Besides this ordinary form, a few gems shaped like the Greek--that is, either round or oval--have been found: and numerous impressions from such gems on sealing-clay show that they must have been a tolerably common.

The subjects which occur are mostly the same as those on the sculptures--warriors pursuing their foes, hunters in full chase, the king slaying a lion, winged bulls before the sacred tree, acts of worship and other religious or mythological scenes.

[PLATE LXXXI.Fig.

1.] There appears to have been a gradual improvement in the workmanship from the earliest period to the time of Sennacherib, when the art culminates.

A cylinder found in the ruins of Sennacherib's palace at Koyunjik, which is believed with reason to have been his signet, is scarcely surpassed in delicacy of execution by any intaglio of the Greeks.