Stamp seal (octagonal pyramid) with cultic scene

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This stamp seal depicts a kneeling figure before divine symbols. The figure, bearded and wearing a diadem, raises his hands in a gesture of prayer and supplication. Before him can be seen a couchant mushhushshu, the composite dragon associated particularly with Babylon’s chief deity Marduk, whose spade "standard" rises from its back. It is possible that the mushhushshu and spade standard represent a real altar before which the figure kneels, but other elements of the composition are abstract divine symbols: behind the standard sits a symbol resembling the Greek letter "omega," and above the scene is a winged disc. Many Neo-Babylonian seal designs show a standing or kneeling worshipper with raised hands before divine symbols or an altar. In some cases the figure is beardless and clearly a priest; in others, as here, the figure may represent a priest or king. Although often very finely carved, the seals are notable for the simplicity of their compositions and, unusually for ancient Near Eastern seals, their inclusion of large areas of blank, uncarved space.

Ancient Near Eastern Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art cares for approximately 7,000 works ranging in date from the eighth millennium B.C. through the centuries just beyond the emergence of Islam in the seventh century A.D. Objects in the collection were created by people in the area that today comprises Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Syria, the Eastern Mediterranean coast, Yemen, and Central Asia. From the art of some of the world's first cities to that of great empires, the department's holdings illustrate the beauty and craftsmanship as well as the profound interconnections, cultural and religious diversity, and lasting legacies that characterize the ancient art of this vast region.

Metropolitan Museum of Art