Worshiper with clasped hands before sun god with saw(?) and placing foot on mountain

between 2112 and 2004 B.C.
hematite
18 x 7 mm
Morgan Seal 289
Provenance: 
Acquired by Pierpont Morgan sometime between 1885 and 1908.
Notes: 

"The type of scene most frequently found on cylinders of the Third Dynasty of Ur shows a minor goddess leading a worshiper by the hand toward an enthroned deity (277-287), who is more often female than male. Usually the throne resembles a shrine. This scheme is derived from such Akkad seals as 190, with the difference that now the enthroned deities are rarely identified by the objects they hold or by other distinctive features of their appearance. A crescent is usually placed in the sky before the enthroned deity; often a bird or some other animal appears near the knees of the figure ... in 288 and 289 a worshiper approaches the deity without an intermediary .. Representations of gods in ascending posture are rare in the designs of this period. In 289 the god in this posture is holding a curved weapon; this, if meant to be a saw, would indicate that the sun god is here depicted."--Porada, CANES, p. 35

Summary: 

Worshiper with clasped hands before sun god holding saw(?) and placing foot on mountain -- Seated deity (later carved in place of erased inscription.

Place: 
Southern Mesopotamia.
Period: 
Classification: 
Department: