Banquet scene with seated figures drinking from tubes

Download image: 
between 2500 B.C. and 2350 B.C.
onyx marble
38.5 x 24 mm
Morgan Seal 112
Provenance: 
Acquired by Pierpont Morgan sometime between 1885 and 1908.
Notes: 

"Seals 105 and 106... and perhaps also 107 and 112, belong to the Second Early Dynastic period... In the lower register of 112, the monster whose tail ends in a scorpion recalls the composite monsters of the Second Early Dynastic period; a dating in this period is also indicated by the linear execution of the design." Porada, CANES, p. 16

Summary: 

Above: Two seated figures drinking from tubes in vessel; third seated figure -- Below: Eagle, lion-headed(?), between two small kneeling animals; large walking animal with tail ending in scorpion. No common axis of scenes of upper and lower register.

Place: 
Southern Mesopotamia.
Classification: 
Department: