any case it was gem-cutting that from the beginning was the pioneer of Babylonian art. [Illustration: FIG. 192.—Stone amulets. ] [Illustration: FIG. 193.—Greek coins in a jar. ] Representations or reliefs of an apotropaic nature occur on stone amulets, which must have been hung on sick persons (Fig. 192). They are small tablets, which bear the representation on one side and an inscription on the other; at the top a hole is bored to admit a string. [Illustration: FIG. 194.—Two vertebrae, a boar’s tusk, and three bone joints prepared as sword handles. ] There are no Babylonian coins, although minting commenced in the West, in Lydia or in Ægina, as early as 700 B.C. The first coins we find in Babylon, rare though they are, are Graeco-Persian (Darius). The coins of the time of Alexander are more numerous, and specially those of his successor Lysimachus (Fig. 193). Parthian, Sassanide, and Arab coins are found occasionally, especially in Amran. There also a glazed amphora was found, filled with Arab coins, and still stoppered with a wad plugging; the contents have not yet been laid out and examined. The remains that have been found of food and of domestic animals still require to be studied by experts. Charred grain and date stones are frequently found. The latter occur absolutely all over the ruins, and in all the levels of Babylon, as well as of Fara and Surgul. The ancient Babylonians do not appear to have eaten shell-fish, but on the contrary we often find fish bones, among them the lower jaw of a carp, such as is still caught in the Euphrates. Sheep, cattle, poultry, and pigeons are also not infrequent. The knuckle bones of sheep have survived more especially, possibly because they were used, as they were by the Romans, for the well-known game. They are also found cast in bronze. There is often the boar’s tusk (Fig. 194), which was bored through at one end and carried as an amulet, perhaps on the horses’ harness. The mongoose (_Herpestes mungo_), of which the skull is often found, appears to have been a household pet, as it is at the present day in the neighbourhood. The fore-leg of a pachyderm, 1.15 metres long, which is almost too large to be that of an elephant, was found at a great depth, 1.2 metres below zero, in Merkes (25 _n_). Fragments of ostrich eggs are found sporadically. XLIV THE GRAVES IN MERKES