o the same
source the institution of the seven-year period described in Leviticus
XXV: "But the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land....
And thou shalt number seven Sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven
years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee
forty-nine years.... And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year"....

Addressing to Assyriologists an appeal for fuller knowledge concerning the
ancient calendar periods of Babylonia-Assyria, I now revert to the Maltaya
bas-relief and point out that, of the seven divinities, the two principal
ones, a god and goddess, wear a form of cap encircled by horns and
surmounted by a cone. One of these two deities is distinguished from all
others by his larger size and by the fact that he stands on a double
animal and heads the procession holding a recurved sceptre in his hand.
Behind him follows the goddess Ishtar, holding a large ring in her right
hand. Her throne, as on the Sendschirli stela, exhibits a ring surmounting
its high back, to the side of which a group of four circles or disks are
attached. As several centres of Ishtar cult, already mentioned, have been
designated as fourfold cities it seems possible that the four disks
alluded to this fact, while the ring crowning the top of the throne, and
that she holds, constitutes one of her emblems.... However this may be,
both monuments exhibit kings associated with the number seven and Ishtar,
the seated goddess, associated with the number four; facts which claim
further investigation and may lead to interesting verifications of the
numerical systems of the Assyrians. It should be mentioned here that the
heads of the five remaining divinities, on the Maltaya bas-relief, are
surmounted by a wheel with spokes and that one holds a recurved sceptre,
like that of the first, another bears the lightning bolt of Ramman, while
three carry the same peculiar double symbol also held by Shamash on the
Sippara tablet. It consists of a large ring like that held by Ishtar and a
short staff possibly a fire-stick. In each case the fingers of the right
hand of the deity clasp the middle of the staff and the ring and the
appearance of the combined rod and circle closely resembles the upper
portion of the Egyptian crux ansata. Professor von Luschan has, indeed,
expressed the opinion that the ring or circle (of Ishtar) the rod and
circle (of Shamash) and the crux ansata must have analogous meanings, a
view I