (an appendage which suggests a connection with the Hittites), it appears tolerably evident that the engraver of the seal intended to represent the personages with this appendage as destitute of the valuable knowledge and power connected with the mysterious three-in-oneness of the triangle and the trident. This is entirely in accordance with the position that the wearers of the pig-tail were still regarded as aliens and intruders when the seal was engraved.
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The Hittites, with Special Reference to Very Recent Discoveries 1 . Nature 37, 609–612 (1888). https://doi.org/10.1038/037609a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/037609a0