Near Eastern Hematite Stone Seals, Abstract Quadruped

Near East, Mesopotamia or Levant. This lot comprises two carved stone stamp seals. The first has a conical body that is pierced laterally near the apex for suspension, and its circular face is cut with a linear abstract quadruped whose raised head and angled projections read as a horned animal standing above a hatched groundline. The second is a rounded bead-form seal that is pierced laterally through the body, and its flat face is incised with abstract linear motifs. Both are carved from a dark grey-black hematite stone, and each has a matte surface with scattered lighter mineral inclusions. Stamp seals preceded the cylinder seal in Mesopotamia and outlived it, returning to dominance in the first millennium BCE, when Neo-Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian, and Levantine workshops produced conoid and domed forms in hematite, chalcedony, and carnelian. Mesopotamian lapidary texts as a stone of protective and medicinal virtue. Item # 204619

Estimate:£170.26

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