between 3100 B.C. and 2900 B.C.
white marble
Height (total) 30, 37 x 33 mm
Morgan Seal 26
Provenance:
Acquired by Pierpont Morgan sometime between 1885 and 1908.
Notes:
"...the execution of the design, especially the forming of animal bodies by means of straight lines rather than drillings, foreshadows the style of the First Early Dynastic period ... The impractical shape of this stone tends to confirm Frankfort's suggestion that seals with this subject ... served a dedicatory purpose. He states that such seals are especially common in the excavated temples of the period, while no seal impressions with this subject are known (Cylinder seals, p. 33)". Porada, CANES, p. 6
Summary:
Shrine before two horned animals.
Period:
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