stamp-seal

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Object Type: stamp-seal
Museum number: 120573
Description: Rectangular, green-grey mottled steatite stamp-seal with pierced lug at back; front surface deeply engraved with crude design of bull standing, facing left; single line inscribed line above; Indus style seal with Sumerian inscription.
Cultures/periods: Mesopotamian (?)
Production date: 2500BC (circa)
Excavator/field collector: Excavated by: Sir Leonard Woolley (1926/27)
Findspot: Excavated/Findspot: Diqdiqqah (Ur), surface
Materials: steatite (grey)
Technique: engraved; pierced
Dimensions: Length: 27 millimetres; Width: 24 millimetres
$Inscriptions
Bibliographic references: Gadd 1932a / Seals of ancient Indian style found at Ur (no.1, pp.5-6, pl.I: 1); Aruz & Wallenfels 2003a / Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus (no. 301b, p. 410.); Woolley 1956a / The early periods (p.174); Mitchell T C 1986a / Indus and Gulf type seals from Ur (no.7, p.280, fig.111)
Location: On display (G33/dc45b/s1)
Exhibition history: Exhibited: 2003 5 May-17 Aug, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 'Art of the First Cities'
Subjects: mammal
Acquisition name: Division of Finds: Department of Antiquities of Iraq
Acquisition date: 1928
Department: Middle East
BM/Big number: 120573
Registration number: 1928,1009.56
Additional IDs: Excavation/small finds number: U.7683 (excavation number)

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