1. Mesopotamian cylinder seal / circa 1800 BC
  2. Mesopotamian votive `nail' with the name of Gudea / circa 2135 BC
  3. Syrian female figure / circa 1850 BC
  4. Luristan terminal / circa 800 BC
  5. Syrian libation spoon / circa 800 BC

  • Mesopotamian cylinder seal
    Mesopotamian cylinder seal The nineteenth and eighteenth centuries BC witnessed a tremendous increase in legal, administrative and scribal activity, and a corresponding increase in the need for seals to witness contracts or seal goods and storerooms. The designs of seals at this period are remarkably consistent, with a limited range of figures which could be combined according to certain rigid conventions. Here we see the bearded sun deity as god of justice and omens, equipped with a saw-toothed knife with which to cut his way through the mountains of the east at dawn. Before him stands the king, offering an animal, while behind stands a kilted priest. Above are the combined symbols of the main astral bodies-sun-disk, star, and crescent moon. A cuneiform inscription running from top to bottom of the seal was erased in antiquity by a new owner. The unrolled cast of the design exhibited with the seal was probably made by Freud himself.

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