Contest frieze with hero in flat cap and fringed kilt and human-headed bull; hero in flat cap and fringed kilt and bull

between 2340 B.C. and 2150 B.C.
greenish-black and olive-buff serpentine
37.5 x 25 (24) mm
Acquired by Pierpont Morgan sometime between 1885 and 1908.
Morgan Seal 157
Notes: 

"In the seals deriving from the beginning of the Akkad period, the Early Dynastic frieze of closely interwoven figures gradually breaks up into two or three groups of contestants. Frequently a symetrical effect is obtained by a duplication of the human-headed bull (147-52, 154). These scenes... show the lack of cohesion in composition that is characteristic of Early Akkad seals. Equally characteristic is the more developed modeling of the figures. Lastly, a number of details serve to distinguish this class of seals: the attitudes of the heroes and of the bull-men, who often show a characteristic flexion of the elbow in reaching toward the top of the victim's head; the lion's head frequently seen from above, as in the representations of the Third Early Dynastic period; the attire of the heroes, most often plain or fringed kilts, with flat caps or feather crowns appearing in several instances."--Porada, CANES, p. 21

Summary: 

Human-headed bull held by hero in flat cap and fringed kilt -- Hero in flat cap and fringed kilt clasping bull -- Between contestant pairs, crescent above star spade -- Terminal: Mace.

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