between 700 B.C. and 500 B.C.
hematite
23 x 11 mm
Morgan Seal 715
Provenance:
Acquired by Pierpont Morgan sometime between 1885 and 1908.
Notes:
"Equally unusual is the theme of 715. While this cylinder corresponds with the late drilled-style seals of Assyria in engraving, its scene portrays the adoration of a bull on an altar, a subject never found in Neo-Assyrian representations, though common in the glyptic of the Old Assyrian merchant colonies in Anatolia. It seems possible therefore that the seal was made under the influence of Assyrian art in a region where this subject had survived."--Porada, CANES, p. 86
Summary:
Two worshipers facing bull on altar with star above it; third worshiper behind bull.
Place:
Southern Mesopotamia.
Period:
Catalog link:
Classification:
Department: