Sun god and worshiper with kid

between 1894 B.C. and 1595 B.C.
hematite
21.5 x 12 mm
Morgan Seal 396
Provenance: 
Acquired by Pierpont Morgan sometime between 1885 and 1908.
Notes: 

"On most of the best-executed seals of this group the god faces a worshiper carrying a kid, behind whom stands a suppliant goddess (394, 395, 397-400); the offering worshiper is omitted in 401, the suppliant goddess in 396 and 402. This basic motif is usually enlarged by the addition of other figures. However, there are very few clues regarding the relatin of these additional figures to the principal theme. In 395 a god with lion scimitar faces a priest with pail and sprinkler, The god with lion scimitar has been identified with the god of the nether world, Nergal (p. 47). Possibly, therefore, this seal pictures the sun god in juxtaposition to the god of the nether world. A similar juxtaposition of these two deities is found in Louvre A. 362, in which the god of the nether world is even more surely identified by his bull's ears. Seal 396, which shows, beside the theme of worship of the sun god, a god holding a plain scimitar and facing a priest, may represent a less explicit rendering of the same idea."--Porada, CANES, p. 49

Summary: 

Worshiper carrying kid before sun god -- Priest with pail and sprinkler before god with scimitar -- In sky, sun disk in crescent.

Place: 
Southern Mesopotamia.
Classification: 
Department: