functionary. This signet was found near Rome, and is allowed to be the most ancient specimen of printing known. A not very dissimilar stamp, in the Greek character, is in the possession of the Antiquarian Society of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
Strutt mentions an engraving, in the British Museum, upon the sheath of a sword, representing five figures in outline, impressions of which might be taken if the metal would bear the pressure.
The signets used by the ancient Jews, were sometimes set in rings and worn upon the fingers, and at others, they were affixed to the bracelet, and carried upon the arm. Thus in Solomon's Songs, Chap. viii. v. 6. it is said, "Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm;" and it is well known that these seals contained the name or monogram of the wearer, for in the directions given to Moses concerning the holy breastplate, Exod. chap, xxviii. v. 9, 11. it is said, "And thou shalt take two onyx stones, and grave on them the names of the children of Israel. With the work of an engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet, shalt thou engrave the two stones with the names of the children of Israel: thou shalt make them to be set in ouches of gold." Again, there is supposed to be an allusion to these engraved bracelet-seals in Genesis xxxv. v. 4, which from the description of them, must have borne a strong resemblance to the Egyptian Name-banners. In Greece, these Name-banners were formed of lead, and were of a circular shape; but in Rome, they were made of stone, of an oblong square, and upon them were inscribed the names of two parties between whom a firm friendship had been established. They were then divided into two parts, and interchanged, so that each one possessed that piece which contained the name of the other, and the production of this, to either party on a journey, ensured a hospitable reception, and kind treatment to the traveller.
The few and simple laws, necessary in the early stages of society, seem at first among the Greeks, to have been set to music and chaunted or sung. Afterwards, they were engraven on a hard and solid substance, as stone, metal, or wood; according to some authors, the laws of Solon, were engraven on tablets of wood, so constructed that they might be turned round in wooden cases: some of his laws, however, were certainly engraven on stone. Josephus, speaks of two columns, the one of stone, the other of brick; on which the children of Seth wrote their inventions, and astronomical discoveries. On the entrance of the Israelites into the land of Canaan, the Law was commanded to be engraved on stones, that a genuine exemplar might be transmitted even to the latest generations.
The Arundelian marbles, preserved in the University of Oxford, sufficiently prove for what a variety of purposes inscriptions on stone were used amongst the ancients. Some of the inscriptions on them, record treaties, others the victories or good qualities and deeds of distinguished persons, others, miscellaneous events; most of them, however, are sepulchral. By far the most important and celebrated, is the Parian chronicle, which, when entire, contained a chronology of Greece, particularly of Athens, for a period of 1318 years, namely, firom the reign of Cecrops, a. c. 15S2, to the archonship of Diognetus, a. c. 264.
The next specimen of antiquity deserving of notice, is the Rosetta stone, now in the British Museum. In the year 1801, dining the memorable campaign in Egypt,
