cylinder seal
- Museum number
- 89138
- Description
-
Hematite (iron oxide) cylinder seal; standard presentation scene before a deified king; a shaven-headed worshipper, who wears a fringed robe and a hatched cap and has hatching across his cheek- probably to indicate a short beard. He raises his right hand and is led by the hand by a goddess who wears a flounced robe with a double-rolled hem and a head-dress with a single pair of horns. She raises her left hand and approaches a bearded, deified king who wears a similar head-dress and a flounced robe. He sits on panelled seat on a two-stepped dais, below a star-disc and crescent. In the field before him is a goose. Terminal, a framed inscription. The seal has double-ridged imitation caps carved in the stone. The central part of the seal, bearing the design is narrower than the imitation caps. The unusual features mentioned above can be explained by the seal has been skillfully recut. The scene once represented a presentation before a god and the remains of a multiple horned head-dress can still be seen above the recut skull-cap and turban. The inscription also seems to have been recut; there are traces of other signs beneath most of the present signs and by the god's elbow. There are also traces of an earlier frame - particularly the earlier version of the lower edge of the frame.
- Production date
- 2100BC-2000BC
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 0.50 inches (of broadest part)
-
Diameter: 1.13 centimetres (of central part)
-
Diameter: 1.35 centimetres (of ends)
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Height: 2.98 centimetres
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Height: 1.125 inches
- $Inscriptions
-
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1880
- Department
- Middle East
- BM/Big number
- 89138
- Registration number
- 1880,1012.23
