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.

Kneeling ibexes grasped by hero and gate

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.
Classification
Department