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.

Facing ibexes rampant over tree

between 1300 B.C. and 1155 B.C.
black-and-red jasper ;
Morgan Seal 587
Description
1 cylinder seal : black-and-red jasper ; 25.5 x 11.5 mm
Provenance
Acquired by Pierpont Morgan sometime between 1885 and 1908.
Notes
"The first four seals of the present group (586-589) are engraved in the style that prevailed in Assyria in the fourteenth century B.C. They show the same delicate modeling of the figures as the seals of that style, and a somewhat similar treatment of the space. It seems likely, therefore, that they date from the same time... Seals 586 and 587 each bear a lengthy inscription of the type mentioned above as characteristic of earlier Kassite seals. Moreover, 586 presents in its fish-men with flowing vases a theme that appears to be specifically Kassite, since it occurs in two Kassite seal designs and is not found on contemporaneous Middle Assyrian cylinders. Seal 587 has an Assyrian motif--a tree between two animals--but above this motif appears a row of rhombs that are typically Kassite." Porada, CANES, p. 66
Summary
Two facing ibexes rampant, over tree -- Three rhombs above -- Terminal: inscription.
Classification
Place
Southern Mesopotamia.
Department