cylinder seal
- Museum number
- 89589
- Description
-
Black or dark brown and pale brown serpentinite cylinder seal in the linear style; a snout-nosed, horned reptile (Tiamat as a dragon?) faces left; the upper third of its long, cross-hatched body rises vertically from two front paws or hands, one of which is raised; the remainder of the body runs around the bottom of the seal and supports three figures; there are no hind legs. A bearded god (Ninurta?) runs along the reptile's body towards the left; he wears a feather-topped head-dress and a vertically-striated, tiered and fringed open robe over a fringed kilt and has crossed, wedge-tipped quivers on his back. His arms are stretched out on either side, and in his right hand he holds a six-pronged thunderbolt below which is a rhomb, while in his left he holds two arrows. Behind the god, and advancing towards the left, is a smaller bearded god in a horned (?) head-dress with a long, tasselled streamer or necklace counterweight hanging down behind; he wears an open robe similar to that of the running god and holds a spear before him in both hands. On the tail of the reptile, with her back to the smaller god, stands an even smaller goddess, who wears a feather-topped, horned head-dress with a short tassel or necklace counterweight hanging behind, and a belted, vertically striated, tiered robe; she holds her arms open to seize the snout of the reptile. To the left of her head is a small globe-with-rays and to the right, a crescent. Line borders at top and bottom broken by the running god's head-dress. The seal may illustrate a scene from the epic of creation in which the forces of chaos, led by Tiamat, are defeated by a god representing cosmic order, probably Ninurta. Shiny, some chipping and weathering; note that there is a chip by the smaller god's shoulder and the tassel of his streamer may mask damage.
- Production date
- 900BC-750BC
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 1.75 centimetres
-
Height: 3.40 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- No. 14 in a previously issued series of postcards captioned "Assyrian monuments bearing on Bible history in the British Museum".
According to catalogue "Boehmer dates the seal to the third quarter of the eighth century but an earlier date is preferred here. Note that the arrows and spear are indicated by broken lines. Note also the fringed underside of the lower part of the running god's robe, parallel to the dragon's body and to his left leg. For a female assistant see two seals in Fribourg in the cut-and-drilled style of the early seventh century. An archer assistant is depicted on a fragmentary seal in the hard-stone version of this design".
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2000, Barcelona, 'Foundation of the City'
Babylonian Room;, table-case D
- Condition
- Fair; some chipping and weathering.
- Acquisition date
- 1896
- Acquisition notes
- See Budge's report to the Trustees, 7 April 1896
- Department
- Middle East
- BM/Big number
- 89589
- Registration number
- 1896,0619.1
