er significance
to a more advanced age, as illustrating fertility and blessings in
general. The scene, reproduced in almost endless variations in which
both trees and figures become conventionalized, came to be regarded as a
symbol of adoration and worship in general. As such, it survived in
religious art and continued to be pictured on seal cylinders to a late
age.

The occasions on which sacrifices were brought were frequent. If the
gods were to be consulted for the purpose of obtaining an oracle,
elaborate offerings formed a necessary preliminary. In this case, the
animals presented at the altar served a double purpose.[1480] They
constituted a means of propitiating the god in favor of the petitioner,
and at the same time the inspection of certain parts of the animal
served as an omen in determining what was the will of the god appealed
to. When the foundations were to be laid for a temple or a palace, it
was especially important to secure the favor of the gods by suitable
offerings, and, similarly, when a canal was to be built or any other
work of a public character undertaken. Again, upon the dedication of a
sacred edifice or of a palace, or upon completing the work of
restoration of a temple, sheep and oxen in abundance were offered to the
gods, as well as various kinds of birds and the produce of the orchards
and fields. The Babylonian rulers appear to have accompanied their
sacrifices on such occasions with prayers, and in a previous chapter we
had occasion to discuss some of these dedicatory invocations.[1481] In
the Assyrian inscriptions, prayers are specifically referred to only as
being offered before setting out on an expedition, before a battle, or
when the kings find themselves in distress,[1482] so that if the
Babylonian custom likewise prevailed in Assyria, it did not form a
necessary part of the sacrificial ritual. The sacrifice as a pure homage
is illustrated by the zeal which the Assyrian kings manifest towards
honoring the great temples of the south. The northern rulers were
anxious at all times to reconcile the southern population to Assyrian
control, and it was no doubt gratifying to the south to find
Tiglathpileser II.,[1483] upon entering the ancient centers like Sippar,
Nippur, Babylon, Borsippa, Cuthah, Kish, Dilbat, and Erech, proceeding
to the temples in those places in order to offer his sacrifices. The
example of Tiglathpileser is followed by his successors down through the
time of Ashurb