God with mace facing deity holding monkey by rope

between 2000 B.C. and 1750 B.C.
hematite
25 x 13 mm
Morgan Seal 866
Provenance: 
Acquired by Pierpont Morgan sometime between 1885 and 1908.
Notes: 

"One or more worshipers standing with or without interceding deities before a god constitute the most frequent subject in the present group. This theme is common in Old Babylonian glyptic. Moreover, a number of the gods represented here are characterized by the same emblems as those in Old Babylonian cylinders. ... in 866 and 867, the god with a mace is pictured with the same characteristics as on Old Babylonian seals such as 430-452. However, the seals of the present group can be classified as provincial Babylonian and distinguished from seals of southern Mesopotamia on the basis of certain details in the rendering of the figures, especially their garments. ... Seals 866 and 872 are included in this group with some reservation. They present subjects not paralleled in Babylonian seals: 866 shows a god holding a monkey by a leash, and 872 has a figure with ridged cap holding a flowing vase. But while the curde engraving of these two seals relates them to the Cappadocian group, they present no other typically Cappadocian features, and it is therefore possible that they originated in some other region on the periphery of Mesopotamia."--Porada, CANES, p. 109-110

Summary: 

God with mace facing deity who holds monkey by rope; second deity -- Before deity, porcupine above fish -- Crescent in sky.

Classification: 
Department: