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.

Worshiper led by minor goddess toward enthroned goddess

between 2000 B.C. and 1800 B.C.
black serpentine ;
Morgan Seal 310
Description
1 cylinder seal : black serpentine ; 22.5 x 11.5 mm
Provenance
Acquired by Pierpont Morgan sometime between 1885 and 1908.
Notes
"Worship of deities, characterized as such by their horned miters, is portrayed in 308-312... Among small objects in the field, the combination of vessel and ball staff appears most frequently. These two objects are usually placed in a juxtaposition suggesting some relation between them (299, 302, 304, 308-310). Their association in this manner persists up to the end of the First Dynasty of Babylon. In contrast to the treatment of the ball staff in its few earlier representations (84, 190), the ball appears from now on at the side rather than in the center of the staff." Porada, CANES, p. 37-39
Summary
Worshiper led by minor goddess toward enthroned goddess, crescent and vessel before her -- Terminal: crescent above two birds, ball staff and scorpion below them.
Classification
Place
Southern Mesopotamia.
Department