The object which bears the following inscription (Plates IX–X) measures 15·7 cms. by 7·6 cms. (middle). The cylinder is made up of three separate pieces found at Nimrud on different days (of April, 1952) in chamber 4 of the as yet unidentified building called provisionally Z(iggurrat) T(errace), near a doorway on the south side of the room, where it was evidently not in situ but loose among the filling, having been cast or ruined out from some other location. Into the same room had been tipped as rubbish a large number of Assyrian letters, found embedded in the earth along the north side, and blocking two doorways. How strangely far away it was from its true original site is revealed by the inscription, which proves that it was brought to Calah from distant Erech, not so much as a trophy of war, though in consequence of it, but rather for reasons of policy.

The fifth season's campaign at Nimrud (Kalḫu) has resulted in a further one hundred Assyrian texts which, with the archaeological evidence to be published later in Iraq, will add to our knowledge of the Assyrian military capital especially during the years preceding the fall of Nineveh. Forty-seven of the tablets were found together in good condition, for the fire which had destroyed the private dwelling built against the inside of the Eastern citadel wall (TW 53 Room 19) had happily baked the clay tablets hard and thus preserved them so that they were immediately legible and could be copied in the field. This group of tablets comprised the records of Šamaš-šar-uṣur, a high-official (SAG) who, besides owning a house, probably that in which the tablets were discovered, and land in Calah, set himself to conduct a lively business, mainly as a money-lender like most of his wealthy contemporaries, for forty years from 666—c. 626 B.C. During this period Šamaš-šar-uṣur acquired six female and two male slaves at an average cost of 50 shekels of silver, the price of such male and female slaves being about the same. One girl, Urkittu-uknu, who a few years earlier had fetched 54 shekels, he was able to buy for the reduced sum of 15 shekels, perhaps because of her advancing age or some disability, for the physical condition of a slave controlled the price and was written into the contracts.

At a remote and boulder-strewn site east of the Dead Sea, between Dhiban and Shihan, F. de Saulcy found a carved stone in 1851, which he described and illustrated in Voyage en Syrie (Vol. I, 324 and 333). The stone remained in position until the Duc de Luynes conveyed it to the Musée du Louvre in 1864 (Les Monuments Palestiniens et Judaiques by R. Dussaud, 1912).

The Shihan stele, as it is called, is carved on a block of blackish-green basalt just over a metre high and fifty-eight centimetres wide; it is chipped and broken all round the single male figure in high relief which occupies nearly all the remaining space. The body is squat and very muscular, the attitude is tense and alert, but the legs are missing below the knees.

This year is a particularly appropriate one in which to revive the subject of the Royal Assyrian Seal, for it is exactly a century since the publication of Austen H. Layard's Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, in which —among so many other things that remain vivid and delightfully instructive —the royal character of the type of stamp seal under discussion was first suggested. The most recently discovered example of an impression of the Royal Seal was found some months ago at Nimrud.

What are the common features found in the extant specimens of impressions of the Royal Seal? It is always a stamp seal, the outline of the engraved sealing surface being circular. The bearded king is shown standing, right foot forward, wearing the standard royal head-dress of the period, his clothing terminating slightly below the knees. His left arm is outstretched, the hand grasping the top of the head of a lion which faces him. The king's right hand holds a dagger which he is plunging into the lion's chest. The lion itself is rampant, left hind leg forward, left front paw hanging ineffectually close to the king's right thigh; the lion's right front leg is poised, ready to strike, behind the lion's head. As in the vast majority of ancient Mesopotamian representations of lions, its mouth is wide open and its tail curls in.

In addition to the tablets which record offerings made to the major deities in the Ningal-temple during festivals, there are a few which similarly mention one of the minor deities, Ningal-á-anda, who was sometimes omitted from the previous lists (IV(d)). It would be interesting to discover how far these gifts were consumed by the priests themselves, as in the Old Testament ritual, and to what extent they might have sufficed for their maintenance. Unfortunately however, as we lack specific reference to the recipients and are unable to equate ancient values with a modern standard, we cannot solve this problem. The six tablets of group Vb are all very much alike. They first list butter, cheese, and dates as daily offerings and the same in smaller quantities as monthly special ones; an example is No. 58. The other documents combine these two chief issues (with figures correcdy increased); even No. 59, on which níg-díb-itu-da is omitted, is no exception since the figures show that both kinds are included. Often še-zibib and lubricating oil are added, and once (on No. 59) milk.