Fish men with flowing vases

between 1300 B.C. and 1155 B.C.
lapis lazuli
41 x 16 mm
Morgan Seal 586
Provenance: 
Acquired by Pierpont Morgan sometime between 1885 and 1908.
Notes: 

"The first four seals of the present group (586-589) are engraved in the style that prevailed in Assyria in the fourteenth century B.C. They show the same delicate modeling of the figures as the seals of that style, and a somewhat similar treatment of the space. It seems likely, therefore, that they date from the same time... Seals 586 and 587 each bear a lengthy inscription of the type mentioned above as characteristic of earlier Kassite seals. Moreover, 586 presents in its fish-men with flowing vases a theme that appears to be specifically Kassite, since it occurs in two Kassite seal designs and is not found on contemporaneous Middle Assyrian cylinders." Porada, CANES, p. 66

Summary: 

In each upper corner: reversed vase spouting streams along which two fishes swim toward each other above, two others toward center below -- Center: figure on one knee, holding vase that emits two streams converging in another vase below -- In each lower corner: fish-man holding flowing vase -- Terminal: inscription.

Place: 
Southern Mesopotamia.
Period: 
Classification: 
Department: