between 2500 B.C. and 2350 B.C.
shell
41 x 26 mm
Morgan Seal 127
Provenance:
Acquired by Pierpont Morgan sometime between 1885 and 1908.
Notes:
Cylinder damaged.
"The principal mythological subject in the Second and Third Early Dynastic periods is a god steering a boat that moves of its own accord (126-129)... Scenes such as those in the lower register of 127... often appear below the god in the boat; Frankfort interprets them as depicting the building of a temple tower." Porada, CANES, p. 18-19
Summary:
Above: two figures, second on one knee; animal(?); boat propelled by human prow and by deity seated in its waist; animal with vessel(?) above it, figure with arm extended over these -- Below: Scene of building of temple (too badly preserved for description).
Place:
Southern Mesopotamia.
Period:
Catalog link:
Classification:
Department: