Cylinder Seal

31-17-16

Location: On Display in the Middle East Galleries

From: Iraq | Ur

Curatorial Section: Near Eastern

View All (4) Object Images

Object Number 31-17-16
Current Location Middle East Galleries - On Display
Provenience Iraq | Ur
Archaeology Area PFT D6-900
Locus PFT. D 6 - 900
Section Near Eastern
Materials Diorite
Iconography Seated Woman | Pot | Hut | Spider | Woman
Description

field number on object looks like U.14487 but the correct number is U.14489

CBS Register: Seal cylinder. diorite. oldest seal found in deep level. seated woman. pot, hut, spider, etc. worked with bore.

UE X: two women in profile are squatting, one on a high couch provided with bull's leg feet, the othe ron a low divan flat on the ground. The first holds in her extended hands a round jar with handles; the second a spool of wool. More jars and spools surround the solid loom (?) behind them. This is built of uprights and a cross-bar surmounted by a star (?). A spider spinning its spiral thread, a goat bounding over its pen, complete the symbolic picture. Dark steattite cylinder. This seal was found in a well-authenticated setting, along with a bowl of glazed frit turquoise blue and the steatite carving in the round of a wild boar of the Jamdat-Nasr period.

Length 2.4 cm
Width 2.5 cm
Credit Line British Museum/University Museum Expedition to Ur, Iraq, 1931
Other Number U.14489 - Field No SF | UE X: 31 - Other Number | B19422 - Old Museum Number

Report problems and issues to digitalmedia@pennmuseum.org.