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 facing spade on stand

between 900 B.C. and 875 B.C.
black serpentine ;
Morgan Seal 650
Description
1 cylinder seal : black serpentine ; 45 x 17.5 mm
Provenance
Acquired by Pierpont Morgan sometime between 1885 and 1908.
Notes
"Seal 650 bears two motifs, a contest scene and, in addition, the theme of a worshiper under a sun disk with streams. This combination of a contest scene with a ritual theme is unusual. The large size of the seal suggests a dating in the early ninth century B.C."--Porada, CANES, p. 77
Summary
Winged sun disk with streams that enclose worshiper who faces spade on stand with rhomb above -- Sphinx in grasp of genius with scimitar, antelope plunging forward between them -- Star and crescent in sky.
Classification
Place
Southern Mesopotamia.
Department