The subject of this scene is the cyclical nature of time. A farmer plows the ground. Before him grows the future plant ready to be reaped. His agricultural labors take place below symbols of the moon, the sun, and a group of seven stars. This constellation, known today as the Seven Sisters of the Pleiades and to the Babylonians as Mul Mul (stars), heralded the beginning of the seasons for sowing and reaping. As the seal was rolled onto a clay document, the image would repeat, evoking the perpetual cycle of the seasons.
Ancient cylinder seal with modern impression: Man Prodding Ox Pulling Plow, Astral Symbols Above, Mesopotamia, Neo-Assyrian period (ca. 1049–609 B C). Black serpentine, overall: 1 7/16 x 5/8 in. (3.7 x 1.7 cm). Morgan Seal 653. Acquired by Pierpont Morgan sometime between 1885 and 1908.