One of the most ancient specimens of the shell-engraver’s art as yet discovered is that reproduced in Fig. 78. This fragment is convex in form and a truncated triangle as regards its shape. A lion is seen in the act of strangling a bull; with one of his fore-legs he is grasping his victim round the neck, and the other is thrown around and over the bull’s back, while he is burying his teeth in the bull’s neck. The general style to which this engraving conforms, the full-face view of the lion, the act in which he is engaged, and the combined vigour and crudeness which characterize this production, vividly recall the mace-head of Mesilim, king of Kish (cf. Fig. 26). The comparison between the two is so striking that we can hardly be wrong in assigning this engraved shell to approximately the same period, i.e. to the time before Ur-Ninâ, the founder of the first dynasty of Lagash. It was discovered at Tellô in the neighbourhood of Eannatum’s well and is just under three inches in height. In Fig. 79[138] we have another fragment of a very archaic shell-engraving; a human-headed and streaky-bearded bull is being attacked by a lion-headed eagle; the shell itself is extremely thin, and the engraving very delicate, but the design itself as well as the mode of its execution both testify to its great age. The shell work of the time of Ur-Ninâ and his successors is well illustrated in Fig. 80. We have here a sketch of a man bearing a net; the man is clean-shaven and bald, and his face is of precisely the same type as that so frequently represented on the sculptures of Ur-Ninâ’s time. His only clothing is a short “kaunakes” skirt, the fringe of which is portrayed in the fashion characteristic of the earliest Sumerian works of art. In his right hand he carries a battle-axe, while with his left he holds the ends of two sticks from which is slung the net or basket already referred to. This small relic was found in the same neighbourhood as the preceding, and is just under two inches high. Another interesting specimen of Sumerian shell-engraving is published by Mr. L. W. King in the _Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology_, 1910, pp. 243-5. It represents a bearded hero embracing an ibex. It is worthy of note that the hero’s dress does not consist in the Sumerian skirt, but in a loin-cloth. Probably the finest example of early Babylonian shell-work is that reproduced in Fig. 81; the leaping kid is wonderfully realistic both in form and attitude and has clearly been studied from nature. Of the mother-of-pearl work of a somewhat later date we have a good example in Fig. 82. Here Gilgamesh is depicted in standing posture holding in either hand one of the long “staves” seen elsewhere, and specifically on the famous green steatite vase of Gudea (cf. Fig. 90). Gilgamesh is portrayed full-face and has the long vertically streaked beard so frequently seen on the cylinder-seals. This fragment is just under two and a half inches in height, and emanated