cylinder seal
- Museum number
- 121544
- Description
-
Lapis lazuli cylinder seal; inscription; design is divided into two parts, both showing banquet scenes; the upper one includes a seated figure holding a cup that may be Queen Pu-abi herself; the scene also includes a female figure standing behind the seated figure and a similar group of males; the lower scene consists of antithetical groups of an attendant offering cup to a seated person. Attendant with flask stands behind while another holds table; rejoined.
- Production date
- 2600BC
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 2.60 centimetres
-
Height: 4.90 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
-
The jewellery was found by the right arm of Queen Pu-abi herself, who lay outstretched on her back upon a bier; other items are now preserved in the Iraq Museum in Baghdad and the University Museum in Philadelphia.
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Item sketched by Herzfeld, apparently while on display as there is no record of Herzfeld being given a students' room ticket; Herzfeld was resident in London in 1934/36. This sketch is on p. 7 of Herzfeld's Notebook 21 (Freer & Sackler Gallery Archives, Smithsonian).
- Location
- On display (G56/dc13)
- Exhibition history
-
2022-2023 15 Oct - 19 Feb, New York, The Morgan Library and Museum, She Who Wrote: Enheduanna and Women of Mesopotamia
2003 5 May-17 Aug, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 'Art of the First Cities'
1999, Berlin, Vorderasiatisches Museum 'Royal Cemetery of Ur'
1997 29 May-28 Oct, Germany, Berlin, Vorderasiatisches Museum, Das Siegel Im Alten Vorderasien
1991 9 Mar-7 May, Japan, Osaka, National Museum of Art, Treasures of the British Museum, cat. no.26
1991 5 Jan-20 Feb, Japan, Yamaguchi, Prefectural Museum of Art, Treasures of the British Museum, cat. no.26
1990 20 Oct-9 Dec, Japan, Tokyo, Setagaya Art Museum, Treasures of the British Museum, cat. no.26
- Condition
- Fair; repaired; split down centre and glued.
- Acquisition date
- 1928
- Department
- Middle East
- BM/Big number
- 121544
- Registration number
- 1928,1010.235
- Additional IDs
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Excavation/small finds number: U.10939 (excavation number)
