cylinder seal;
electrotype(?)
- Museum number
- 132504
- Description
-
Metal (electrotype?) copy of a cylinder seal; formed from piece of copper with seam joined with soft (lead/tin) solder and with a perforated brass (copper and zinc) disc soldered to each end; surface of copper and one of the brass covered with a worn layer of silver, possibly also attached by soft solder and the inside of the seal is coated with very fresh looking solder; horseman galloping to right and monster. The horseman wears a floppy hood and neck-flap tied under the chin; he is dressed in a knee-length tunic or jacket, belted with long ties, and trousers; in his right hand he raises a spear with a round butt which he aims at a monster. The horse has a saddle-rug decorated with a double border and fringe and its tail is knotted; it leaps forward with front legs straight out. The monster is an opposing, rampant and snarling, winged, horned leo-gryph that has it fore-paws raised; it has a long horn angled backwards and up, the wing sweeps back to a curled, splayed tip, with the upper ridge a continious line from the forelegs and shoulder and the feathers singled out along the lower edge, a trifurcated tail and hind talons; a feather-like marking emerges from under the wing and the haunch muscles are marked by three curving lines ending in circles. Drill-holes emphasize the row of forehead curls and facial features of the hunter, the eye of the horse, and the head, horn and forepaws, tail tips and hind leg joints of the lion; inscription.
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 1.10 centimetres
-
Height: 2.30 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- According to catalogue "this hollow metal seal was examined by Andrew Oddy and Nigel Meeks (Department of Scientific Research) using scanning electron microscopy and EDX analysis... in view of the uncorroded state of the metal components, it seems likely that this seal is modern". According to same source "the name Artimas (see notes field of inscription tab) is mentioned in Xenophon in a list of Persian satraps, but Bivar suggests that this might be the seal of another Artimas, installed as junior deputy-governor by the Satrap of Lydia, Cyrus the Younger, when he set out on his march from Sardis to Babylonia in 401-400 BC. If this is a viable suggestion, then this cylinder, which shows little of later, more natural, Mixed II style, but something of the formalised scenes of the Mixed I style, would be somewhat earlier than its inscribed name suggests, the name could, of course have been cut later. This again emphasizes either the long overlap of fashions or the length of time a seal could be in use". According to the same source the seal, according to Lenormnat and CIS was in the Woodehouse Collection in about 1862. Presumably this was the original although there is no mention of its material and the original seal is now in the Bollmann Collection (no.393) in Switzerland. The same source also states "a similar horse and rider with forelegs straight out appears on a gold disc bracteate from the Oxus treasure, dated to the fifth century BC..... The supernatural creature as the quarry in a mounted hunting scene is rather rare; natural animals are the norm, in keeping perhaps with the more secular nature of hunting. The type of stylised engraving, with light modelling, emphasized lines and drill-holes, places this seal in the Mixed I, (Archaic/Court) style as illustrated by Boardman.
- Bibliographic references
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Merrillees 2005 / Catalogue of the Western Asiatic seals in the British Museum: Pre-Achaemenid and Achaemenid periods (13)
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CIS II/I / Inscriptiones Aramaicas continens (no.99, p.95, pl.VI) (reference to original seal)
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Levy M A 1869 / Siegel und Gemmen (p.53, pl.1, no.4)
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Ward W H 1910 / The Seal Cylinders of Western Asia (1148)
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Galling K 1941 / Beschriftete Bildsiegel des ersten Jahrhundreds v.Chr.vornehmilch aus Syrien und Palestina (p.197, no.165, pl.11)
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Boardman J 1970 / Greek Gems and Finger Rings: Early Bronze Age to Late Classical (pp.306-9 and 351, pl.843)
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Dalton 1964a / The treasure of the Oxus with other examples of early oriental metal-work (p.14, no.36, p.13, no.24, pl.X) (cf: rider and horse)
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Buchanan B 1966 / Catalogue of the Ancient Near Eastern Seals in the Ashmolean Museum. Cylinder Seals (688) (cf: horse and rider)
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1959
- Department
- Middle East
- BM/Big number
- 132504
- Registration number
- 1959,0214.2
