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.

Contest frieze with lion, nude bearded hero, and human-headed bulls

ca. 2370 B.C.
shell ;
Morgan Seal 79
Description
1 cylinder seal : shell ; 35 x 23 mm
Provenance
Acquired by Pierpont Morgan sometime between 1885 and 1908.
Notes
Cylinder unfinished.
"Seal 78 may be of somewhat later date [than 74-77], because its figures, especially the nude bearded hero, correspond with those on the impression of a cylinder of Lugalanda of Lagash, a prince who ruled a few decades before Sargon of Akkad. Perhaps 79 was planned in the same style; however, it was never completed." Porada, CANES, p. 13
Summary
Lion attacked by nude bearded hero -- Crossed human-headed bulls, one head not carved.
Classification
Place
Southern Mesopotamia.
Department