Scorpion-man before altar

between 600 and 400 B.C.
bluish chalcedony
29.5 x 22.5 x 16 mm
Morgan Seal 801
Provenance: 
Acquired by Pierpont Morgan sometime between 1885 and 1908.
Notes: 

"...795-811 have been classed as Neo-Babylonian, because many seal impressions of corresponding style and subject have been found on Neo-Babylonian tablets of the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. In these impressions a relatively uniform style perists, though the dates of most of the tablets reach well into Persian times (for example, Philadelphia 965-969), and Persian seal impressions also appear on them ... Seals 801-803 bear only symbolic figures, all previously encountered on cylinders. The scorpion-man of 801 has been seen in 783 and 784; the fish-men of 802 occur also in 785; the goat-fish of 803, pictured with a ram-headed crook ending in what appears to be a fork, tallies with a similar figure in 784."--Porada, CANES, p. 96-98
Conical seal with rounded top and slightly convex oval base.

Summary: 

Scorpion-man before altar -- Crescent in sky.

Classification: 
Department: