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cylinder seal
Object Type
cylinder seal
Museum number
89155
Description
Cylinder seal; pale blue chalcedony; presentation scene?; a bearded worshipper with one hand raised faces left towards a god and a goddess who raise their right hands and hold, respectively, a thunderbolt and a spring of vegetation in their left hands. All three figures have shoulder-length hair and wear fringed, tiered robes that hang open over fringed kilts. The worshipper has his vertically-striated hair bound by a fillet; the deities wear tall. cylindrical, feather-topped, horned head-dresses with a thick tassel or necklace counterweight hanging down the back. The god has crossed quivers and bows on his back and a sword at his waist; a bull lies on the ground beyond him and its foreparts are visible in front of him. The bull and the thunderbolt serve to indentify the god as Adad; the goddess may be his consort. Although the seal design appears to have been carved at one time, the god is better finished than the other two figures; especially the detailed execution of his leg and his feet. One of the worshipper's feet was cut at the wrong level and had to be recut; there is also an unexplained line behind his shoulder. At the end of the scene is a two-line inscription. There is a crescentic fault in the stone. Slightly convex ends.
Cultures/periods
Late Babylonian
(?)
Neo-Assyrian
(?)
Production date
10thC BC-6thC BC
Findspot
Excavated/Findspot:
Ana
Materials
chalcedony
Dimensions
Diameter:
1.80 centimetres
Height:
3.80 centimetres
$Inscriptions
Curator's comments
Pickworth assigns a 10th-9th century BC date. According to Collon catalogue "the combined evidence of the style of the figures, the feathered polos worn by the deities, the fact that Adad's attribute animal is a bull rather than the lion-dragon favoured in Assyria, the presence of a North Arabian inscription, and the choice of blue chalcedony indicate a Babylonian influence and a probably seventh-century date for this seal".
Bibliographic references
Pickworth D 1998a / Stamp Seals of the Ancient Yemen
(p. 210 = Pickworth 25)
Collon 2001a / Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum: Cylinder Seals V: Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Periods
(282, pls.XXIII and XLIII)
Layard A H 1853b / A second series of the monuments of Nineveh; including bas-reliefs from the palace of Sennacherib and bronzes from the ruins of Nimroud, from drawings made on the spot, during a second expedition to Assyria
(p.606)
Rawlinson H C 1855 / Notes on the early history of Babylonia
(p.233)
Birch S & Franks A W 1863a / Inscriptions in the Himyaritic character, now deposited in the British Museum, chiefly discovered in Southern Arabia
(39)
Osiander E 1865 / Zur himjarischen Alterthumskunde
(no.35b)
Rawlinson H C 1865 / Bilingual readings: cuneiform and Phoenician
(p.234, VI)
Halévy J 1874 / Études sabéennes
(39)
Pinches T G 1885 / The Babylonian and Assyrian cylinder-seals of the British Museum
(pl.3:2)
Muller D H, 1889 / Epigraphischer Denkmaler aus Arabien
(p.19)
Ward W H 1910 / The Seal Cylinders of Western Asia
(1207)
RES / Repertoire d'epigraphie semitique
(5, no.2696)
Winnett F V 1937 / A study of Lihyanite and Thamudic inscriptions
(p.49)
Caskel W 1950 / Das altarabische Konigsreich Lihijan
(pp.8,24, n.10)
Albright 1952 / The Chaldaean inscriptions in Proto-Arabic script
(pp.42-3)
((Chaldaean))
Caskel W 1954 / Lihyan and Lihyanisch
(p.21, n.15)
Pirenne J 1955a / La Grece et Saba
(pp.107,130, pl.IIBa)
Branden 1962 / Les inscriptions dedanites
(pp.29-32, pl.V)
Jamme 1971a / Miscellanees d'ancient arabe II
(p. 38, 41, 56-7, pl.4)
Winnett F V & Reed W L 1970 / Ancient Records from North Arabia
(p.114)
Garbini G 1976a / Le iscrizioni proto-arabe
(p.167-169)
Winnett F V 1980 / A reconsideration of some inscriptions from the Tayma area
(p.138)
Collon 1987a / First Impressions: Cylinder Seals in the Ancient Near East
(379)
Kitchen 2000a / Documentation for Ancient Arabia
(p. 30, 31)
British Museum 2011a / Splendours of Mesopotamia
(p.208, cat.186)
Location
Not on display
Exhibition history
Exhibited: 2011 28 March-26 June, Abu Dhabi, Manarat Al Saadiyat, 'Splendours of Mesopotamia' 1976-1997 West Stairs: South Arabian Landing [SAL], wall-case 2 [WC2].
Condition
Fair; crescentic fault in the stone.
Subjects
mammal
deity
arms/armour
devotee/worshipper
Associated names
Representation of:
Adad
Acquisition name
Purchased from:
Capt Felix Jones
Acquisition date
1854
Department
Middle East
BM/Big number
89155
Registration number
1854,0401.1
Additional IDs
Miscellaneous number:
RES 2696
(siglum)