Scorpion Seals
The collection contains a number of seals from several periods featuring scorpion images. From ancient Sumeria to the Levant and Sassanian Persia, these seals represent more than two thousand years of scorpion imagery.
“Seals with Scorpion images are discovered in Indus Valley, Dilmun (Bahrain), Middle East (Iran, Iraq) and a few other places. A Scorpion God was worshipped in Egypt. Even today a Scorpion goddess is worshipped in two places in India. Scorpio is one of the twelve zodiac signs. Scorpion is a symbol for sex. Scorpion is used as people’s names in Sanskrit (Vrischikan) and heaven is called ‘scorpion world’ (puth Thel Ulaku) in Tamil. Of the Tamil dances one of them is a dance by goddess on stilts to escape from scorpion demons.” i
“Representations of scorpions are known from prehistoric times onwards, but not unequivocally as a religious symbol until late in the Kassite Period on kudurrus, on which the creature is labelled as a symbol of the goddess Ishara.
Although not fatal, the sting of the scorpion found in Mesopotamia is sufficiently painful to suggest the creature as a suitable image of power and protection. Magical spells were used to counteract the effect of the sting. On representations of scorpions and scorpion-people, the tail is always emphasized, rising up threateningly along the back or over the head.
The scorpion was also the Babylonian name of the constellation Scorpius (see zodiac).
Scorpion-people
Girtablullu, ‘scorpion-man’, is the Akkadian term for a supernatural being with a horned cap of divinity, human head with beard, human body, the hindquarters and talons of a bird, a snake-headed penis, and a scorpion’s tail. He may or may not have wings. The creature is first seen in the art of the Third Dynasty of Ur and of the Akkadian Period, but was common only in Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian times. The type survived in art until the Hellenistic Period. As attendants of Samas (Utu) (in art often supporting the solar winged disc or with their heads possibly shown above its wing tips), the scorpion-men were also, by the Neo-Assyrian Period, powerful protectors against demons. Wooden figurines of them are prescribed, along with figurines of other beneficent deamons and monsters, in Neo-Assyrian instructions for rituals of protective magic, and the actual example has been found in a storeroom at the seventh-centrury BC Urartian City of Teisebaini (modern Karmir Blur). These rituals mention figurines of ‘male and female’ scorpion-people, showing that the ‘scorpion-woman’ was a figure in art, although no representation of her has yet been identified: pairs of scorpion-tailed figures are common but seem usually to represent two bearded males (compare merman and mermaid).
In the Babylonian Epic of Creation, the scorpion-man is counted as one of Tiamat’s creatures, while in the Epic Gilgames, a terrifying scorpion-man and scorpion-woman guard the gate of Mount Masu, where the sun rises.
An iconographically rather different human and scorpion combination with human head, the full body and legs of a bird, and the scorpion’s tail is seen in Kassite, Neo-Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian and Seleucid Period art. It is unclear whether this is also a girtablullu.” ii
click to enlarge
120
Black stone Sumerian stamp seal from the Third Millennium BC with a bold and clear scorpion design. In ancient Near Eastern art and culture, scorpions were associated with fertility and the weaving trade. This rare trowel-handled seal measures 19 mm in length.
click to enlarge
121
Round stamp seal in a white stone perhaps calsite, Levantine / Anatolian, 1st. millennium BC. Widely used on Sassanian seals but rarely seen on earlier stamp seals, this seal features a finely detailed Scorpio on the base of a seal with knob handle typical for the Levante and Anatolia in the 2nd.-1st. millenium BC.
click to enlarge
122
Red carnelian stamp seal in the traditional domed shape engraved with a depiction of a scorpion, dating from the Sassanian Empire period. The carving technique for this design involved short and quick blade strikes highlighting the anatomical features such as the claws, legs and tail. The stone is pierced horizontally for suspension on a cord or pin. Circa 4th – 6th Centuries AD.
click to enlarge
123
Black stone, highly polished Sumerian stamp seal from the Proto- Historical period featuring a scorpion. This seal measures 16 mm tall and 9.5 mm across the base.
click to enlarge
124
A very high quality Sassanian stamp seal in Carnelian, with a Scorpio engraved on it’s face, 4th.-6th. century AD. Sassanian seals with scorpions are normally carved somewhat crudely, as can be seen on another item in this group. This seal is very finely engraved and the scorpio is here rendered quite naturalistically, in an almost classical style. Add to this the great beauty of the seal itself, a wonderful carnelian stone with dark brown clouds and blood red veins, perfectly polished. It measures19 mm. At its widest point. Ex. Egeskov Collection, an important and rare collection of Sassanian seals.
click to enlarge
125
Rectangular black serpentine stone stamp seal with knob handle in the later advanced style. It comes from Syria or Anatolia and dates from the 3rd.-2nd. Millennium BC and features a well-engraved rectangular base with a Scorpio inside a square. The knob handle has a hole to allow for suspension on a cord or pin. It measures 18-19 mm. long and 15 mm. wide. This seal is from the Gustav Oberländer (1926-2012) Collection. Gustav Oberländer acquired his massive and important collection between 1985 – 2000s, bought at reputable dealers and from old collections. Gustav Oberländer specialized in early stamp seals from the pre-historic and Dynastic civilizations in the Near East, Mesopotamia, Anatolia and Bactrian.
References
i https://tamilandvedas.com/2012/11/10/the-great-scorpion-mystery-in-history/amp/
ii Black, Jeremy, Green, Anthony, Gods Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia, An Illustrated Dictionary University of Texas Press, Austin, Texas, third printing, 1997.