A few specimens of royal Babylonian cylin ders exist, one of the more interesting being in the J. Pierpont Morgan collection. It is of green serpentine, dates from about 2450 s.c., and is inscribed with the name of Gudea, ruler of Lagash (Shirpurla), and with that of ((Abby the scribe, thy servant"; thus it bears both the name of the one who stamped the royal seal on a document or record, as well as that of his sovereign. Another royal seal in this col lection, one made of black serpentine, is en graved with the name of Ine-Sin, king of Ur, about 2700 a.c., and who styles himself "servant of the god Adar." Still another Babylonian cylinder is notable as well for its material as for design and inscription. It is of jade (nephrite) and dates from the period between 2000 and 1500 a.c. On it is figured the goddess Ishtar, one foot advanced and resting on a lion, or dragon; above her shoulders rise the shafts of arrows from the quivers on her back. In one hand she holds the Babylonian caduceus, with its two serpents, in the other the serpent scimitar. Facing her is the god Martu, fol lowed by the goddess Shama. The inscription proves that this was the seal of Imgur-Sin, who was "The anointer" in the temple of Belit (Ishtar), and who proclaims himself "the serv ant of the goddess Bail," consort of the god Ningirsu.
In Grwco-Roman and later times, while many of the precious materials in early use were still employed by engravers, we have en graved emeralds, such as that in the ring of Polycrates, as well as engraving on aquamarine and other beryls. To these must be added sard, sardonyx, nicolo and onyx, which have been used more often for engraving than any other stones. Carnelian, almandine and other garnets, notably the fiery-red pyrope garnet often designated "carbuncle," have been also highly favored, as was topaz. Still other stones
used were amethyst and other quartz gems, as well as turquoise, jacinth, plasma and infre quently opal. The corundum gems were more sparingly employed, as their great hardness de fied the tools of the earlier engravers, and they were not favored, though very occasionally used, in the Renaissance period, as was even the diamond (q.v.), partly because of the mechan ical difficulty of engraving on them, and partly because of the value and beauty of the un engraved stones. Still we have, as far back as the later Roman period, the signet of the Eastern Emperor Constantius II (317-61), en graved on a sapphire weighing 53 carats. It is worth noting that shell, the earliest material used by the engravers, was the one most em ployed in the revival of interest in cameo cutting in the first half of the 19th century, and one that was freely used in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Bibliography.— d'Agincourt, J. B. S.,