Goddess with ring before tree with winged sun disk above it

between 701 B.C. and 601 B.C.
white chalcedony
34 x 16 mm
Morgan Seal 774
Provenance: 
Acquired by Pierpont Morgan sometime between 1885 and 1908.
Notes: 

"The central element of the ritual scenes of 770-775 is the sacred tree. In these designs it is rendered in three different ways, namely: with graceful streamers and volutes (770); within the net of lines that may connote irrigation canals surrounded by shoots (772, 773); and realistically as a palm tree (774, 775)... In 774 and 775 the tree, while still the central element, possibly appears in the scene merely because it is somehow related to the deities pictured beside it...Seals 770-777 may with certainty be classified as Neo-Assyrian cylinders of the latter part of the eight and of the seventh century.... in 774 the god wears a miter with trifoliate crest lik ethose on statues of semidivine personages in the palaces of Sargon and Sennacherib..."--Porada, CANES, p. 93-94

Summary: 

Goddess with ring before tree with winged sun disk above it -- At other side of tree, god with ax followed by worshiper who has four globes along front of his robe -- Seven globes and crescent in sky -- Before god, fish.

Place: 
Southern Mesopotamia.
Classification: 
Department: