Ancient cylinder seals and more
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Western Anatolian or Hittite black stone hematite cylinder seal featuring a complex animal contest scene with rearing long- horned animals with upper and lower border lines. This seal measures 23 mm in length and 8 mm across and has the traditional drill hole down the center. It measures 30 mm x 12 mm. It dates from 1400-1200 BC.
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White stone Sumerian cylinder seal from the protoliterate period, 3500- 3000 BC, with two pigtail drill points with rays. This seal has a hole drilled through the center and measures 15 mm in height and 12 mm across.
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Old Babylonian white marble cylinder seal, 1925-1595 BC, featuring a finely carved presentation scene with a seated ruler holding a scepter or mace facing left with two standing female supplicants facing right and three columns of cuneiform. This seal measures 16 mm in length and 8 mm across.
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Black stone (hematite) Syrian provincial cylinder seal with intention to copy contest friezes from the ED III period into the Akkadian glyphos, dating this piece from 2450-2200 BC. The contest scene features two ibexes on hind facing right, back to back, before a winged ibex facing left. Below them two young are in contest, both facing right, the one furthest right flaring up back legs. Parallels for this type and period are rare and difficult to attribute with certainty but Briggs Buchanan VII attributes a series of seals in the Ashmolean as Peripheral ED styles which includes pieces from the Tel Brak region of Syria, and in that group, there is a contest frieze similar to this. The piece in the Ashmolean itself is a bulla, but clearly shows a similar contest in a very linear style similar to this piece. It measures 23 mm x 8 mm.
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Larger Assyrian or Neo-Assyrian serpentine cylinder seal, dating to the later 2nd. -early 1st. mill. BC with an engraving of a lion attacking a horned animal, possibly a bull. This seal is nearly 15 mm. thick and c. 24-25 mm. in height.
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Green faiance Middle Assyrian cylinder seal, dating c. 1400-1200 BC. The cylinder seal is carved with the image of Pazuzu, a Hero / Demi-god of the time, depicted as a winged beast with bearded human head.
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Very small Sumerian cylinder seal in Lapis Lazuli, dating to the Akkadian period, c. 2300 BC. A bull man and a short-skirted hero is fighting a lion and a bull or other horned animal. A panel possibly intended to hold a small inscription. This tiny seal measures 9 mm x 7 mm and is from the Kjersgaard Collection, published in the book ‘Cylinder seals as an object d’art’ (p. 50) By E. Rasmussen 2010.ix
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A tiny black stone Sumerian seal from the Akkadian period, 24th to the 22nd Centuries BC, much worn, but with a presentation scene featuring a seated ruler with two supplicants standing in front. It measures 8 mm x 6 mm.
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Old Babylonian green stone cylinder seal, 1925-1595 BC, featuring a supplication scene with three long-gowned standing figures and one line of inscription. The single line of cuneiform reads “Shamash, Aya” – a common invocation type for the Old Babylonian period, the name of the sun god and his consort Aya. This seal measures 19 mm x 9 mm and has a nice-directional drill hole down the center for suspension on a cord or pin.
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Serpentine Neo-Assyrian stone cylinder seal from the 9th – 8th Century BCE. This seal features two attendants standing in supplication before a modified tree of life with several devices surrounding. To the left, a pillar. Between the branches of the tree if life a heart and a tree behind to the right. Both attendants have bare knees raised and are wearing long kilts. This seal measures 27 mm and weighs 5.4 gms. It is pierced through the middle for suspension on a cord or pin.
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A large glazed seal from the early 2nd millennium BC, with four registers of cross-hatching. This seal comes from the Mitannian region, now western Anatolia-Northern Syria. It measures 4.7cm in length and features a well preserved blue glaze characteristic of this period and civilization. This item comes from the well known and highly respected collection of Peter Cheremisinoff of New Jersey.
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This Sumerian cylinder seal is carved in sea-shell and dates from the mid 3rd. millennium BC. The larger figure on the seal, is possibly a God (either Enki or Ea) but shows no definitive devices specifically demonstrating them to be either God. While it could be argued that the figure represented here is Ea, because of V-Chevron like pattern between him and the boat, it does not show flanking the other side of the deity, which is how the god is typically depicted on such period seals. More plausibly, the scene is a fishing scene, and the larger figure in this case is a pole bearer / helmsman guiding the fishing boat. The seal is 17 mm. thick and 25 mm. tall.
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Neo-Assyrian cylinder seal from the 9th-7th Centuries BC. This seal is carved in a smooth cream hard stone, showing a contest scene of a four-winged hero in the center, flanked by two mythical 4-legged beasts with birds heads, which he grasps. This seal measures 13-14 mm in length and is pierced down the center for suspension on a cord or pin. It is the Karl Jakob Müller, Frankfurt, Germany.
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White marble cylinder seal from the later part of the Protolitetate period, 3500 BC, featuring a crossing lines and eye pattern. Likely from the Susa region of ancient Mesopotamia. This seal measures 20 mm high and 18 mm in diameter and had the traditional bi-directional drill home down the center to allow for suspension on a cord or pin.
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Green stone cylinder seal from the later Protoliterate period, 3500 BC featuring a chevron water pattern between three line borders at the top and bottom. This seal measures 41 mm. in height and 7 mm. in diameter and has a bi-directional drill hole through the center to allow for suspension on a cord or pin.
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Black stone cylinder, likely steatite, seal from the later Protoliterate period, 3500 BC featuring pattern of stylized running ibex or other quadrupeds with a crescent moon above. It features a bi-directional drill hole dots above and below. The drill points were possibly added at a later date as the seal was repurposed. This seal measures 39 mm. in height and 8 mm. in diameter and has a hole through the center to allow for suspension on a cord or pin.
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Blue faience cylinder from the late Bronze Age Levant featuring a complex geometric design of diamonds within a matrix of multiple lines. This seal measures 2 inches in length and has a hole down the long axis to allow for suspension on a cord or pin. This seal is from the same workshop as seal no. 78 and dates from around 1300 BC.
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Blue faience cylinder from the Late Bronze Age Levant featuring three panels of different repeating images of fish, birds and hash marks separated by deep straight lines. This seal measures 2 inches in length and has a hole down the long axis to allow for suspension on a cord or pin. This seal is from the same workshop as seal no. 77 and dates from around 1300 BC.
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Blue faience Mitannian cylinder seal with fish in an upper and lower register swimming in opposite directions, separated by symbols representing water. This dates from the Elaborate Period, the latter part of the second millennium, 1600-1200 BC. This seal has a hole down the long axis and measures 29 mm in length.
This seal comes from the collection of Gustav Oberländer (1926-2012). Mr. Oberländer aquired his massive and important collection of seals between 1985 – 2000s, bought ftom reputable dealers and from old collections. Gustav Oberländer specialized in early stamp and cylinder seals from the pre-historic and Dynastic civilizations in the Near East / Mesopotamia, Anatolia and Bactrian.
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Anatolian or North Syrian provincial bone cylinder seal from the Protolitetate Period with a pattern of two rows of circles with center dots between borders of chevrons. This seal measures 33 mm. I’m length and had a hole down the long axis for suspension on a cord or pin.
ix Rasmussen, Erik. K., The cylinder seal as an objet d’art, Copenhagen 2010.