- Museum number
Streaked grey-blue chalcedony cylinder seal: engraved; supernatural creatures with symbols. Two indentical double-winged bull-men stand opposite each other with torsos presented frontally; their beards are long, round-tipped on the left and pointed on the right; their heads or headgears are dome-shaped, marked by concentric arcs, with the hair beneath in full page-boy style; they each have four wings: the longer lower wings, with two ridges, overlap the shorter upper ones, with the feathers singled out along the lower edge and splaying out at the tips; the pendulous pectorals, abdominal, haunch and limb muscles are defined to the point of exaggeration with the ribs marked by horizontal lines; the tufted tails hang down. The bull-men raise their arms with the hands spread out to support the winged bust (of Ahuramazda?) above them, while between them is the encircled bust (of a king or deity?). The busts both facing right, are identical, with long pointed beards, page-boy hairstyles, wearing low polos headdresses and dressed in Persian robes (only the upper parts visible); they each have a hand raised in prayer-like position; the long wings of the upper symbol are the same as the lower wings of the bull-men, with two rows of feathers for the tail; the enclosing circle is an extended crescent. The group stands on a ground line. The seal has slightly worn edges with one chip on the surface.
Diameter: 1.15 centimetres
Height: 2.60 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- Forgotten Empire catalogue entry
203 Cylinder seal in streaked grey-blue chalcedony showing two bearded figures
Two four-winged bull-men raise their arms to support a pair of wings from which rises the bust of a bearded figure facing right with one hand raised. Below is an oval formed by the crescent moon in which is the bust of a bearded figure also facing right and with a raised hand. Both wear fillets or hats and Persian robes. Base-line [?].
Acquired by A.H. Layard in Mesopotamia between 1845 and 1851
H 2.6 cm, Diam 1.15 cm (base)
British Museum, ANE 89852 (N.1065)
Layard 1853: 607–8; Merrillees 2005: no. 73
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
2013-14 24 Oct-27 April, BM, G69a, 'Wise men from the East: Zoroastrian traditions in Persia and beyond'
2006 7 Mar-11 Jun, Barcelona, Fundacion La Caixa, 'L'imperi Oblidat'
2005-2006 Sept-Jan, London, BM, 'Forgotten Empire'
Enlightenment gallery, from Nov 2003; permanently removed Nov 2004
- Fair; slightly worn edges; one chip on surface.
- Acquisition date
- 1846 (1851)
- Middle East
- BM/Big number
- Registration number