Cylinder Seal
31-17-118
Location: On Display in the Middle East Galleries
From: Iraq | Ur
Curatorial Section: Near Eastern
| Object Number | 31-17-118 |
| Current Location | Middle East Galleries - On Display |
| Provenience | Iraq | Ur |
| Archaeology Area | 3 metres down, PG | UE II: loose in the soil at the dept of 3.00m |
| Locus | 3 metres down, P.G. |
| Date Made | ca. 2500-2340 BCE |
| Section | Near Eastern |
| Materials | Shell |
| Description | CBS Register: cylinder seal. shell. Two registers. Symposium. Spread eagle over animals. UE II: Cylinder seal, white calcite. broken. This double-register shell seal is engraved with yet another combination of scenes. In the top register is a banquet scene in which a pair of celebrants drink through tubes from a vessel, while another seated celebrant raises a cup toward a standing servant. In the lower register is a spread-winged eagle that dominates a goat with its talons. This heraldic theme, which appears early in the Early Dynastic period, is used both on seals and as large-scale ornament engraved on the base of large votive figures or on votive plaques. Like the other combat scenes, its precise meaning eludes us, but it may be associated with a deity or an institution as well as having a more general metaphorical meaning. |
| Height | 8 cm |
| Outside Diameter | 1.5 cm |
| Credit Line | British Museum/University Museum Expedition to Ur, Iraq, 1931 |
| Other Number | U.13521 - Field No SF | B19524 - Old Museum Number |
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