2.] The signet cylinder of this monarch's son has been recently recovered, and is now in the British Museum.

We are entitled to conclude from the data thus in our possession that the art of cylinder-engraving had, even at this early period, made considerable progress.

The letters of the inscriptions, which give the names of the kings and their titles, are indeed somewhat rudely formed, as they are on the stamped bricks of the period; but the figures have been as well cut, and as flowingly traced, as those of a later date.

It was thought possible that the artist employed by Sir R.
Porter had given a flattering representation of his original, but the newly recovered relic, known as the "cylinder of Ilgi," bears upon it figures of quite as great excellence: and we are thus led to the conclusion that both mechanical and artistic skill had reached a very surprising degree of excellence at the most remote period to which the Chaldaean records carry us back.
[Illustration: PLATE 15] It increases the surprise which we naturally feel at the discovery of these relics to reflect upon the rudeness of the implements with which such results would seem to have been accomplished.

In the primitive Chaldaean ruins, the implements which have been discovered are either in stone or bronze.