Nude female figure with scarf(?) behind worshiper and deity

between 2000 B.C. and 1750 B.C.
hematite
20 x 9.5 mm
Morgan Seal 914
Provenance: 
Acquired by Pierpont Morgan sometime between 1885 and 1908.
Notes: 

"Seal 914 varies from the cylinders just described in that it presents a deity characterized by the square horned miter distinctive of Syrian goddesses (958-960 below). If the figure seated opposite this deity is a worshiper, the scene may be an abbreviated rendering of the theme of a worshiper communing with a god by drinking from a common vessel. The motif in 914 merely pictures vessels between the two figures, but in Berlin 526, on which Moortgat bases this interpretation, the figures are shown actually drinking through tubes. Thus interpreted, the scene of 914 would be a Syrian variation of the ancient Mesopotamian subject of two banqueting figures. This seal is assigned to the first Syrian group by reason of its rather linear engraving, especially in the figure of the nude female, which in regard to tis outlines comes closer to a Cappadocian rendering of this subject (Weber 721) than to the rounded forms of the second Syrian group (937-946)."--Porada, CANES, p. 119

Summary: 

"Nude female with scarf(?), behind worshiper(?) and deity seated opposite each other with vase between them, eagle above it."--Porada, CANES, p.120

Classification: 
Department: