Chinese and Sumerian

XXI INTRODUCTION

the last, with a shaft or handle (D. 371; ¢f D. 4); Eya URU (UR, GUR?), ‘to guard’, ‘protect’, the linear form of which (Stgn-dist, No. 59) greatly resembles a long copper weapon (lance or spear-shaft ?), found by De Sarzec at Zel/-Lé, with a looped handle at the side, which also appears to be figured on the vase of Gudea and on certain archaic seals (see Heuzey, Une Villa royale, fig. 19; Musée du Louvre, Cat. p. 401; Perrot and Chipiez, AC. i. 84, fig. 17); although another possible original of the character may perhaps be recognized in an oblong shield, with ring-handle, viewed sideways, such as we see in the sculptures from Mimrdd: <{¥ KU(N, G), ‘bright’, ‘shining’, which on the archaic Blau Monument, Br7t. JZus., No. 86260, is shaped thus %& (D. 252); a figure which it does not seem fanciful to compare with the sickle-shaped sword or scimitar of Adadnirari 1, of which a drawing was given in Light from the East, p. 133, and especially with the boomerang-like weapon of the Sumerian sculptures (Louvre, Caz., No. 5), to one form of which the linear symbol approaches very nearly (see Heuzey, Comptes rendus, 1908, pp. 415-422; Déc., P\. 46, No. 3, a fragment of engraved shell from 7e//-L0):1 E]J- GAR, MAR (C. 7. xii. 18), the linear form of which (D. 77) might be a conventionalized copy of the shafts and cross-piece (yoke) of a chariot, set up on end (see Perrot and Chipiez, A Cais tig, 23), as GI-NAR, ‘chariot’, was very probably a picture of a wheel originally (D. 453), although (by omission of some of the spokes) the character has been reduced to an apparent compound of the signs for crcle+open (not a bad ideogram for a wheel like that in AC. loc. cit., not solid but divided by spokes) : <j) DUL, DU, ‘a mound’, ‘to cover’, ‘to hide’, which originally represented a tumulus or burial-mound such as is depicted on the Vulture-stele, where we see Eannatum’s warriors raising one over their slain comrades after a battle (D. 233: the strokes within the triangle, which represents the mound, indicate the bodies) : Ty] NUN, ZIL (=ZIN), ‘great’, ‘tall’, the linear forms of which suggest a tree of the genus pine or fir, with branches symmetrically opposite (Szgn-dst, No. 6; of. the tree on the archaic seal, AC. i. 95, fig. 21; Light from the East, p. 25, with the linear form ap. Dél. en Perse, ii. 130, and with the similar tree on the sculptured slab, AC. p- 138, fig. 38); while the linear forms of = MU, GU, ‘tree’, look more like conventionalized simplifications of the ‘cypresses’ of the Assyrian slabs (AC. i. p-145, fig. 43; cf also p.143, fig. 42; D.a3; Sten-lst, No. 25): JEJE SIG, ‘fleece’, ‘wool’, ‘woollen stuffs’ or ‘dress’, the linear form of which, as figured on the Blau Mon., No. 86260, closely resembles the short woollen skirt or petticoat, with band and broad seam running down the middle, worn by the standing figures on the same

* That a scimitar or similar weapon of copper proverbial. The other linear form, showing only

should be a symbol for flashing brightness or brilliance will hardly appear strange to those who remember the Hebrew poet’s ‘lightning of the sword’ (Deut. xxxii. 41) and ‘lightning of the spear’ (Hab, ili. 11), The flashing of weapons is

the middle curve of the character (D. 252; cf Svgnlist, No. 60), may be a result of simplification, or it may possibly figure a different object. In this instance, the former seems the more probable view.