Contest frieze with feather-crowned hero and bull; nude bearded heros and human-headed bulls

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between 2350 B.C. and 2250 B.C.
carnelian
23.5 x 13 mm
Acquired by Pierpont Morgan sometime between 1885 and 1908.
Morgan Seal 149
Notes: 

"In the seals deriving from the beginning of the Akkad period, the Early Dynastic frieze of closely interwoven figures gradually breaks up into two or three groups of contestants. Frequently a symetrical effect is obtained by a duplication of the human-headed bull (147-52, 154). These scenes... show the lack of cohesion in composition that is characteristic of Early Akkad seals. Equally characteristic is the more developed modeling of the figures. Lastly, a number of details serve to distinguish this class of seals: the attitudes of the heroes and of the bull-men, who often show a characteristic flexion of the elbow in reaching toward the top of the victim's head; the lion's head frequently seen from above, as in the representations of the Third Early Dynastic period; the attire of the heroes, most often plain or fringed kilts, with flat caps or feather crowns appearing in several instances."--Porada, CANES, p. 21

Summary: 

Feather-crowned hero grasping bull -- Two nude bearded heros each holding one of two human-headed bulls -- Small man between the human-headed bulls.

Place: 
Southern Mesopotamia.
Period: 
Classification: 
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