cylinder seal

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Object Type
Museum number: 89132
Title: Object: The Darius Seal
Description: Chalcedony / prase cylinder seal: streaked, green to grey-brown, clouded; carved scene shows chariot, lions, symbol, tree and inscription; a royal personage (Darius I) facing right, stands at the back of a chariot, with his torso presented frontally; he has a long pointed beard, striated across the cheek and vertically down the chin and chest, his hair, in diagonal lines, is in a full-page boy style at the nape of the neck, he wears a dentate crown with four well-defined points set on wide circlet decorated with a band of dots, and is dressed in the full-length formal robe (only the top half of the garment is visible), with pendant sleeves folded back from the arms and hands to leave them free to aim his bow, which ends in a curved bird-head. The charioteer stands before the king, leans forward and guides the two horses; his short pointed beard and shoulder-length hair are striated, he wears a diadem with central boss and his upper garment is a cape with a double line border. The waist high sides of the two-wheeled chariot are covered by three narrow crossed (possibly cruciform) panels or straps, a rounded handle-like, looped projection protrudes from the upper end of the back, against which the king leans, while at the front is a notched, curved pole-brace; the wheel is eight-spoked with a thick, studded rim; the pole links chariot to the yoke. The two horses (the heads are shown as double, but only one body is depicted) gallop with forelegs stretched out and bent slightly downwards, their harnesses are decorated with large tassels, the penis is shown and the tail hangs down but appears to be knotted at the tip. The king has shot two arrows into the eye and front paw of a confronting, rampant and snarling lion; its heavy mane is marked by a cross-hatched pattern ending in a ventral projection down the body. Beneath the hooves of the horses lies a lion cub, face downwards (probably dead). All the animals have well-defined and lightly modelled musculature, discreet drill-holes mark out the eyes, jaws and hind paws of the lion; a curious group of drill-holes mark the lower end of the further foreleg of the horse. Above the scene hovers a winged sun-disc from which rises the upper part of a male figure (the god Ahuramazda), his beard is striated, he wears a crown with spikes (giving it a feather-like appearance), set on a narrow circlet, his garment has long pendant sleeves from which emerge his hands, one raised, the other extended and holding a ring. The wings are long and narrow but widen slightly at the tips and are marked by long horizontal lines and divided into six sections but diagonal lines, while the tail is marked by fine vertical lines sectioned across by one curving line; two scroll-like appendages emerge from each side. Flanking the scene are two identical palm-trees or date-palms with globular bunches of fruit beneath the palm fronds on each side, and base petioles shown by a continuous criss-cross pattern down the trunks ending in widened bases. The whole is placed on a ground line. To the side is three-line vertical inscription panel. Crack running through the seal.
Authority
Cultures/periods
Production date: 6thC BC-5thC BC
Findspot: Excavated/Findspot: Thebes (historic - Upper Egypt) (said to have been found in)
Materials: chalcedony; prase
Technique: carved; drilled
Dimensions: Diameter: 1.70 centimetres; Height: 3.70 centimetres; Weight: 21 grammes
$Inscriptions
Inscription subject
Curator's comments: This was probably a seal of office. Classified by Merrillees as Persepolis, Early/Mature style. The cruciform pattern on the side of the chariot resembles that on the front of the gold chariot-model in the Oxus Treasure, as do the studded wheel treads and the loop at the back representing a support for easy mounting. No. 15 in a previously issued series of postcards captioned "Assyrian monuments bearing on Bible history in the British Museum". Two coloured facsimile copies were made in 2003, one for the "Enlightenment" display in the refurbished King's Library and the other for handling/loan purposes. According to Merrillees catalogue "the transparency of the seal surface was probably induced by oiling", but whether this was ancient or represents a 19th century treatment for an earlier moulding and casting is unclear.; Cat. entry for "Alexander the Great and the opening of the world – Asian cultures in transformation" (Svend Hansen, Alfried Wieczorek and Michael Tellenbach, eds) The Darius Seal Said to have been found in Thebes, Egypt Purchased in 1835, formerly in the Salt collection Chalcedony; height 3.70cm, diameter 1.70cm British Museum, London, Inv.-Nr. 89132a [facsimile] This was probably a seal of office although it is popularly referred to as the “seal of Darius”. It is one of the most heavily published or illustrated examples of Achaemenid art. The scene shows Darius I standing at the back of a two-wheeled chariot which is being guided by his charioteer. The cruciform pattern on the side of the chariot resembles that on the front of a gold chariot-model in the Oxus Treasure, as do the studded wheel treads and the loop at the back representing a support for easy mounting. The subject is a lion hunt and the scene is framed by date palms in full fruit. Above the scene hovers a winged sun-disc from which rises the upper part of a male figure which is usually identified as the god Ahuramazda. A trilingual cuneiform inscription repeats the phrase “I [am] Darius, the king” in Old Persian and Elamite, expanded slightly in the Babylonian version as “I [am] Darius, the great king“. Literature: J.E. Curtis & N. Tallis (eds), Forgotten Empire: The world of Ancient Persia, London 2005 (cat. 398); P.H. Merrillees, Catalogue of the Western Asiatic seals in the British Museum: Pre-Achaemenid and Achaemenid periods, London 2005 (cat. 16).
Bibliographic references: Sarre F 1922a / Die Kunst des Alten Persien (no.52 (top)); Merrillees 2005 / Catalogue of the Western Asiatic seals in the British Museum: Pre-Achaemenid and Achaemenid periods (16); Denison Ross et al. 1930 / Persian Art (pl. 2); Stronach D 1998a / On the Date of the Oxus Gold Scabbard and Other Achaemenid Matters (p. 239, fig. 6) (compares scene with Assyrian lion-hunts rather than later Achaemenid art as exemplified by the gold scabbard in the OT); Curtis 1989a / Ancient Persia (p. 49, fig. 56); Barnett & Wiseman 1960a / Fifty masterpieces of Ancient Near Eastern Art (p.95, no.49); Wiseman 1959 / Cylinder Seals of Western Asia (pl.100); Rogers R W 1929a / A History of Ancient Persia from its earliest beginnings to the death of Alexander the Great (fig.11 & pictorial cover); Ali-Sami 1970a / Persepolis (Takht-i-Jamshid) (p.172) (captioned in error as "crystal"); Lajard F 1847 / Introduction a l'etude du culte public et des mysteres de Mithra en Orient et en Occident (pl.XXV: 6); Menant J 1883 / Recherches sur la glyptique orientale I (pl.I:3); Pinches T G 1885 / The Babylonian and Assyrian cylinder-seals of the British Museum (p.11, pl:3, no.6); Menant J 1886 / Recherches sur la glyptique orientale II (pp.166-168); Furtwangler A 1900 / Die antiken Gemmen (vol. I, pl.I:11 and vol II, p.5); Delaporte L 1910 / Catalogue des cylindres orientaux et des cachets assyro-babyloniens, perses et syro-cappadociens de la Bibliotheque Nationale (p.xx, n.4); Ward W H 1910 / The Seal Cylinders of Western Asia (pp.25,336, no.1104); Weissbach 1911a / Die Keilinschriften der Achämeniden (pp.xxiii, xxx, 106-107); Weber O 1920 / Altorientalische Siegelbilder (vol.I, p.124 and vol II, p.101, no.506); Gadd 1930a / Babylonian cylinder-seals (facing p.44); Pope 1938 / Survey of Persian Art (vol.IV, pl.123A); Frankfort H 1939 / Cylinder Seals: a documentary essay on the art and religion of the ancient Near East (p.XXXVI, pl.XXXVIId (p.221)); Moortgat A 1940 / Voderasiatische Rollsiegel: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Stein-schneidekunst (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin) (p.79); Ghirshman R 1964a / Fibule en Iran, collection de M. Foroughi (pp.268-9, 431, illus.329); Von der Osten H H 1956a / Die Welt der Perser (p.279, pl.69); Schmidt EF 1957a / Persepolis II: Contents of the Treasury and Other Discoveries (p.13, n.65); Porada E 1961 / Review of D.J Wiseman "Cylinder Seals of Western Asia" (p.250) (difference between crowns of god and king); Parrot A 1961 / Nineveh and Babylon (p.209, no.261F, p.374); Porada E 1965a / Ancient Iran, the Art of Pre-Islamic Times (pp.176, 178, fig.89); Unger E 1966a / OAW (pp.57, 60); Du Ry C J 1969a / Art of the Ancient Near and Middle East (p.149); Hicks J 1976a / The Persians (p.79); Littauer M A & Crouwel J H 1979 / Wheeled Vehicles and Ridden Animals in the Ancient Near East (fig.81); Walker 1980a / Elamite inscriptions in the British Museum (p.79-80); Philby H StJ B 1981a / The Queen of Sheba (28); Cook J M 1983a / The Persian Empire (pl.33); Collon 1987a / First Impressions: Cylinder Seals in the Ancient Near East (558); Porada E 1993 / Why cylinder seals? Engraved cylindrical seal stones of the Ancient Near West, fourth to first millennium B.C. (p.501, pl.LII); Collon 1995a / Ancient Near Eastern Art (p.183, fig.146a); Curtis 1995b / Catalogue entries (p.261, no.56); Curtis 1997a / Mesopotamia and Iran in the Persian Period: Conquest and Imperialism 539-331 BC (Proceedings of a Seminar in memory of Vladimir G. Lukonin) (pp.13/14, pl.2); Curtis 2000a / Ancient Persia (p.58, fig.64); D'Athanasi 1836a / A brief account of the researches and discoveries in Upper Egypt, made under the direction of Henry Salt, Esq (pp.157-58, no.74); Guide 1922 / Guide to the Babylonian and Assyrian Antiquities in the British Museum (p.233, pl.52.6); Allen 2005a / The Persian Empire: A History (p.45); Guide 1908a / A Guide to the Exhibition Galleries of the British Museum, Bloomsbury (p.158); Curtis & Tallis 2005 / Forgotten Empire: The world of Ancient Persia (cat. 398); Pinder-Wilson 1971a / Royal Persia: a commemoration of Cyrus the Great and his successors on the occasion of the 2500th anniversary of the founding of the Persian Empire (no.23); Boardman 2000 / Persia and the West: An Archaeological Investigation of the Genesis of Achaemenid Art (p. 161, fig. 5.9); Curtis & Tallis 2012 / The Horse from Arabia to Ascot (107)
Location: On display (G35/dc2)
Exhibition history: Exhibited: 2023 4 May - 13 Aug, London, BM, G35, Luxury and Power: Persia to Greece 2013 15 Mar-Mar, Cyrus Cylinder tour 2012 24 May-30 Sep, London, BM, 'The horse: from Arabia to Royal Ascot'. 2010 3 Dec-2011 3 May, Madrid, Canal de Isabel II, Alejandro Magno: Encuentro con Oriente (Facsimile). 2010 21 Mar-1 Nov, Leobon, Kunsthalle Museumcenter, Alexander der Grosse und die offnung der Welt (Facsimile). 2009 2 Oct-2010 21 Feb, Mannheim, Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen, Alexander der Grosse und die offnung der Welt (Facsimile). 2006 8 Jul-29 Oct, "Splendeur and Grandeur of the Great Kings: The Persian Empire", Museum Speyer, Germany (second facsimile cast). 2006 7 Mar-11 Jun, Barcelona, Fundacion La Caixa, 'L'imperi Oblidat'. 2005 Sept-2006 Jan, London, BM, 'Forgotten Empire'. 2003 Nov - facsimile copy in G1/Enlightenment. 1996 1 Oct-1997 31 Mar, USA, St. Petersburg, Florida International Museum, Alexander the Great: History and Legend 1995 21 Dec-1996 21 May, Rome, Fondazione Memmo, Alexander the Great: History and Legend 1995-2005, 17 Nov-Aug, BM, G52/IRAN/6. 1994 16 Jun-23 Dec, BM, G49/IRAN. 1990 28 Jun-23 Sep, Australia, Melbourne, Museum of Victoria, Civilization: Ancient Treasures from the British Museum, cat. no.15 1990 24 Mar-10 Jun, Australia, Canberra, National Gallery of Australia, Civilization: Ancient Treasures from the British Museum, cat. no.15 1975-1990 Jul-end, BM, Iranian Room [IR]. 1971 BM, 'Royal Persia: a commemoration of Cyrus the Great and his successors on the occasion of the 2500th anniversary of the founding of the Persian Empire' 1960 BM, Room of Writing. Assyrian Room [AR], table-case B6 (1922 Guide). Babylonian Room, table-case D. 2022-2023 13 Oct-19 Feb, London, BM G30, Hieroglpyhs: Unlocking Ancient Egypt
Condition: Fair / poor; crack running through the seal (noted spring 2003 prior to facsimile copying); impressions should be made with great care
Subjects: mammal; bird; crown; tree/bush; king/queen; sun/moon; charioteer/chariot
Associated names: Named in inscription & portrayed: Darius I; Representation of: Ahuramazda
Acquisition name
Previous owner
Acquisition date: 1835 (29th June)
Acquisition notes: Sotheby's sale of Salt collection, 29th June 1835; catalogued as no.74 in d'Athanasi catalogue of the Salt Collection where the object is said to have been "found in lower Egypt", in a tomb on the left bank at Thebes.
Department: Middle East
BM/Big number: 89132
Registration number: 1835,0630.1

Free entry

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