A Sumerian Palace and the "A" cemetery at Kish, Mesopotamia

134 A SUMERIAN PALACE AND "A" CEMETERY, KISH
a jar in burial 92, and are practically the same size, averaging 134 mm in length by
18 mm in diameter at the base and tapering gradually to 12 mm in diameter at
the tops. Each is a hollow part way through from the top. They are made of a
porous white paste which was glazed either blue or green; indeed, they still bear
traces here and there of an apple-green color. At a distance of about 35 mm from
the top, each of these objects has a hole similar to that seen in the middle specimen
of the group. The spiral inlay is of bitumen, and is an average of 2.50 mm thick.
What these objects are is difficult to say; but it is probable that they are handles,
though the diameter of their holes (7 mm) would not permit of the insertion of a
tang of any great thickness. The jar in which they were found protected them
from injury except at the apex (Reg. No. 2291; Baghdad, Field, and Oxford).
In accordance with the discoveries of last season, blue seems to have been the
color chiefly used for glaze, but we found a few glazed beads now black, which may
originally have been red. We also found four glazed cylinder seals. Glaze would
seem an unsatisfactory material for this purpose, because it is likely to fracture
under pressure. But beauty was doubtless considered before utility on some
occasions, for two of the seals come from children's graves and one from that of a
woman (graves 45, 59, 144). The fourth was found elsewhere, not in a burial.
METALS
The metals found in the graves cleared this season were gold, silver, and
copper. No lead was found as last year. The probable sources from which these
metals were obtained were dealt with in No. 1 of this volume, to which reference
should be made. Special analyses are being made of the metals of some of the
objects found this season, and the results will be published in due course.
MINERALS
The Sumerian of the time of the burials at "A" used but a small variety of
minerals in the manufacture of his ornaments and seals, owing chiefly to the fact
that he inhabited a practically stoneless country. Lapis lazuli and carnelian,
however, were exceedingly common, and from these stones he fashioned most of
his beads. Other varieties of stone were sparingly used for this purpose, including
limestone, crystal, agate, onyx, red jasper, porphyry, etc. The stones used for his
cylinder seals were serpentine, lapis lazuli, crystal, calcite, limestone, and breccia.
These were either brought into the country as raw material, or were manufactured
outside and imported in the way of trade. I am inclined to take the latter view
for the following reasons:— (1) The curious divereity in finish of the stone beads
fully discussed in No. 1 of this volume; it must be admitted, however, that cylin-
der seals made of lapis lazuli are invariably well made and in many cases highly
polished. (2) The small number of the stone vessels found in the graves showing
their comparative rarity at that period. Their scarcity is also proved by the fact
that broken specimens were placed with the dead, as well as specimens that had
been anciently broken and then ground down to make them serviceable once more.
All this points to the conclusion that stone vessels were not manufactured in