MYSTERY SIGNETS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19838, 10 July 1926, Page 2

MYSTERY SIGNETS

SEAL OF DANIEL’S DEN OF LIONS. Among the seals of Babylon upon which Mr Sidney Smith, assistant in the Assyrian Department at the British Museum, lectured recently, is that of Darius, who is said to have sealed up Daniel in the lions den. To a Daily Chronicle representative, Mr Smith showed some of the seals about which a good deal of controversy has arisen. By the experts the Darius seal is considered extremely interesting. It shows the king in his chariot hunting a lion among the palm trees, and if Daniel was really placed in a den of lions this is in all probability the king who secured it with his seal. , ~, , The fact is, however, that Daniel s adventure is regarded by scholars as a piece of political propaganda arranged at the time when Antiochus Epipbanes wanted the Jews to worship his divine statues. The story of Daniel and his survival was intended to implant faith in the Jews. Similarly scholars have established that the wicked Nebuchadnezzar story was intended as a veiled attack on the Greek King of the second century. Mr Smith has another seal which is mysterious in meaning. It is the one which shows a man and a woman, a tree, and a serpent, and it has been associated with the Adam and Eve creation story. “We have tried to kill this story,” said Mr Smith “but people still come to see the seal under a false impression. It is believed to be a picture of a god and god dess and a date palm. People still come to ask for the Seal of Abraham. _ There are about 1200 Babylonian seals in the British Museum, ranging in date from u.o. 3500 and 8.0. 500. “Another seal is the ‘Noah’ seal, which shows Tsit-Napishtim in his ark. Professor King thought this illustrated the story of the deluge, said Mr Smith. “The King’s god came and announced there would be a flood and on the seal the King is depicted showing a Babylonian parellcl to the Bible story.” Endeavours have been made by Mr Smith to forgo tools similar to those used by the Babylonian artists who made the seals, and the claybnck documents upon which the seals were stamped. It has been found very difficult, however, to reproduce tools which successfully make the hieroglyphics