Page 7 - DILMUN NO 7

“there is no representation of an astral water­ into the same vessel, Do these divergencies
man known in Babylonian art.”11 This is correct indicate a difference in the meaning of rhese
as far as Babylonian art is concerned, bur as seals? If so, this would be important because
implied above, Syrian cylinders of about the of the signs appearing above the figures- two
time of the Gulf seals show repeatedly a nude grilledsquares over the robed figures flanking
bearded figure with streams flowing over his a disk, and two birds flanking a branch over
shoulders and two stars distinguishing the man the nude figures. The most obvious hyporhesis
from mortals and lesser supernatural figures.12 is that the long-robed figures ire women, each
While the relation of the water carrier of whom drinks from her own vessel.
with his two skins or jars to a sign of the The earliest representation of persons
I larappa script is very obvious, it should not be drinking through tubes from a vessel is seen on
forgotten that Kgyptian representations of a plaque from Nippur published bv Donald !\
water carriers are quite similar.13 Moreover, on I lansen?where two men are pictured. Later, in
the zodiac from Dcndcra in which the constel­ the time of the Koval Cemetery, several
lations are unequivocally identified, Aquarius banqueting scenes on cylinders show women
carries two vases, thereby documenting Ins drinking through tubes, like the men, in a com­
Kgvptian origin, since Babylonian and Syrian munal ceremony though they arc also often
waterman hold only one vase.14 Thus, it is not show n holding a cup!6 On Mesopotamian seals
impossible that Kgvptian influence also made nude after the Akkad period, thar is, in rhe
itself felt in the repertory of the Gulf seals. Isin-Larsa and Old Babylonian periods, un
The two Gulf designs published by equivocal representations of a woman drinking
Buchanan look almost identical at first glance. through a tube from a vessel are known to me
A closer view, however, shows thar in the only in erotic scenes. 7
imprint, the figures wear long plain robes and Interestingly enough, a representation of a
each drinks from its own vessel, whereas on the woman drinking from a vessel through a tube
design of the seal in the Vale Babylonian occurs in one of the erotic scenes of the Gulf
Collection, the figures arc nude or are clad in seals (fig. V). These scenes .liffer from the
garments so short that they are not indicated, Mesopotamian ones in the manner described by
and both figures have dipped their large tube Briggs Buchanan.18 It is all more surprising.

Fig. 6 “Waterman” on a cylinder seal of Syrian
Fig. 5 Water carrier on Gulf seal from Ur. style, ca. 18th century B. C.. Pierpont
Writer’s photograph of the impression in Morgan Library ; reproduced in Corpus
the University Museum, Philadelphia. of Ancient Near Eastern Seals in North
First published by C. J. Gadd. Pro­ American Collections.! : The Pierpont
ceedings. of the British Academy XVIII Morgan Library Collection ( Bollingen
(1932). PI. II : 2. Series XIV, 1948 ). No. 979.
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