Contest frieze

between 1894 B.C. and 1595 B.C.
brown jasper
18 x 10 mm
Morgan Seal 368
Provenance: 
Acquired by Pierpont Morgan sometime between 1885 and 1908.
Notes: 

"... while the arrangement of the Old Babylonian contests is similar to that used in the earlier period, the introduction of new figures, especially in 359-369, indicates that such ontests had acquire new significance. The new figures include a goat seated upright on a knoll and attacked by a lion or lion-griffin or both, and a man on one knee at the mercy of similar assailants... The weather god on a bull between the pairs of contestants in 368 may likewise have some connection with the main theme, because the lion-griffin, before its appearance in the contest groups and its association with Nergal, accompanied the weather god, as in the Akkad seal 220." Porada, CANES, p. 44

Summary: 

Seated goat attacked by lion; man on one knee attacked by lion- griffin -- Between pairs, small weather god holding lightning fork and standing on kneeling bull.

Place: 
Southern Mesopotamia.
Classification: 
Department: