- Museum number
- 89001
- Description
-
Mottled, very pale grey and very pale pink quartz, chalcedony cylinder seal with a pale brown inclusion and small black inclusions. A bearded male figure stands facing right, wearing a horizontally striated, pointed headdress and a long, open, pleated skirt, holds a curved sword to one side in his lowered right hand, folds his left arm across his body, and places one foot on the back of a bird of prey that turns its head back towards the god. In the upper field are two outlined rhombs set horizontally and a “Kassite cross”; below the cross is a recumbent mountain goat. A five-line inscription. Remains of line borders above and below.
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 15 millimetres
-
Height: 36.70 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- This seal was classified by Matthews (p. 87) as First Kassite, with bird and horizontal animal in the Northern Tradition (p. 78), with the normal continuous line borders above and below the inscription (p. 17 n. 130). He cites this seal (p. 60 n. 49) as one of the rare surviving examples of the ascending posture with the foot here not resting on a hill but, most unusually, on a bird (p. 70) that resembles those on (BM 89090). This is one of the rare seals on which Matthews (p. 71) has noted tassels as being worn by someone other than the Assyrian hero, although the posture, though unusual, is similarly heroic. However, concerning the headdress, Matthews (p. 83 n. 313) points out that on this seal, “the headdress and hair … look more divine than royal”, but cautions that “the assumption that the horned cap (if this is one) reflects divinity should be treated with extreme caution in this period.” Indeed, Matthews (pp. 77) classifies the figure as being human. For further discussion see the Introduction to Kassite seals, Sections I.2 and I.3.
Inscription notes:
Cf. Limet 1971, p. 84, 6.8 = Delaporte 1923, A 599, for a similar inscription
- Bibliographic references
-
Cullimore A 1842 / Oriental Cylinders, Impressions of ancient oriental cylinders, or rolling seals of the Babylonians, Assyrians, and Medo-Persians (pl.12, fig.62)
-
Ward W H 1910 / The Seal Cylinders of Western Asia (66, fig.526)
-
Frankfort H 1939 / Cylinder Seals: a documentary essay on the art and religion of the ancient Near East (p.XXXIII, pl.XXXm)
-
Lajard F 1847 / Introduction a l'etude du culte public et des mysteres de Mithra en Orient et en Occident (LVIII,2)
-
van Buren E D 1954 / The esoteric significance of Kassite glyptic art (pl. I:4, p. 9 n. 5)
-
Beran T 1957 / Assyrische Glyptik des 14. Jahrhunderts (p. 258)
-
Matthews, D M 1990 / Principals of Composition in Near Eastern Glyptic of the Later 2nd Millenium BC (no. 78, pp. 17, 60, 70, 71, 77, 78, 83, 87)
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
1997 29 May-28 Oct, Germany, Berlin, Vorderasiatisches Museum, Das Siegel Im Alten Vorderasien
1991 9 Mar-7 May, Japan, Osaka, National Museum of Art, Treasures of the British Museum, cat. no.33
1991 5 Jan-20 Feb, Japan, Yamaguchi, Prefectural Museum of Art, Treasures of the British Museum, cat. no.33
1990 20 Oct-9 Dec, Japan, Tokyo, Setagaya Art Museum, Treasures of the British Museum, cat. no.33
- Condition
- the edges are badly chipped, suggesting the forcible removal of decorative metal (gold?) caps. The worn oval perforation would indicate that the cylinder was used horizontally as a bead for a considerable period of time. There is no indication that the seal was drilled from both ends. An impurity in the stone (in the inscription panel) has resulted in an area of yellow staining; there are also small black dots on the surface of the stone.
- Acquisition date
- 1841
- Department
- Middle East
- BM/Big number
- 89001
- Registration number
- 1841,0726.95
