Nude male dancer before lion scimitar, and two worshipers facing enthroned deified king or god holding cup

between 2000 B.C. and 1800 B.C.
hematite
15.5 x 8.5 mm
Morgan Seal 298
Provenance: 
Acquired by Pierpont Morgan sometime between 1885 and 1908.
Notes: 

"Seals 296-305 depict worship of a figure rendered like the deified kings of the Third Dynasty of Ur, with the difference that the figure is now often seated on a temple throne, earlier reserved for gods of the pantheon. Consequently the figure may here represent not a deified king but a major deity ... standards and small, probably apotropaic objects were increasingly used by the seal cutters of this time. Seal 296, for example, shows a lion-club standard; 297 and 298, a standard in the form of a lion scimitar ... A bowlegged dwarf, a common feature in the glyptic of the First Dynasty of Babylon, appears as a full-sized figure in 298 ..."--Porada, CANES, p. 37-38

Summary: 

"Bowlegged dwarf before lion scimitar -- Two worshipers facing enthroned deified king or god holding cup, crescent before him."--Porada, CANES, p.38

Place: 
Southern Mesopotamia.
Period: 
Classification: 
Department: