between 700 B.C. and 501 B.C.
greenish chalcedony
23.5 x 11.5 mm
Morgan Seal 739
Provenance:
Acquired by Pierpont Morgan sometime between 1885 and 1908.
Notes:
"Most of the seals of this style [cut-style]... date from the first millennium. They can be divided into an earlier group, dated approximately in the ninth or eighth century B.C. (724-733), and a later, belonging probably to the seventh and sixth centuries (734-746)... Seals 734-739 show the influence of the modeled style that prevailed in both regions in the latter part of the eighth century B.C."--Porada, CANES, p. 88
Summary:
Female and male sphinx, each holding paw over spade on platform between them -- Crescent and star in sky.
Place:
Southern Mesopotamia.
Period:
Catalog link:
Classification:
Department: