between 1920 B.C. and 1750 B.C.
hematite ;
Morgan Seal 848
Description
1 cylinder seal : hematite ; 28.5 x 15 mm
Provenance
Acquired by Pierpont Morgan sometime between 1885 and 1908.
Notes
"The first group [of Cappadocian seals] is called Old Assyrian, because seals showing a similar deep, angular engraving have been found at Ashur (Berlin 505, 508) ... Many seals in this group depict the presentation of a worshiper by an interceding goddess to an enthroned figure holding a cup (844-851). This theme, which derives from the glyptic of the Third Dynasty of Ur, was perpetuated in Isin-Larsa and early Old Babylonian cylinders. However, several features differentiate the Old Assyrian renderings from these contemporaneous south-Mesopotamian representations. Such features are the statue of a bull with a protuberance on its rump (847, 848, 851), ... the sun disk enclosing a cross instead of a star, and the small v-shaped designs often placed in the sky."--Porada, CANES, p. 107-108
Summary
Worshiper and suppliant goddess before enthroned god or king holding cup -- In sky, v-shapd sign, cross disk in crescent -- At left, secondary motif: snake, two manikins, one above other; statue of bull with rump protuberance and and bird upon it, on hatched bar above crouching lion.
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