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.

Griffin menacing mouflon

ca. 800 B.C.
black serpentine ;
Morgan Seal 628
Description
1 cylinder seal : black serpentine ; 31 x 13.5 (14) mm
Provenance
Acquired by Pierpont Morgan sometime between 1885 and 1908.
Notes
"A number of linear-style cylinders depict monsters or lions attacking horned animals (627-631); others show monsters and animals calmly walking in a row (632), or only monsters walking (633, 634). These seals constitute a relatively uniform group and can be dated on the basis of Berlin 647, which belongs to about 800 B.C., according to Moortgat, and shows the same type of scene in comparable execution."--Porada, CANES, p. 75
Cylinder has slightly convex sides.
Summary
Griffin menacing mouflon(?) as it plunges forward -- In sky, crescent, star, seven globes.
Classification
Place
Southern Mesopotamia.
Department