cylinder seal

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Object Type
Museum number: 122696
Description: Mottled brown and white-grey chalcedony cylinder seal; slightly concave sided; the area is divided into fifteen vertical columns, fourteen of which are occupied by a cuneiform inscription. The remaining column is divided by a short horizontal line into two registers: in each a bearded figure in a robe with linear borders stands facing right with one hand raised in a devotional gesture. [EP]
Cultures/periods
Production date: 1420BC-1410BC (?)
Production place: Made in: Mesopotamia
Materials
Dimensions: Diameter: 1.97 centimetres; Height: 4.18 centimetres
$Inscriptions
Bibliographic references: Brinkman 1976a / A catalogue of cuneiform sources pertaining to specific monarchs of the Kassite Dynasty (Q.2.114); Reade 1986a / Commerce or Conquest: Variation in the Mesopotamian Dilmun Relationship (p.332, fig. 137); Nayeem M A 1992a / Bahrain (pp.376-77: fig. 1); Hoyland R 2001a / Arabia and the Arabs: from the Bronze Age to the coming of Islam (p.17, pl. 2) (mis-attributed ca 15thC BC date); British Museum 2011a / Splendours of Mesopotamia (p.180, cat.154); Collon 1987a / First Impressions: Cylinder Seals in the Ancient Near East (no. 237); Matthews, D M 1990 / Principals of Composition in Near Eastern Glyptic of the Later 2nd Millenium BC (no. 9); Stiehler-Alegría G 1996a / Die Kassitische Glyptik (no. 227)
Location: Not on display
Exhibition history: Exhibited: 2011 28 March-26 June, Abu Dhabi, Manarat Al Saadiyat, 'Splendours of Mesopotamia'
Condition: both ends are badly chipped, probably indicating the removal of decorative gold(?) caps, probably in antiquity as they are weathered.
Subjects
Associated names: Named in inscription: Uballissu-Marduk (owner of seal); Named in inscription: Kurigalzu
Associated places: Associated with: Dilmun
Acquisition name
Acquisition date: 1931
Acquisition notes: Reported to Trustees 31 March 1931.
Department: Middle East
BM/Big number: 122696
Registration number: 1931,0415.1

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