are overlapping, or else brought together as closely as possible.2
Although
it would scarcely be safe to assume that finger-rings were never worn
by the ancient Assyrians, still the almost total absence of
representations of them, even on female figures, renders it safe to say
that this must have been only very rarely the case. Possibly the
persistence in Assyria and Babylonia of the cylindrical form of seal
may account for this, in part at least, for the signet ring in many
places was evolved from the cylinder-seal. Moreover, the absence of
small intaglios in the period earlier than 500 b.c. would
have deprived a ring of its almost essential setting. The plates in
Layard's great work on Assyrian remains, as well as those published by
Flandrin and Coste, also offer strong negative evidence, although Dr.
William Hayes Ward states that he would have expected finger-rings
might have come from Egypt by the way of Syria. At a later period,
under Greek influence, rings were not uncommon.3 In the
immense cemeteries at Warka and elsewhere numerous iron rings have been
found, many -of them toe-rings, as well as some made of shell, but the
date oft these burials is not easily determined, and they are probably,
in most instances, not of much earlier date than the eighth or even the
sixth century before ] Christ.
A
proof that genuine antiques can still be picked up in our day in the
East is given by Doctor Ward, who said that he bought in Bagdad a
lovely gold ring set with a cameo on which was inscribed in Greek char-
8
Délégation en Perse, Mémoires publiés sous la direction de M. J. de
Morgan, vol. viii, " Recherches archéologiques," 3d ser., Paris, 1905,
pp. 821, 322 ; figured on p. 320.
8 Communicated by the late Dr. William Hayes Ward.
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