later Babylonian empire, who had a fancy for antiquarian exploration,
tells us that Naram-Sin reigned 3200 years before his own time, and
therefore about 3750 B.C. The date, startlingly early as it seems to be,
is indirectly confirmed by other evidence, and Assyriologists
consequently have come to accept it as approximately correct.

How long Syria remained a part of the empire of Sargon of Akkad we do
not know. But it must have been long enough for the elements of
Babylonian culture to be introduced into it. The small stone cylinders
used by the Babylonians for sealing their clay documents thus became
known to the peoples of the West. More than one has been found in Syria
and Cyprus which go back to the age of Sargon and Naram-Sin, while there
are numerous others which are more or less barbarous attempts on the
part of the natives to imitate the Babylonian originals. But the
imitations prove that with the fall of Sargon's empire the use of
seal-cylinders in Syria, and consequently of documents for sealing, did
not disappear. That knowledge of writing, which was a characteristic of
Babylonian civilization, must have been carried with it to the shores of
the Mediterranean.

The seal-cylinders were engraved, sometimes with figures of men and
gods, sometimes with symbols only. Very frequently lines of cuneiform
writing were added, and a common formula gave the name of the owner of
the seal, along with those of his father and of the deity whom he
worshipped. One of the seal-cylinders found in Cyprus describes the
owner as an adorer of "the god Naram-Sin." It is true that its
workmanship shows it to belong to a much later date than the age of
Naram-Sin himself, but the legend equally shows that the name of the
conqueror of Magan was still remembered in the West. Another cylinder
discovered in the Lebanon mentions "the gods of the Amorite," while a