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Cylinder Seals from the Horniman Museum, London

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Eva Møller
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Extract

The founder of The Horniman Museum, Frederick John Horniman (1835–1906), was engaged in the tea trade and in this capacity he travelled throughout many countries of the world. He was a great collector of objects relating to the study of man and his environment and among the Museum's famous collections of ethnographica from all parts of the world there is also a small number of Mesopotamian cylinder seals. Nothing is known about the provenance of these 13 seals. They are illustrated on Plates XI and XII.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 48 , 1986 , pp. 65 - 72
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1986

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References

1 I wish to thank Mr. J. Moss-Ecardt, deputy director of The Horniman Museum, for his kind permission to publish the seals.

2 Karg, N., Untersuchungen zur älteren frühdynastischen Glyptik Babyloniens (Mainz 1984), 45 ff.Google Scholar; Ashmolean Nos. 135, 137, both from Kish; Heinrich, Fara, Pl. 52g, 56c; Moortgat, VR No. 88; Lambert, , RA 64 (1970), 69 Google Scholar.

3 Unfortunately the impression breaks up the scene.

4 The cylinder is flattened where the figures are engraved but not where the feet would be expected.

5 Boehmer, EGA, Abb. 532–54.

6 Boehmer, op. cit. Abb. 532, 533, 535, 536, 541, 551; Porada, , Andrews University Seminary Studies VI (1968), Pls. I:1, II:1Google Scholar; Lambert, W. G., Iraq 41/1 (1979), Pl. II:8 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 The seal of Bursin of Isin, 1895–1874 B.C., found at Ur, UE X:528 Google Scholar; Delaporte, , Louvre II, Pls. 76:23–4, 78:27, 79:26, 82:18, 83:15Google Scholar.

8 Delaporte, op. cit., Pls. 76:22, 77:18.

9 Grégoire, , Materiali per il vocabolario neosumerico X (1981), Nos. 62–3Google Scholar.

10 Moortgat, VR Nos. 290, 292, 297, 301.

11 Seidl, , BaM 4 (1968), 178 ffGoogle Scholar.

12 Note the frequency of the scene in Karum Kanish II, ca. 1920–1840 B.C., and its absence in Karum Kanish Ib, ca. 1790–1740 B.C. Özgüc, Seals and Seal Impressions of Level lb, Pl. XXIVA is a survival from phase II. Late survivals of the scene: Samsuiluna: Buchanan, , JCS 11 (1957), Pl. 1:7–9 Google Scholar; Delaporte, , Louvre II, Pl. 115:3 Google Scholar (A 543 Seal A). Abieshuh: Muscarella (ed.), Ladders to Heaven, No. 66; Klengel-Brandt, , AOF 10 (1983), 76 f., No. 15 Google Scholar. Samsuditana: Klengel-Brandt, op. cit., 71 f. No. 5, 72 No. 6, 77 Nos. 16–17.

13 Frankfort, SCS, Nos. 717, 719, 721, 723, 726 (Seal of Uṣurawasu); Moortgat, VR No. 254 (Seal of Urningizzida).

14 From Sippar; time of Hammurapi: CT 47, No. 29, Seal 6, No. 39, Seal 10; Buchanan, Yale, Nos. 794, 797. Samsuiluna: CT 47, No. 52, Seal 3, No. 56, Seal 2, No. 57, Seal 6, No. 63, Seals 3 and 9; etc. Cylinder seals which may be attributed to Sippar are Buchanan, Yale, Nos. 952, 953; Porada, Corpus, No. 402; etc.

15 Even naditus who often transacted business or appeared as witnesses seldom owned seals, see Renger, BiMes 6 (1977) 77, 84 and notes 44, 45Google Scholar. Harris, , Ancient Sippar, 302–31Google Scholar. Some of the seals figuring women are without inscription, others were used or owned by men according to the by-scripts or inscriptions.

16 Standing: CT 47 No. 3, Seal 2, No. 34, Seal 1, No. 58, Seal 8; Delaporte, , Louvre II, Pl. 114:1 Seal EGoogle Scholar; Gailani-Werr, al, Sumer 37 (1981), 135, Fig. 60cGoogle Scholar; Lyon, , JAOS 27, Pls. I-IIGoogle Scholar. Seated: CT 47, No. 15, Seal 5, No. 39, Seal 10; Delaporte, op. cit., Pl. 114:4b, Seal C, Pl. 115:1 d, Seal C; Ranke, , BE VI, Pl. IV Text 7, Seal AGoogle Scholar.

17 E.g. Delaporte, , Louvre II, Pl. 113:4, 5 Google Scholar; Pl. 114:2, 3; Pl. 115:1; CT 47 No. 25. For further details concerning Shamuhtum and her family see Møller, Akkadica 43 (1985), 16–20 Google Scholar.

18 E.g. Porada in Weitemeyer, Some Aspects, Seals XXVII-XXVIII, XXX.

19 See Porada in Weitemeyer, op. cit., 112 ff. To these seal impressions may be added Moortgat, VR No. 305; Porada, Corpus, No. 402; Buchanan, Yale, Nos. 912, 956; etc.

20 Kindly read by Dr. Aage Westenholz. The last two signs of the original first line are -a-tum.

21 E.g. Porada, Corpus, Nos. 476–80; Moortgat, VR Nos. 345–50.

22 Buchanan, Yale, Nos. 791, 989; Delaporte, , Louvre II, Pl. 115:2b Google Scholar; Ranke, , BE VI, Pl. VII Text 11, Seal BGoogle Scholar.

23 Dr. Aage Westenholz and Professor W. G. Lambert have kindly helped me with the inscription.

24 There is no trace of wear, the inscription just stops.

25 Limet, , Les légendes des sceaux cassites (1971), 18 f, § 2.4–5Google Scholar.

26 See also the sealing from Isin, Hrouda, et al., Isin II, Pl. 30:43 Google Scholar.

27 Porada, , Tchoga Zanbil IV (1970), Nos. 91, 98 and 99Google Scholar.

28 Wiseman, Götter u. Menschen, Nos. 60, 76; Amiet, Bas Reliefs, No. 495.

29 Delaporte, Guimet, No. 109. The owner, Bel-lišir, was limmu in 778 B.c.

30 Parker, , Iraq 24 (1962) Pl. IX: 1 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

31 Jitta, The Hague, Pl. V, No. 148.

32 Boehmer, , PKG 14, 358, Fig. 274fGoogle Scholar, dates the seal to the time of Sargon II or Sennacherib.

33 Cross-hatching is seen on a frit seal in linear style from Khorsabad, Loud, and Altman, , Khorsabad II, Pl. 57:87 Google Scholar, probably to be dated to Sargon II.

34 Feathering on the breast is seen on the lamassi from Khorsabad.

35 Boehmer, , PKG 14, text to Fig. 275g and hGoogle Scholar, sees Babylonian influence in this detail and cites Porada, Corpus, No. 747 and Moortgat, VR No. 735 which he dates to the middle or second half of the 8th century and the 7th century B.C. respectively.

36 E.g. Porada, Corpus, Nos. 753–63; Moortgat-Correns, , BaM 4 (1968), Pl. 49:124 Google Scholar; De Clercq VII, Pl. XXX:315, 321; Delaporte, Guimet No. 104.

37 E.g. Moortgat, VR No. 639.

38 Porada, , Or. 16 (1948), 154, 156 Google Scholar.

39 Porada, Corpus, Nos. 754, 768 of the 8th–7th centuries B.C.

40 Moortgat, VR No. 732; Delaporte, BN No. 338.