Worshiper before stylus on altar and lamp on stand

between 600 and 400 B.C.
yellowish chalcedony
26 x 12.5 x 20.5 mm
Morgan Seal 798
Provenance: 
Acquired by Pierpont Morgan sometime between 1885 and 1908.
Notes: 

"...795-811 have been classed as Neo-Babylonian, because many seal impressions of corresponding style and subject have been found on Neo-Babylonian tablets of the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. In these impressions a relatively uniform style perists, though the dates of most of the tablets reach well into Persian times (for example, Philadelphia 965-969), and Persian seal impressions also appear on them... A large number of Neo-Babylonian stamps executed with careful modeling present a subject found also in the ritual scenes of modeled-style cylinders of the sixth and fifth centuries B.C., namely, a worshiper standing before symbols (795a, 796-798)... A lamp, symbol of the god of fire, Nusku, is also frequently found; it is usually placed not on an altar but on a distinctive stand, generally ending in bull feet (795, 796, 798)."--Porada, CANES, p. 96-98
Pyramidal seal with rounded top and slightly convex octagonal base.

Summary: 

Worshiper before stylus on altar and lamp on stand; behind worshiper, cross-shaped object topped by globe -- Crescent in sky.

Classification: 
Department: