Worshiper before spade and lamp

between 600 and 400 B.C.
translucent chalcedony
31.5 x 24 x 13 mm
Morgan Seal 795
Provenance: 
Acquired by Pierpont Morgan sometime between 1885 and 1908.
Notes: 

"...795-811 have been classed as Neo-Babylonian, because many seal impressions of corresponding style and subject have been found on Neo-Babylonian tablets of the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. In these impressions a relatively uniform style perists, though the dates of most of the tablets reach well into Persian times (for example, Philadelphia 965-969), and Persian seal impressions also appear on them... A large number of Neo-Babylonian stamps exectued with careful modeling present a subject found also in the ritual scenes of modeled-style cylinders of the sixth and fifth centuries B.C., namely, a worshiper standing before symbols (795a, 796-798)... A lamp, symbol of the god of fire, Nusku, is also frequently found; it is usually placed not on an altar but on a distinctive stand, generally ending in bull feet (795, 796, 798)."--Porada, CANES, p. 96-98
Pyramidal seal with rounded top and slightly convex octagonal base.

Summary: 

Base: Worshiper before spade on altar and lamp on stand on second, lower altar -- Crescent in sky -- Side: Dog sitting on platform -- Side: inscription.

Place: 
Babylonia.
Classification: 
Department: