cylinder seal
- Museum number
- 102676
- Description
-
Black magnetite cylinder seal. A bird-demon (head mostly erased), wearing a double belt and a striated kilt, kneels on one knee facing right and extends two wings diagonally in front of him instead of arms; he faces a woman, with hair hanging down at the back, who wears a long robe with a fringed hem and kneels on both knees, holding a lotus with undulating stem before her. Between these two figures is a small striated pot, or perhaps a small animal (damaged by a chip). Behind the figures is a bird in flight above a seated monkey, both facing right, a kilted figure (largely abraded) advancing towards the right, and a totally abraded area.
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 11 millimetres
-
Height: 19 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- EP’s description was incomplete, but she noted that the demon “extends his armless wings in a protective gesture towards the lotus”. For a discussion of the position of his wings, which is linked to the iconography of Isis and Nephthys, see CLS 47 (BM ME 134852). A bird demon also appears on several impressions of a seal excavated at Tell Atchana (ancient Alalakh) in the Level IV Palace and in contexts immediately preceding it (see Collon 1975, no. 216; Collon 2010, p. 126, fig. 19a-c).
- Location
- Not on display
- Condition
- Large irregularly-centred perforations, very worn design that has been totally abraded in one part, leaving scratch marks, and hollows indicating the remains of chips.
- Acquisition date
- 1908
- Acquisition notes
- Acquired by D.G. Hogarth at Tell Ahmar, the site of the Neo-Assyrian capital of Til Barsip on the Euphrates south of Carchemish
- Department
- Middle East
- BM/Big number
- 102676
- Registration number
- 1908,0613.62