The flora of the Assyrian monuments and its outcomes / by E. Bonavia.

  • Emanuel Bonavia
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The flora of the Assyrian monuments and its outcomes / by E. Bonavia. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    245/256 (page 207)
    (/) That Assyrian cylinders often contain two distinct elements, viz.: (i) that which tells a story, and (2) that which means nothing at all; the latter being meant to fill up spaces with characters that would distinguish that seal from all others. The hardness of the cylinder stone, the rude implements with which they worked, and the smallness of the surface, may have been some of the causes of the degradation of their trees and horns, and their transformation into various allied forms. It appears to me that by the mixing of peoples, and by the poetic fancies of philosophers and artists, there has been, not only a hybridization of symbols, but also, as might be expected, the evolution of new genera and species. The struggle of nations, and of ideas, has resulted in the survival of the fittest symbols ; at the same time that the survivors have frequently lost many of the original characters of their ancestors, and acquired new ones. Now it is only by means of ‘splint bones,’ and other degraded features, that we can in many cases decipher these hieroglyphics, and trace the common descent of a whole congeries of symbols. We have, for instance, the great symbol of the Supreme Deity, as also that of the tree and horns, from which a whole series of new forms evolved. We have other symbols—that of the lotus, the holy water, all those represented by hands—one raised hand, two