Page 66 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

THE EARLY DYNASTIC PERIOD
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Figure 14. Seal impressions of the second Early Dynastic Period, from Fara

the forepaw of another Hon. This latter beast is drawn across a goat facing to the left.
The crossing of figures is now a favourite device; it increases the density of the design
and makes space-filling motifs, such as heads, plants, and the like, superfluous. The same
illustration also shows how an inscription was treated during this period. It appears on
the left, not separated from the rest of the design by a frame, but seemingly part of it.
The space left over below the written signs is filled by the hero between two goats,
drawn on a smaller scale than the rest of the scene. These designs are entirely homo­
geneous (that is, linear) and continuous: it is not possible to isolate the impression of a
single revolution of the cylinder seal, since the ends are carefully dovetailed, a feature
obscured by the nearness of modern draughtsmen, who arrest the loose ends which they
really should show on both sides of their copies; the photographs do show them.
The design of figure 14A is even more comphcated. Again two rampant Hons flank a
central figure, as in figure 14B. But this time the figure is not their master but their vic-
tim, a goat, drawn with two heads to fiU the broad space between the Hons. As in
figure 14B, two buU-men attack the Hons in the rear, but the heads of the beasts are
turned outward, towards their attackers. The group of animal and plant which fiUs, in
figure 14B, the space left on the cylinder after the group of five had been drawn, is re­
placed in figure 14A by a filling showing Hon and bull-man in combat.
The detailed comparisons of these two seals may serve as an illustration of the rich
variety produced by modifications in the composition of a few recurring motifs. The
goat with the two heads gives the clue to the monsters which are frequent on these seals.
One type appears in plate 39B and figure 14c. His tressed and bearded head is shown in
full-face, and the trunk and arms arc human; but the Tegs* are Hons standing on their
forefeet, while their tails end in panthers’ heads which the arms of the creature thrust
away from its face. It would be useless to expect the Htcrary sources to disclose the nature

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