cylinder seal
- Museum number
- 129583
- Description
-
Black hematite cylinder seal. concave-sided, highly polished; the lower end of the perforation is slightly oval and surrounded by a circular groove and marks.
A Babylonian suppliant goddess with necklace counterweight faces a man with hair rendered by short lines all over his head who stands facing left and points with his right index finger at the goddess; over a kilt with a series of double horizontal stripes he wears a knee-length cloak that covers his right shoulder, has edged rolled borders, with one linear end and one fringed end. The bared part of the torso shows his necklace, and his left breast is well defined; he wears double bracelets on each wrist. Between the man and the goddess is an outlined four-petalled centre-dot motif on a disc in a crescent and, below, a bird facing left, seated on an ankh. Behind the man stands the frontal naked bearded hero with legs turned towards the left and hands held at the breast above a triple belt. Between these two figures are an eight-petalled centre-dot rosette above, and an ankh below. The remainder of the scene is divided into two registers by a six-coil centre-dot, four-strand Z-guilloche between two horizontal lines. Above: A nekhbet vulture faces a sphinx that paces towards the left, has a headdress of ram’s horns and a disc, and that treads with one forepaw on a serpent while raising the other forepaw above the serpent’s head. Below: A monkey is seated on two lines facing right, holding a staff over its right shoulder and raising its left paw, perhaps in a gesture towards the lion that extends a forepaw towards the monkey’s knees; a vulture seems to be about to alight on the lion’s back. Line borders top and bottom.
- Production date
- 2000BC-1500BC
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 5 millimetres (perforation)
-
Diameter: 12 millimetres
-
Height: 20 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- There are circular marks around the upper end of the seal which suggests the one-time presence of a (gold?) setting, the removal of which resulted in the chipping of the edges.
- Location
- Not on display
- Condition
- Fair; edges and ends badly chipped. There are abrasion marks to the left of the hero, but these seem to be accidental scratches and there is no evidence that anything was erased.
- Acquisition date
- 1945
- Acquisition notes
- Ex Southesk Collection; obtained from William Talbot Ready in 1897.
- Department
- Middle East
- BM/Big number
- 129583
- Registration number
- 1945,1013.127
- Additional IDs
-
Miscellaneous number: QS8: 70 (Southesk Collection Number)
