Contest frieze with demon and lions

between 2700 B.C. and 2500 B.C.
sandstone
35.5 x 25 mm
Morgan Seal 58
Provenance: 
Acquired by Pierpont Morgan sometime between 1885 and 1908.
Notes: 

"The same desire for balanced composition determined the postures of the individual animals and humans in the frieze. The forms of the reversed animals in 53-55, 57, 58,... balance the outlines of the uprights heroes and rampant animals... Though the composite monsters of 57-59 may be mythological, it is possible that the merging of human and animal forms derived from a desire of the artist to maintian the essential symmetry and compactness of the composition as a whole... Deep parallel lines marking animal bodies and indicating fur or hair, as in 51, 54, 58, are characteristic of this period." Porada, CANES, p. 9-10

Summary: 

Center: demon, whose legs are two goats, reversing two lions, each of latter attacking reversed animal --Scorpion (?) in field.

Place: 
Southern Mesopotamia.
Classification: 
Department: