cylinder seal

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Object Type
Museum number: 129551
Description: Red cornelian cylinder seal with a pink band and black inclusions; antithetical scene consisting of a 'sacred' rosette-tree flanked by winged genies, with a second rosette-tree behind them. The tree has columnar trunk decorated with paired chevrons, rising from a palmette, on a hill indicated by drill-holes, and is topped with a palmette from which radiate cross-hatched, pointed buds on stems linked by curved lines. The genies are bearded and have shoulder-length hair secured by a twisted headband knotted at the back. They wear a short-sleeved garment decorated with large dot-filled hexagons, a fringed shawl draped over the left shoulder and around the hips, and a fringed open skirt decorated with small dot-filled hexagons, with knotted fringes on the underside, over a kilt with a border of dot-filled squares and a knotted fringe. They are barefoot and their toes are indicated beneath the fringed skirt. In the crook of the arm nearest the viewer they carry a small goat (that on the right has notched horns) and in the other hand they hold a branch with three pomegranates. They wear armlets on their upper arms. All four wings are shown and the upper wings are shorter than the lower. Beneath the figures is a smaller version of the small tree, but with the hill indicated by cross-hatching. Damage forming an inverted "V"-shape across the tree and down to the feet of the genies; chipped edges. Slightly convex ends.
Cultures/periods
Production date: 750BC-650BC
Production place: Made in: Asia
Materials
Technique
Dimensions: Diameter: 1.50 centimetres; Height: 3.30 centimetres
Curator's comments: According to catalogue this seal this seal is of exceptional quality and probably originated in a workshop of a Sargonid date "If this is correct, then the type of genies was evidently long-lived since it occurs in closely comparable form on the reliefs decorating the doorway to the Throne Room of the North-West Palace at Nimrud, dating from the reign of Ashurnasirpal II in the ninth century, and on the fascade of Sargon's palace at Khorsabad. The earlier relief is closer in having winged genies and in both the horns of the goat are shown; the later relief is closer in showing the knot of the hairband and the plant hanging realistically from a lowered hand instead of rising stiffly from a raised hand. The last feature Edith Porada takes to be a criterion for Sargonid date (pers.comm). Our seal differs from both in that the genies do not wear earrings or bracelets and the animals are reclining, so that their legs are not visible".
Bibliographic references: Collon 2001a / Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum: Cylinder Seals V: Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Periods (180); Carnegie H 1908 / Catalogue of the Collection of Antique Gems formed by James Ninth Earl of Southesk K.T (pp.95-96, pl.VII, Qy 14:66); Frankfort H 1939 / Cylinder Seals: a documentary essay on the art and religion of the ancient Near East (pl.XXXVj); Collon 1987a / First Impressions: Cylinder Seals in the Ancient Near East (347); Wittmann B 1992 / Babylonische Rollsiegel des 11.-7 Jahrhundrets v. Chr (pl.46h); Barnett & Foreman 1959 / Assyrian Palace Reliefs and their Influence on the Sculptures of Babylonia and Persia (pls.1-2) (cf:)
Location: Not on display
Condition: Fair / poor; surface damaged; chipped edges.
Subjects: mammal; jewellery; mythical figure/creature; flower; tree/bush
Acquisition name
Funder name
Previous owner
Acquisition date: 1945
Acquisition notes: Acquired by Southesk from Willam Talbot Ready in 1897.
Department: Middle East
BM/Big number: 129551
Registration number: 1945,1013.95
Additional IDs: Miscellaneous number: Qy 14:66 (Southesk Collection Number)

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