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.

God with a crook stepping on kneeling gazelle

between 1894 B.C. and 1595 B.C.
hematite ;
Morgan Seal 521
Description
1 cylinder seal : hematite ; 25 x 11 mm
Provenance
Acquired by Pierpont Morgan sometime between 1885 and 1908.
Notes
"The figure of a god holding a crook, and often shown stepping upon a kneeling gazelle, has been identified by Frankfort as that of the god Amurru. The name of this god occurs frequently in the inscriptions of Old Babylonian seals; occasionally it is found on seals depicting the god with a crook (518, 520, 523). While the inscription of a seal rarely serves to identify the god depicted on it, the group here described [i.e. Seals 517-524] presents a sufficient number of instances in which figure and inscription appear together to suggest such an identification. In 517, 518, 523 the god wears the usual horned miter of deity... in 520, 522, 524 it resembles a top hat. So far as is known, the latter headdress appears on no other Old Babylonian figure." Porada, CANES, p. 59
Summary
Suppliant goddess(?) and worshiper before god with crook who places foot on kneeling gazelle -- Bird before god.
Classification
Place
Southern Mesopotamia.
Department