King with mace(?) attacking ibex

between 700 and 550 B.C.
white chalcedony
21 x 9 mm
Morgan Seal 816
Provenance: 
Acquired by Pierpont Morgan sometime between 1885 and 1908.
Notes: 

"Seals 815 and 816, though they show marked affinities with Achaemenian cylinders, nevertheless differ from the latter in such a manner as to suggest that they were made before the Achaemenian style was fully developed. In seal 815 the opponent of the typically Achaemenian horned lion-griffin is a bareheaded hero wearing a grament that leaves one kneed bare and curves back like the mantle of the hero in the Neo-Assyrian cylinder 755. In typical Achaemenian seal stones, however, the opponent of monsters is invariably a king, characterized as such by his crown and by his wide, flowing garments draped in folds. In 816, the king is depicted as usual with a crown, but wearing a fringd mantle reminiscent of Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian representations."--Porada, CANES, p. 102

Summary: 

King with mace(?) attacking ibex -- Behind king, part of second ibex (possibly of later cutting) -- Terminal: inscription in Aramaic.

Classification: 
Department: