One of the earliest Babylonian rulers whose seals have been recovered is Lugal-anda, patesi or priest-king of Lagash, and the immediate predecessor of Urukagina, the last king of the first dynasty of Lagash. An impression of one of the seals of Lugal-anda is reproduced in Fig. 49. Part of the seal is divided into two registers, in the uppermost of which we see the eagle with outspread wings clutching two lions, which together formed the heraldic arms of the city of Lagash. It is noticeable that the lions are treated with the same freedom as on the little block of Dudu (cf. Fig. 27) the contemporary of Entemena, one of Lugal-anda’s predecessors. Here as in the little block referred to, the lions are treated in a very spirited manner, and in contrast to earlier representations of the device, the lions are gnawing at the wings of their captivator. On the right of the city-arms there is an inscription written in very archaic characters. In the lower register we have two human-headed bulls, a stag, a bearded hero resembling Izdubar, or Gilgamesh as portrayed on other early cylinder-seals, and another figure who is passing his left arm round the stag’s neck and holding one of the fore-paws of the stag in his right hand. Unlike the bearded hero, who is similarly engaged in grasping the fore-paw of one of the human-headed bulls, he is clean-shaven, while his hair is represented by four tongue-shaped projections. On the left of the two registers there is the body and the lower part of the face of a large human-headed bull, while on the right are two lions, one of whom is seen burying his teeth into the neck of a composite creature, half man and half beast. It will be at once obvious that this cylinder-seal of the early Sumerian period, presupposes an indefinite period of artistic development in the practice of engraving. In the very early seals the scene is of course far less composite and the workmanship infinitely more crude; we frequently find the same eagle-motif, but the animals which he claws are usually goats, bulls, or ibexes, as seen in Fig. 50, the lions only being introduced at a later date. Here we have a very primitive seal in which we see the eagle grasping two ibexes by the horns, while a hero is grasping the same two animals by the leg. Hero, eagle and ibexes are represented in a highly archaic and crude fashion, though in the symmetrically outspread wings of the eagle we seem to have a foreshadowing of the conventionalism of later days. The ibexes have their hind quarters raised in the air, while the eagle grasps them by the horns, the seat of their strength actually as well as symbolically. The seal itself is both thicker and shorter than usual, and has only one register.