Cylinder Seal

1900.53.0069A

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Basic Information

Artifact Identification Cylinder Seal   (1900.53.0069A)
Classification/
Nomenclature
  1. Communication Artifacts
  2. :
  3. Personal Symbols
  4. :
  5. Personal Identification
Artist/Maker Unknown
Geographic Location
Period Old Babylonian
Date 1900 BCE
Culture Old Babylonian
Location On Exhibitin the Mesopotamia exhibit

Physical Analysis

Dimension 1 (Height) 2.3 cm
Dimension 2 (Length) 1.18 cm
Dimension 3 (Width) 1.07 cm
Weight 8.15 g
Measuring Remarks N/A
Materials Stone--Hematite
Manufacturing Processes Carved, Incising, Inscribing, Drilling

Research Remarks

Description

Rogers: A haematite seal of Ea, the Water God, with the spouting vase. He wears a turban with a single point on the top. He seems to wear a dress, even covering his arms. A girdle passes around his waist. The skirt is open and one extended leg is nude. Here the artist has tried to show some muscular development. His foot seems to rest on a beetle. The God's left hand hangs by his side and in the right he holds the spouting vase. The next figure to the right wears a turban on his head. His body seems to be draped in a shawl extended to the knees. One corner is folded over in such a manner that it forms a drape for the front of the body. His right hand grasps a mace. The left arm hangs by his side. The third figure is a Shumerian, who approaches with both hands raised to his head. A two column inscription completes the seal. The inscription is very dim and over it has been carved a design, a double crook over a recumbent gazelle. This may mean that a second person has adopted the seal.

Porada: A suppliant goddess and a god with a mace before a war goddess. Terminal: a gazelle supporting two crooks cursorily engraved over an effaced inscription. Inscription: d/E-a/d
Dam-gal- nun.na. Note earlier inscription of seal covered by Amurru symbol later cruder carving.

Published Description Under Review
Bibliography

Porada, Edith. "Concordance of Seals in the Oriental Museum, UIUC." Unpublished ms., ca. 1950.
Rogers, Frances. Babylonian Seal Cylinders as a Historical Source, UIUC Master's Thesis, 1929.

Artifact History

Credit Line/Dedication N/A
Reproduction No

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