cylinder seal

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Object Type
Museum number: 120572
Description: Lapis lazuli cylinder seal, contest scene - a bearded hero in a flat cap and short skirt grasps the ear of a rampant goat (only one horn visible on the left of the impression). Two crossed human-headed bulls (the surviving head, full-face) are being attacked by two lions (the surviving head shown from above). A horizontal line between the lion and human-headed bull on the right cannot be explained and may be due to later damage; broken and incomplete; only two fragments remaining; gold caps lost.
Authority
Cultures/periods
Production date: 2400BC-2200BC
Excavator/field collector
Findspot: Excavated/Findspot: Royal Cemetery (Ur)
Materials
Dimensions: Length: 1.1875 centimetres (of largest fragment); Length: 1.125 inches (of smaller fragment); Length: 3.50 centimetres; Width: 0.625 inches (of largest fragment); Width: 0.5625 inches (of smaller fragment); Width: 2.25 centimetres
$Inscriptions
Bibliographic references: Collon 1982a / Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum: Cylinder Seals II: Akkadian, Post Akkadian, Ur III Periods (64, pl.IX); Gadd & Legrain, UET I / Royal Inscriptions (p. 311, no.271); Woolley et al 1934a / The Royal Cemetery; Frayne, RIME 2 / Sargonic and Gutian Periods (RIM.E.2.1.1.2003); Boehmer R M 1965a / Die Entwicklung der Glyptik wahrend der Akkad-Zeit
Location: Not on display
Exhibition history: 2022-2023 15 Oct - 19 Feb, New York, The Morgan Library and Museum, She Who Wrote: Enheduanna and Women of Mesopotamia
Condition: Incomplete; broken; two fragments only remaining.
Subjects: mammal; mythical figure/creature
Associated names: Named in inscription: Enheduana; Associated with: Sargon I (?); Associated with: Sargon II (?); Named in inscription: Nanna (?)
Acquisition name
Acquisition date: 1928
Department: Middle East
BM/Big number: 120572
Registration number: 1928,1009.55
Additional IDs: Excavation/small finds number: U.8988 (excavation number)

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