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Lot Essay
This luscious black stone is finely carved in high relief with an enthroned deified king with two figures before him, and 3 columns of cuneiform text behind. The ruler sits on a covered stool on a small platform and holds a small conical cup in his raised hand, the arm bent and outstretched. He wears a long fringed cloak and a round cap with an upturned brim, and his long beard cascades onto his chest. Before him, a goddess is presenting a supplicant. The beardless man wears a similar fringed garment and stands in a proud posture with his hands clasped at his waist. The goddess wears a long, tiered skirt, horned crown, and a necklace with a long cord for a counterweight falling down her back. Above, there is a sun-disk and a crescent. The text reads; “Ur Ningišzida, scribe, son of Nur-Kabta.”
As B. Teissier explains (pp. 20-22 in Ancient Near Eastern Seals from the Marcopoli Collection), the term “Old Babylonian style” describes glyptic art from 3 main regions of Mesopotamia dating from 2000 to 1595 B.C., with the end of Hammurabi’s dynasty. As seen here on the present lot, there are examples of high caliber of craftsmanship, due to the inherited tradition of glyphic art from Ur III and Akkadian periods. A common repertoire of the period was a devotional scene, with goddesses, rulers and suppliants, and hematite and other hard stones were typically chosen. For a similar example, see no. 103 in Teissier, op. cit. Here she notes that the enthroned king is depicted in a similar style to the defied king of the Ur III period and “in contrast to most seals of the period, however, the supplicant is not led by the hand; instead a deity stands behind him in the posture of entreaty.”
As B. Teissier explains (pp. 20-22 in Ancient Near Eastern Seals from the Marcopoli Collection), the term “Old Babylonian style” describes glyptic art from 3 main regions of Mesopotamia dating from 2000 to 1595 B.C., with the end of Hammurabi’s dynasty. As seen here on the present lot, there are examples of high caliber of craftsmanship, due to the inherited tradition of glyphic art from Ur III and Akkadian periods. A common repertoire of the period was a devotional scene, with goddesses, rulers and suppliants, and hematite and other hard stones were typically chosen. For a similar example, see no. 103 in Teissier, op. cit. Here she notes that the enthroned king is depicted in a similar style to the defied king of the Ur III period and “in contrast to most seals of the period, however, the supplicant is not led by the hand; instead a deity stands behind him in the posture of entreaty.”