Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Mythological scene with boat propelled by human prow and by deity seated in its waist

between 2500 B.C. and 2350 B.C.
shell ;
Morgan Seal 127
Description
1 cylinder seal : shell ; 41 x 26 mm
Provenance
Acquired by Pierpont Morgan sometime between 1885 and 1908.
Notes
Cylinder damaged.
"The principal mythological subject in the Second and Third Early Dynastic periods is a god steering a boat that moves of its own accord (126-129)... Scenes such as those in the lower register of 127... often appear below the god in the boat; Frankfort interprets them as depicting the building of a temple tower." Porada, CANES, p. 18-19
Summary
Above: two figures, second on one knee; animal(?); boat propelled by human prow and by deity seated in its waist; animal with vessel(?) above it, figure with arm extended over these -- Below: Scene of building of temple (too badly preserved for description).
Classification
Place
Southern Mesopotamia.
Department