cylinder seal

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Object Type: cylinder seal
Museum number: 123279
Description: Orange-cream shell cylinder seal; mythological scene; shackled deity between snakes, figure holding net, hero holding triple-headed snake, god with tridents standing on lion.
Cultures/periods: Early Dynastic III
Production date: 2600BC - 2300BC
Findspot: Found/Acquired: Nuzi (historic), Hurrian level? (?)
Materials: shell
Dimensions: Diameter: 20 millimetres; Height: 32 millimetres
Curator's comments: This may illustrate an episode in Sumerian mythology where Dumuzi, a shepherd from the city of Uruk, was forced into the underworld.
Bibliographic references: Wiseman 1962a / Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum: Cylinder Seals I: Uruk - Early Dynastic Periods (p.32, pl.28c); Boehmer R M 1965a / Die Entwicklung der Glyptik wahrend der Akkad-Zeit; British Museum 2011a / Splendours of Mesopotamia (p.38, cat.8)
Location: Not on display
Exhibition history: Exhibited: 2011 28 March-26 June, Abu Dhabi, Manarat Al Saadiyat, 'Splendours of Mesopotamia'
Subjects: myth/legend; mammal; serpent; deity; mesopotamian hero
Acquisition name: Purchased from: I Élias Géjou
Acquisition date: 1933
Department: Middle East
BM/Big number: 123279
Registration number: 1933,0408.1
Additional IDs: Miscellaneous number: 30-1-201 (?Field Cat No.)

Free entry