It is interesting to trace the history of the boomerang-shaped weapon shouldered by one of the figures on the archaic fragment of the circular bas-relief reproduced in Fig. 25, B. The curved weapon[165] may have originally been a throwing-stick or boomerang, though its shape is the only argument in support of this theory. But whatever its original use may have been, there is evidence that a weapon of this shape was wielded as a club or primitive sword at a very early period. In a sculpture belonging to a slightly later period than the above-mentioned bas-relief, the weapon in question has lost its simplicity and is no longer made in one piece but is composed of three narrow pieces held together by a number of rings. Were this curiously shaped implement only found in the hands of rulers or dignitaries, the rings might merely be decorative accessories, but its occurrence in the hand of a huntsman attacking a lion, (cf. Fig. 78) makes it incumbent that we should seek for some more adequate and practical reason for the existence of these rings. Doubtless this later form was adopted with a view to increasing the efficiency of the weapon. The weapon is here used at close quarters, and was clearly not used as a throwing-stick at this period, but rather as a kind of sabre. At an early date the Sumerian must have sought for some means of rendering his weapon more serviceable, and have conceived the idea of substituting a blade of flint or obsidian, and in point of fact numerous edged pieces of flint and obsidian as well as primitive saw-blades with teeth have actually been found in early Babylonian ruins. The problem of affixing this blade to the handle or shaft, would find its natural solution in fashioning the latter, of two or more pieces between which the obsidian or flint blade might be inserted, both wood and blade being kept in place by rings; of its early use as a club or sabre we have evidence on the archaic shell reproduced in Fig. 78, where the huntsman is seen holding a curved implement which is composed of three pieces of wood bound together by rings, as on the Vulture Stele, it is obviously not employed here as a throwing-stick but as a weapon for use at close quarters (cf. also Fig. 94, A. B).