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201 Figures 63a and 63b The Hebrew word Tavnit is commonly translated "pat- tern," and this term suggests that it could be a design, an architectural plan. But the biblical term implies more accu- rately a "constructed model" rather than a Tokhnit ("plan" in Hebrew). It was a physical model that apparently was small enough to be handed over by David to Solomon— something that nowadays would be spoken of as a_ "scale model." As archaeological finds in Mesopotamia and Egypt attest, scale models were not unknown in the ancient Near East; we can illustrate the fact by showing some of the objects discov- ered in Mesopotamia (Fig. 63a), as well as some of the nu- merous Egyptian ones (Fig. 63b). In some Sumerian cylinder seal depictions a temple-tower (Fig. 64a) is shown no taller than the human and divine personages in the scene, as is the case of a priestess shown decorating a model of a temple (Fig. 64b). It has been assumed that the structures were drawn not to true scale simply to make them fit the space on the seal; but the discovery of actual clay scale models of temples and shriner. (Fig. 64c)—paralleling the biblical references to the Tavnit, suggests that perhaps in Mesopotamia, too, kings "pat- Visions from the Twilight Zone