ESSAY I. TO THE RIGHT HON. SIR JOSEPH BANKS, BART., G. C. B., &c.

SIR,-The following observations tending to shew that the Signets of the nations which anciently inhabited the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, were, at least in some instances, of a cylindrical form, may perhaps, not be unworthy of your* attention and that of the Society of Antiquaries. The observations were suggested chiefly by the contemplation of a considerable number of engraved gems of this kind, which are in my possession, and which have been recently dug up at Babylon, and brought to England by that persevering Oriental traveller and scholar, Capt. Abraham Lockett.

Many of these cylinders are formed of hæmatite, mistakenly termed loadstone by Mr. Raspe, in his Catalogue Raisonnée of Tassie's collec

* With some corrections and additions, the result of subsequent reflection on the subject, this letter addressed to the late Sir Joseph Banks, has already been printed in the Archæologia of the Society of Antiquaries. I was not then aware that my meditations on the subject of ancient Sabæan signets, would have run out to such length. Its re-appearance here, in substance, as the first of a series, and root of those Essays which (as the reader will perceive,) have since grown from it, was indispensable.

tion: the rest are of carnelian, opal, jasper, agate, chalcedony, and other hard and precious stones.

It is well known that engraved cylinders of the same kind, have been brought to Europe before these, the major part of which were collected during a three weeks residence among, and in the immediate neighbourhood of, the ruins of ancient Babylon. Of those, some are contained in the British Museum; others are at the Borghese Palace, and the Museums of Germany; and several are at Paris, in the cabinets of the king of France, and of Mons. Silvestre de Sacy, and other distinguished antiquaries. The idea which has generally prevailed respecting them is, that they are Persepolitan amulets. Raspe calls them amulets;* and the modern Arabs, by whom they are found and preserved, venerate them as possessing some inherent talismanic virtue, with the precise nature of which they are professedly unacquainted, but which, from hope, or from fear, they desire to propitiate.

Considerable numbers of these gems have, from time to time, been disinterred by the Arabs, in digging up those bricks of ancient Babylon, which constitute the material of which the town of Hellah and most of the houses within a certain distance of the ruins, are chiefly built. It should be remembered, as a general principle, that the lower these Arabian labourers dig into the masses of rubbish and brick, the more likely they are to turn up such remains of antiquity, as, like the gems before us, are formed of imperishable substances; and it should also be known, that parts of the sub-structures being now all that remain of the palaces and temples of this great metropolis, they are more likely than at any former period, to recover such productions of the Babylonian arts of remote antiquity as remain undestroyed; for the superstructures having gradually been entirely carried away; the Arabs are now digging among the very foundations which were laid by the architects of Nebuchadnezzar, if not by those of Ninus and Semiramis.

It is of small importance to us that the modern veneration for these curious antiques, has arisen, partly at least, from the romantic supersti

Catalogue Raisonée, &c. p. 64.

tion of Persia and Arabia. The antiquaries of Europe, listening to the legendary lore of those of the East, have imbibed or acquiesced in their belief respecting the original purpose for which these engravings were so laboriously wrought; and have done so, as it should seem, rather because their own attention has not yet been critically directed to the subject, than from any regularly induced conviction that this belief was founded on a correct knowledge of the superstitions of those far distant ages which gave birth to the cylindrical engravings.

I shall therefore, with your leave, Sir Joseph, and that of the Society, proceed to shew why I conceive the gems to have been originally not worn as talismans or amulets, but used as SIGNETS, that is to say, impressed for the purposes of ratifying such social and religious transactions as called for a sacred pledge.

The especial use or purpose for which antiques of this curious description were intended, and to which they were originally applied, I conceive, should be sought for, 1st. In those local oriental customs of the early ages, which history or tradition has handed down: 2dly. In the peculiarities of their forms: 3dly. In the paucity or abundance of their numbers, when combined with the above considerations, and that of the places where they were found: and lastly, in their engraved contents.

To treat of them, first, with reference to the ancient customs of Chaldea or Assyria: Herodotus, in detailing those customs as they existed in his time, says that every Assyrian possessed a signet or seal;* for so the Greek ZOEATIAA should be rendered, and not seal-ring, as it has been translated by the Rev. Mr. Beloe. Neither the form of the seal, nor the manner in which it was mounted, are mentioned by Herodotus.

The manner in which the engraver's art is spoken of in the Pentateuch, shews that in the time of Moses, it was an art of no recent invention; and that among the surrounding nations, signets were then common, and in well-known use. † The onyxes, for the sacred ephod; the plate Clio. cxcv. + Dr. Watts uses a similar argument, in treating of the figure of the scriptural Cherubim. He says, "Whatsoever figure belonged to these cherubs, which is so much unknown to us, it was certainly a common idea and well known figure to the Jews in that day, for Moses doth not concern himself to give any particular description of them, as he does almost of every thing else, and yet the Jewish artificers made them right."-Remnants of Time, xix.

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of gold for the mitre of the high-priest; and the precious stones for his breast-plate; were all expressly ordered to be engraven "like the engravings of a signet," that is to say, in intaglio. And these words, "like the engravings of a signet," are, in the book of Exodus, frequently repeated.

It is true, Dr. Clarke, in commenting on an engraved monogram of Ptolemy, which he found during his travels, supposes that the signets of the time of the Hebrew patriarchs, were flat, like the seals at present in use; and this he supposes, because the precious stones of the ephod and those of the breast-plate of the high-priest were "set in ouches of gold;" he gives no other reason: yet the Book of Exodus plainly says,-not that these stones were set in ouches, &c. as signets are set, but-that they were graven as signets are graven; or, as it is expressed in another chapter, "like the engravings of a signet." The latter expression is mentioned no less than three times in the course of chapter xxviii., and is again repeated twice, in chapter xxxix.; and in this latter chapter, it is also said that "they wrought onyx-stones enclosed in ouches of gold, graven as signets are graven."

The circumstance, then, of these costly stones being engraved like signets, is, in holy writ, kept quite distinct from that of their being set in ouches of gold: indeed, it is fairly to be inferred from the above passages, that signets were not thus set at the time; for when we reflect on the remarkable attention to detail which characterises this part of the Bible, and its habitual repetitions, it is rather to be presumed that a writer, studious of simplicity and exactness, and inspired by truth, would either have repeated, concerning the precious stones of the breast-plate and ephod, that they were graven as signets are graven, and set as signets are set; or, using other words, would have said, they were engraven and set in ouches of gold, like signets.

[Since this Letter to Sir Joseph Banks was first printed by the Society of Antiquaries, I observe that Mr. Bruce, too, has entirely misapprehended the meaning of the scriptural expression, "like the engravings of a signet;" and while the Cambridge traveller has thought it had reference to the manner in which signets were set (in metal); the Caledonian