ng explanation of
the sculptured emblems of divinities and the invocations of their names on
the above stelae and shows that Asurnasirpal and his grandson ruled four
districts from a fifth situated in the centre, whose emblem was the mound
with four horns or the cross, both emblems of the royal "lord of the four
regions."

Bearing this custom in mind, we next note that, on his stela at the
British Museum, Shalmaneser II, the son of Asurnasirpal, invokes not only
three different divinities, but also one more than his father or son. His
invocation is to Ashur, Shamash and Ishtar and to the Babylonian triad
Anu, Bel and Ea. The emblems of the first three divinities are the same as
on the stelae of his father and son, _i. e._ the winged disk, the
mound-shaped, horned cap and the eight-rayed star. To Anu, Bel and Ea
pertain the emblematic lightning bolt and moon which are clearly visible;
and a third, almost effaced, group which, upon examination by Mr. Pinches,
revealed the presence of six stars or circles. Dr. von Luschan infers that
originally the group consisted of seven circles and was the same as that
sculptured on the stelae of Sargon (at Berlin), the bas-reliefs at
Nahr-el-Kelb and at Bavian. On each of these the circles are grouped in
two horizontal rows of three circles while the seventh circle stands to
the right, in front and midway between both rows.

If we assume that the lightning bolt pertained to Anu, the upper, and the
moon, the emblem of Night, to Ea, the lower firmament, we find that the
seven-fold group falls to the lot of Bel and seems to coincide exactly
with the recorded fact that the famous zikkurat of Bel at Babylon, for
instance, consisted of seven stories; and that it was known as "the house
of the seven divisions [regions] of the world," and that Babylon actually
was at one time a seven-fold state, with seven "mountains"=gods=earthly
rulers.

Final, positive proof that Assyria, under Sargon II and Esarhaddon, like
ancient Babylon, was organized into seven "districts," seems to be
furnished by the seven symbols carved on their stelae, accompanied by the
group of seven circles which obviously expresses the same as the cuneiform
character in the inscribed invocation, namely, the word "seven-fold-one"
or "seven in one,"(102) which was obviously an appropriate designation for
the empire as a whole, consisting as it did of seven tribal districts,
associated with the seven directions in space to each