between 700 B.C. and 500 B.C.
milky chalcedony ;
Morgan Seal 714
Description
1 cylinder seal : milky chalcedony ; 25 x 7 (12) mm
Provenance
Acquired by Pierpont Morgan sometime between 1885 and 1908.
Notes
Seal 714, which shows far more modeling than any of the other seals in this group [704-723], presents the unusual action of a worshiper grasping the pole of a gate such as appears in Louvre A. 678. The upper part of the gate bears the motif of a hero between two ibexes. This serves to date the seal late in the eighth or in the seventh century, since the motif of a hero between symmetrical animals prevailed from the time of Sargon II onward... A modern duplication of this seal, in the Archaeological Museum, Florence, has been published by L.J. Delaporte (Arethusa, IV [1927], pl. viii, no. 26)."--Porada, CANES, p. 86-87
Summary
Gate(?) indicated by two poles--each topped with small globe over large drilling--with joining crossbar, below latter trident and crook, above it two kneeling ibexes held by hero on one knee; pole at right grasped by worshiper.
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