cylinder seal

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Object Type
Museum number: 89769
Description: Pale green grossular garnet cylinder seal in the modelled style; a beardless male worshipper stands facing right, points with his right hand and extends the other towards the warrior-goddess Ishtar who stands on the back of a couchant lion, raises her right hand and holds a bow and two arrows in her left. Behind the two figures are a date-palm and two rearing crossed ibexes or mountain goats. In the upper field, behind the worshipper's head is an earring. The worshipper has shoulder-length hair and wears a short-sleeved, hexagaon-patterned, fringed robe with a webbing belt, and sandals. A row of dots above his forehead may indicate the hairline but could be a jewelled circlet; he has a necklace of square plaques, in which dots probably indicate jewels, with a tasselled necklace counterweight hanging behind, and bracelets on each wrist (that on the right wrist has a star pattern); at his waist is a sword with a lion's head decorating the hilt. Ishtar wears a tall, cylindrical, feathered and horned head-dress decorated with dots. Her hair is slightly longer than the worshipper's. She wears a short-sleeved, hexagon-patterned, fringed robe with a webbing belt, which hangs open to reveal a hexagon-patterned, fringed kilt; she also wears sandals. She may have a plain band around her neck but this could be the edge of her robe; a tasselled band hanging behind may be attached to her head-dress or it may be a necklace counterweight; she has triple bracelets on each wrist, single armbands above the elbow and a triplet anklet is visible on her right ankle (the left ankle is hidden by her robe). She has crossed quivers on her back which are tipped by stars and decorated with dots, she also has a dot-decorated bow-case and sickle-sword on her back. A sword at her waist has hilt made up of three drill-holes; small lines near the end of the star-tipped scabbard probably stand for the pair of lion or volutes with which the scabbards were often decorated. She holds her arrows close to the feathers, point upwards and her bow is decorated with ducks' heads. Her lion turns its head back towards her; its jaws are closed and its body is decorated with minute drill-holes to indicate fur on the mane and belly. The palm-tree has eleven branches and triple bunches of dates hang down on each side. The crossed male ibexes or mountain goats twist their heads backwards over their shoulders. Both ears are shown and the tips of both notched horns. The animals are bearded and three rows of chevrons mark the hair along the underside of their necks and across their flanks; their tufted tails curl upwards. The musculature is carefully indicated. The earring is crescent-shaped with three bell-like arms. Minute details such as the patterning of the robes, the crossed quivers on Ishtar's back and her sickle, sword, bow and two arrows are beautifully cut. Line borders at top and bottom. Slight chipping at the ends. A very narrow, straight perforation.
Authority
Cultures/periods
Production date: 720BC-700BC
Production place: Made in: Asia
Materials
Technique: cut; drilled; perforated
Dimensions: Diameter: 2 millimetres (max of perforation); Diameter: 1.80 centimetres; Height: 4.30 centimetres
Curator's comments: According to Collon catalogue "the design presumably shows an eunuch before Ishtar of Arbela, the warlike aspect of Ishtar particularly favoured by the Assyrians. The hollow-backed stance of the worshipper is Babylonian rather than Assyrian, but the only other Babylonian feature is the date-palm. Mountain goats were probably an attribute of the god Assur, and the juxtaposition of the date-palm with the crossed animals may indicate Assyrian domination over Babylonia after the conquest of Babylon by Tiglath-pilesar III in 729 B.C; alternatively the crossed-animals may also be an icon for Babylonia, although the gazelle is more usual. The palm-tree is used on the reliefs of Sennacherib and his successors to indicate that a scene is located in Babylonia, and the palm-trees on the Darius seal and other Achaemenid royal seals may have the same meaning. The earring may have been a military decoration, but on ninth century reliefs it is carried on trays by tribute bearers from Chaldaea and thus it too may indicate the conquest of Babylonia; it is closest in shape to earrrings of Sargon's reign. Moortgat suggested it was a schematized winged disc but this is improbable.... This is one of the most beautifully carved seals in the collection and has been illustrated repeatedly. Fanciful interpretations in the past include 'The explusion of Lucifer out of Heaven' and 'The vision of the seer of Istar [sic] of Arbela before the battle between Ashurbaniabla and the Elamites' (written on the back of an early plaster impression)......The seal-cutter used very fine tools, which enbabled him to show considerable detail....A close examination of the way the faces have been cut on the seals, when compared with most other seals is revealing. The cheeks and nose have been modelled; small drill-holes indicate the nostril and chin. Even the lips are shaped, whereas normally they are indicated by two straight lines. These are really reliefs in miniature. However, the flat cutting of Ishtar's leg by comparison is surprising; perhaps it was considered unfeminine for Ishtar to have the muscles of a man..... Ursula Moortgat-Correns has published the impression of a seal which probably dated from the same workshop and which she has dated to the ninth century. However, for all the features which cites in favour of her early dating, she also gives later examples, and I would prefer a later date probably in the reign of Sargon, for both seals. The closest parallels for such details as the earring, the webbing belts and the goddess's sword hilt are all to be found on reliefs of the second half of the eighth century. Deller (pers.comm) has also suggested redating the Moorgat-Correns seal to the reign of Sargon on the basis of the inscription"
Bibliographic references: Barnett & Wiseman 1969a / Fifty masterpieces of Ancient Near Eastern Art (p.90, no.44); Collon 2001a / Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum: Cylinder Seals V: Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Periods (240, pls.XIX, XXXIII, XXXVIII); Lee 1837-8 / The President's address (p.15 and plate); Lajard F 1847 / Introduction a l'etude du culte public et des mysteres de Mithra en Orient et en Occident (pl.IV:12); Smith G 1880 / The Chaldaean Account of Genesis (p.92); Menant J 1883 / Recherches sur la glyptique orientale I (pl.VIII:1); DeHass F S 1884 / Buried Cities Recovered; or, Explorations in Bible Lands (p.415); Ward W H 1910 / The Seal Cylinders of Western Asia (751); Jastrow M 1912 / Bildermappe zur Religion babyloniens und assyriens (201); Jeremias A 1913 / Handbuch der altororientalischen Geisteskultur (160?, 173a?); Unger E 1926a / Gotterbild (pl.196b); Moortgat 1927 / Der Ohrschmuck der Assyrer (p.192, pl.VII:2); Frankfort H 1939 / Cylinder Seals: a documentary essay on the art and religion of the ancient Near East (p.XXXV, pl.XXXVa); Wilkinson C K 1956 / An Achaemenian bronze head (p.78); Wiseman 1959 / Cylinder Seals of Western Asia (pl.67); Parrot A 1961 / Nineveh and Babylon (fig.203); Porada E 1961 / Review of D.J Wiseman "Cylinder Seals of Western Asia" (p.250); Beek M A 1962 / Atlas of Mesopotamia (p.118); Maxwell-Hyslop K R 1971 / Western Asiatic Jewellery c.3000-612 B.C (pl.221, p.242); Collon 1987a / First Impressions: Cylinder Seals in the Ancient Near East (773); Moortgat-Correns U 1988 / Ein Kultbild Ninurtas aus neuassyrischer Zeit (Abb.5); Collon 1990 / Near Eastern Seals (Interpreting the Past) (p.32, fig.18); Leick G 1991 / A Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology (fig.38); Wittmann B 1992 / Babylonische Rollsiegel des 11.-7 Jahrhundrets v. Chr (pl.45b); Collon 1995a / Ancient Near Eastern Art (p.171, fig.136d); Parpola, SAA 9 / Assyrian Propheries (p.XXVII, fig.8); Moscati S 1957 / Ancient Semitic Civilisations (pl.7); Saggs 1995a / Babylonians (p.36, fig. 10 and p.49, fig.28 (and others)); Madhloom T A 1970a / The Chronology of Neo-Assyrian Art (pl.XX:1-3, 5 and pl.XXIX:6,7,9) (cf:); Guide 1922 / Guide to the Babylonian and Assyrian Antiquities in the British Museum (p.232)
Location: Not on display
Exhibition history: 2019-2020 6 Nov-2 Aug, New York, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, A Wonder to Behold: The Power of Craftmanship and the Creation of the Ishtar Gate 2019 19 Jun-16 Sep, Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, Assyrians in the Shadow of the Vesuvius 2013 3 Nov-2014 21 Apr, Herne, LWL Museum fur Archaologie, 'Uruk: 5000 Years of the Megacity' 2013 25 Apr-8 Sep, Berlin, Vorderasiatisches Museum, 'Uruk: 5000 Years of the Megacity' 1997 29 May-28 Oct, Germany, Berlin, Vorderasiatisches Museum, Das Siegel Im Alten Vorderasien 1990 28 Jun-23 Sep, Australia, Melbourne, Museum of Victoria, Civilization: Ancient Treasures from the British Museum, cat no. 11 1990 24 Mar-10 Jun, Australia, Canberra, National Gallery of Australia, Civilization: Ancient Treasures from the British Museum, cat no. 11 Room of Writing (in 1960)
Condition: Good / fair; slight chipping at the ends.
Subjects: bird; mammal; jewellery; tree/bush; sun/moon; fruit; deity; arms/armour; devotee/worshipper; planet/constellation
Associated names
Acquisition name: Purchased from: Joseph Bonomi (?); Purchased from: Frederick Catherwood (?)
Acquisition date: 1835
Department: Middle East
BM/Big number: 89769
Registration number: 1835,0510.2

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