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cylinder seal
Object Type
cylinder seal
Museum number
130617
Description
Egyptian faience cylinder seal, now cream with some traces turquoise-blue glaze surviving; a winged animal prances from the right towards two symbols consisting of vertical lines, each with a pair of horizontal lines at the top and a pair at the bottom, one of which has a triangle above it. There are presumably the symbols of Nabu and Marduk and the animal may be a 'mushhushshu' dragon, an identification supported by two lines on its head; there is also a vertical line above its rump.
Cultures/periods
Late Babylonian
(?)
Excavator/field collector
Excavated by:
Sir Leonard Woolley
Findspot
Excavated/Findspot:
Ur (historic - city)
Materials
glazed composition
Technique
glazed
Dimensions
Diameter:
0.85 centimetres
Height:
1.80 centimetres
Curator's comments
According to catalogue "analysis by XRD and XRF indicated that a copper colourant was used".
Bibliographic references
Collon 2001a / Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum: Cylinder Seals V: Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Periods
(264, pl.XXI)
Legrain & Woolley 1951a / Seal Cylinders
(596)
(cf:)
Location
Not on display
Subjects
mythical figure/creature
dragon
Associated names
Emblem of:
Marduk
(?)
Emblem of:
Nabu
(?)
Acquisition name
Division of Finds:
Department of Antiquities of Iraq
Acquisition date
1928
Department
Middle East
BM/Big number
130617
Registration number
1928,1010.899