cylinder seal
- Museum number
- 89135
- Description
-
Dark orange-pink cornelian cylinder seal in the modelled style; antithetical scene consisting, in the centre, of a god in a winged disc above a tree, flanked by two kings and two griffin-demons. The winged disc has curled appendages above each wing, and streamers hanging below it ending in omega-shaped symbols; it encircles the upper part of a bearded god, who wears a tall, flat-topped, horned head-dress, faces left, raises his right hand and probably holds the disc with the other. The tree is highly stylised; it stands on triangular shaped hill decorated with a triple scale pattern, with horizontal lines at the apex from which emerge two curved shoots and a columnar, fluted trunk with short, lateral branches ending in centre-dot circles, with the same horizontal lines and curved shoots at the top a centre-dot circle; undulating branches, ending in pomegranates or palmettes, extend from each of the curved shoots and centre-dot circles. On either side of the tree stands a bearded king or, more likely the same king shown twice -once from the left and once from the right; he wears a fez or turban with a central point, a short sleeved tunic and a fringed, belted shawl wrapped around his body and draped over his left shoulder, with a vertical edge on his left side; he points with his raised right hand and grasps one of the winged disc's streamers in the other. Behind each figure of the king stands a bird-headed genie (griffin-demon), one seen from the left and the other from the right; each has a crest and the beak of a bird of prey, four wings, two of which are shown, with the nearer wing hanging down and they wear a short-sleeved, fringed tunic and a fringed open skirt with vertical, undulating striations and with the fringed hem visible between the ankles. In its raised right hand each genie holds a cone with which it touches the king's hair, and in its left it holds a bucket. A deep line border round the top of the seal is broken by the head of the god; immediately below it, on either side of the winged disc, is a horizontal inscription written in positive on the seal and therefore reversed on the impression. In exceptionally fine condition with only one very small chip at the top.
- Production date
- 850BC-825BC
- Dimensions
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Diameter: 1.80 centimetres
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Height: 4.80 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- According to Collon catalogue "on the basis of the inscription this seal can be dated to the third quarter of the ninth century since the owner's grandfather was ruler of Shandikanni in 883 BC. We therefore have here the earliest dated Neo-Assyrian seal in a hard material..... It is more than likely that the craftsman who made the seal knew the reliefs in the palace of Ashurnasirpal at Nimrud. It is also likely that this seal and two other related seals are products of a royal workshop, possibly situated at Nimrud. (Dominique Parayre suggests 'atelier cultuel' [pers. comm]. It (and the others) are of high quality, and the iconography, though not always conforming to the same rules as the reliefs, is certainly not provincial."
- Bibliographic references
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Collon 2001a / Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum: Cylinder Seals V: Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Periods (151)
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Layard A H 1853b / A second series of the monuments of Nineveh; including bas-reliefs from the palace of Sennacherib and bronzes from the ruins of Nimroud, from drawings made on the spot, during a second expedition to Assyria (p.276) (cf:)
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Curtis & Grayson 1982 / Some inscribed objects from Sherif Khan in the British Museum (p.87, n.5)
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Perrot G & Chipiez C 1884a / Histoire de l'art dans l'antiquite, II Chaldee et Assyria (p.685)
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Pinches T G 1885 / The Babylonian and Assyrian cylinder-seals of the British Museum (pl.II.3)
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Bezold 1909 / Ninive und Babylon (Abb.69)
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Ward W H 1910 / The Seal Cylinders of Western Asia (695)
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Jastrow M 1912 / Bildermappe zur Religion babyloniens und assyriens (215)
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Unger E 1927 / Assyrische und Babylonische Kunst (p.28)
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Herzfeld E 1938 / Die Kunst des zweiten Jarhtausends in Voderasien (Il. Teil) (p.33, no.98, Abb.195)
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Frankfort H 1939 / Cylinder Seals: a documentary essay on the art and religion of the ancient Near East (p.xxxiv)
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Unger E 1953 / Two seals of the ninth century B.C from Shadikanni on the Habur (130ff)
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Barnett & Wiseman 1960a / Fifty masterpieces of Ancient Near Eastern Art (p.89, no.43)
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Strommenger E & Hirmer M 1962a / Funf Jahrtausende Mesopotamien (p.104, pl.190)
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Russell H 1985 / The historical geography of the Euphrates and Habur according to the Middle- and Neo-Assyrian sources (p.65)
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Collon 1987a / First Impressions: Cylinder Seals in the Ancient Near East (341)
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Parpola, SAA 9 / Assyrian Propheries (p.xxxv, fig.13) (detail)
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Grayson, RIMA 2 / Assyrian Rulers of the Early First Millennium BC, I (1114-859 BC) (RIM.A.0.101.2005)
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
Room of Writing (in 1960)
- Condition
- Very good; one very small chip at the top.
- Acquisition date
- 1852
- Department
- Middle East
- BM/Big number
- 89135
- Registration number
- 1983,0101.210