Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Worshiper holding pail and sticks before goddess with scimitar

between 701 B.C. and 601 B.C.
olive-buff chert ;
Morgan Seal 779
Description
1 cylinder seal : olive-buff chert ; 20 x 10 mm
Provenance
Acquired by Pierpont Morgan sometime between 1885 and 1908.
Notes
"Seal 779, which is almost certainly Babylonian, differs in subject from... [770-777]. It presents a worshiper before a goddess. The worshiper wears the Babylonian robe with folds at the back, and the goddess wears the Kassite feather crown of the Neo-Babylonian deities. This goddess is probably Ishtar, as may be inferred from the fact that she is standing on his emblematic lion. The cactus-like plant in 779, which occurs also in 780, may be a typical feature of Neo-Babylonian seals." . Porada, CANES, p. 94
Summary
Worshiper holding pail and raising two sticks(?) before goddess with scimitar standing on lion and holding latter by looped rein -- Between figures, crescent over cactus-like plant -- Star in sky.
Classification
Place
Southern Mesopotamia.
Department