A cylinder seal of grey-blue chalcedony from the Achaemenid period, 6th to 4th century BC, found at Al-Hillah in the Babel Governorate of Iraq and held by the British Museum in London. Rolled out, the seal shows an Achaemenid king performing a religious ritual before two sphinxes, with the god Ahura Mazda shown above the scene as the divine authority overseeing it, the standard Achaemenid convention for representing the god's presence over royal power. A smaller secondary register shows a supernatural creature fighting two ibexes above two further sphinxes. No object or registration number is given on the museum's public-facing record as read.
Facts
Subject Matter
Devotional FunctionCylinder seals of this kind were working tools before they were images: rolled across wet clay to leave a continuous impression, they authenticated documents, sealed containers and marked ownership. Carrying Ahura Mazda's image on a seal used this way let an official acting in the king's name fold a personal statement of piety and divinely sanctioned authority into an ordinary act of bureaucratic sealing. 1 Classification
Object TypeAmulet or Small Carved Object 1 Medium (class) Physical Form
MediumCylinder seal, 6th to 4th century BC 1 Connections
Depicts
Ahura Mazda shown above the king's ritual scene, the seal's divine subject as catalogued in the Commons file record.
Source Achaemenid Cylinder Seal, File Record (Wikimedia Commons, British Museum)
Additional Source Faravahar (Wikipedia)
Housed At
Sources
1. Achaemenid Cylinder Seal, File Record (Wikimedia Commons, British Museum)
Wikimedia CommonsWikimedia Commons file description page, British Museum object, photographed by Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg)
Achaemenid cylinder seal showing 2 scenes. An Achaemenid king doing a religious ritual before 2 sphinxes (below the god Ahura Mazda). The smaller scene shows a supernatural creature fighting 2 ibexes above 2 sphinxes. Grey-blue chalcedony. Achaemenid period, 6th-4th century BCE. From Al-Hillah (Babel Governorate), Iraq. British Museum, London.
catalogue record, medium/object-type description
A cylinder seal of grey-blue chalcedony from the Achaemenid period, 6th to 4th century BC, found at Al-Hillah in the Babel Governorate of Iraq and held by the British Museum in London.
View the Source Faravahar (Wikipedia)
WikipediaDepicts: Ahura MazdaQuote, Depicts: Ahura Mazda
Achaemenid cylinder seal from the city of Hillah.
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