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.

Stag attacked by archer

between ca. 721 and 705 B.C.
black serpentine ;
Morgan Seal 621
Description
1 cylinder seal : black serpentine ; 29.5 x 13 mm
Provenance
Acquired by Pierpont Morgan sometime between 1885 and 1908.
Notes
"Seals 620-623 each show a standing archer aiming at his quarry. Of these seals only 623, made of burnt clay, can be approximately dated. Its rendering of the archer corresponds with that in Berlin 696, a frit seal dated by Moortgat about 800 B.C.... The modeling apparent in 621 may indicate that it was made far later, in the time of the modeled-style cylinders of the latter part of the eighth century. This may account for the deviation from the usual rendering of the motif: the plant detail is omitted, and the fish between the figures appears no more conspicuously than any other object in the field."--Porada, CANES, p. 73-74
Summary
Stag, plunging forward and attacked from rear by archer, fish between them -- Behind archer, three wedges -- In sky, seven globes, star, crescent.
Classification
Place
Southern Mesopotamia.
Department