cylinder seal
- Museum number
- 89419
- Description
-
Faience cylinder seal: now brown and originally glazed green with a low lead antimonate content. The edges chipped. A winged bull stands facing a standing archer who wears a long, fringed robe and aims an arrow at it. Above the bull are a crescent and two wedges, and in front of it is a palmette-like plant. There are line borders around each end. The surface is worn.
- Production date
- 850BC-700BC
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 1.40 centimetres
-
Height: 3.50 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- According to Collon 2001 catalogue "analysis by XRD and XRF showed that a yellow opacifier and a copper colourant were used, suggesting that the seal was bright green, similar to the surviving traces of colour".
Bibliography:
D. Collon, ‘First Impressions: Cylinder Seals in the Ancient Near East’ (London, 1987), no. 337.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2013 - 2014 22 June - 6 Jan, Toronto, Royal Ontario Museum, 'Mesopotamia, Inventing Our World'
2013: 30 Jan-13 May, Museum of History, Hong Kong, 'The Wonders of Ancient Mesopotamia'
2012: 4 May-7 Oct, Melbourne Museum, 'The Wonders of Ancient Mesopotamia'
2011 28 March-26 June, Abu Dhabi, Manarat Al Saadiyat, 'Splendours of Mesopotamia'
2008-2009 21 Sept-4 Jan, Boston, MFA, 'Art and Empire'
2007 2 Apr-30 Sept, Alicante, MARQ Museum, 'Art and Empire'
2006 1 Jul-7 Oct, Shanghai Museum, 'Art and Empire'
- Condition
- Fair; edges chipped; surface worn.
- Acquisition date
- 1848
- Department
- Middle East
- BM/Big number
- 89419
- Registration number
- 1848,1104.295