Collection Online
Medium
kaolin-serpentinite
Measurements
1.4 × 1.4 × 3.1 cm
Place/s of Execution
Near East
Accession Number
3132A-D3
Department
Antiquities
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1929
Gallery location
Not on display
Physical description
A cylinder seal with ends slightly tapering inwards, bores 4.5 mm at the top end, slightly to the side, and 3.5 mm at the lower end. The linear engraving with slight modelling seems to be by light use of a borer implement and hand tools. The engraving depicts an animal contest. A lion with a long tail curling up at the tip, leaps to the right towards the back of a quadruped running forward with head turned backwards to the aggressor; the animal has what appears to be a vertical slightly curving horn (part of which has been obliterated) and a long tail; the necks and bodies of the animals are emphasized by ladder-like lines. Underneath the lion is placed a rhomb symbol and above a rayed sun or star and seven dots representing the star cluster the Pleiades. Border line above and below.