who had the wealth and the resources of Gawra 6. Prehistory gave way to history. But against the background of five millennia, after the ruins of both levels had been sifted and studied, Gawra 8 comes back into its own, having proved the superior of the stratum that supplanted it, both in architectural ability and in a higher developed sense of the aesthetic. Most of the objects from the eighth stratum were described in the preceding report. At present I shall confine myself to the mention of two further groups of remains. One consists of impressions of stamp seals upon clay. Many dozens of such impressions have been recovered, mostly from 8a and 8b. Their designs consist almost invariably of animal motives, a discussion of which must be reserved for a forthcoming publication. One impression, however, is worthy of special attention. The principal figures in this case are human. There are two of them, a bearded nude male in front, followed by an unclad woman, whose outstretched arm rests on the back of her companion. They are pictured as walking, with bodies bent; the whole composition gives the impression of weariness and dejection. Behind them and overhead rises the figure of a serpent. Involuntarily the story of Adam and Eve comes to mind. It is not a question of a parallel to the biblical narrative. For one, the discrepancy in age is too great, the seal antedating, by at least two thousand years, the earliest portions of the Bible. What is sure is the fact that compositions of this type reproduce as a rule mythological scenes. The Gawra seal evidently rests on some story the burden of which is the doleful result of the association between two human beings and a serpent. That such a story was known, and graphically portrayed, in the first half of the fourth millennium, is of more than passing interest and significance. The other group of objects comes from infant burials. These graves were found in the southeastern section of the mound, and they date apparently from 8b. The bodies were either placed in jars or else buried loose in the soil with only a stone covering to mark the place. With the burials were found thousands of beads and a number of gold ornaments, such as pendants and miniature buckles. The ninth stratum has now been reached at Gawra. We know from our trial trenches that all the underlying deposits, down to virgin soil, contain prehistoric painted pottery. The clear stratification of Gawra, and the number of strata still to be dug, furnish an unusual opportunity for the establishment of definite sequences of prehistoric painted types. Gawra has still another important contribution to make to our knowledge of the early history of mankind. E. A. SPEISER