A KASSITE OBSIDIAN CYLINDER SEAL

CIRCA 1350-1200 B.C.

細節

A KASSITE OBSIDIAN CYLINDER SEAL
Circa 1350-1200 B.C.
Superbly engraved with a standing man holding two horses, the man facing left, wearing a wrap-around kilt with a shawl over his shoulders, both with a decorative hem, holding ropes which attach to the harnesses of the two somewhat restive horses, their fore-legs locked, the further hind-leg moving forward, a small plant with two small leaves and a large blossom between the man and each horse, the terminal a large tree with a straight trunk with symmetrical tendrils and branches sprouting above the level of the horses, some terminating in leaves, others seemingly bearing fruit, with two facing birds perched on high branches, the large area above the main scene with a seven-line inscription in Babylonian cuneiform identifying this as the "Seal of Kur-Shugab, son of Tunami-Sah, whose god is Irhan, and whose goddess is Belet-Akkadî, he gave it to his son, Urkat-yazi, the vizier," with line borders above and below
58.5 x 17.5 mm

拍品專文

All three generations of this family bear Kassite names, and that Urkat-yazi was a vizier shows they were of the ruling class. It is interesting that their personal deities are both Babylonian gods.

Horses were never wild in this region, and only in the 2nd millennium B.C. did they gradually come into use for pulling chariots. Towards the end of the millennium they were ridden for quick travel and for military purposes.

For a lapis lazuli seal excavated at Thebes, Greece, with a similar tree as the terminal and similar blossoms (although not joined to plants) arranged between a hero grappling with two ibexes, see no. 242 in Collon, First Impressions, Cylinder Seals in the Ancient Near East.