Winged hero grasping griffin and human-headed winged lion (shedu, sphinx) (modern [i.e., fake])

Object no. S04568
Description of the seal image A bearded, four-winged hero grasps a rampant griffin with one hand and a rampant human-headed winged lion (shedu, sphinx) with the other, each by a foreleg. He wears a long, broad-belted, fringed, open robe over a short tunic. On either side of his legs is a sitting dog and a bucranium. Behind the rampant beasts is the winged sun-disc in the sky.
Figures, motifs/symbols - bucranium
- dog: sitting
- divine hero: bearded, four-winged, wearing a broad-belted, fringed, open robe over a short tunic
- griffin: winged, crested, rampant
- human-headed winged lion (shedu, sphinx): beardless, rampant
- winged sun-disc: with appendages
Subcategory cylinder seal
Collection National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Washington
Museum number U.S.N.M. 207956
Culture Assyro-Babylonian, other
Provenance acquired in Hillah
First occurence 1926
Material and features "quartzite onyx"
Authenticity (public) modern (i.e., fake)
Style modelled
Scene contest
Bibliography

Casanowicz 1926, 11 and pl. 4: 1..



Casanowicz, I.M., “The Collection of Ancient Oriental Seals in the United States National Museum”, Proceedings of the United States National Museum 69/4 (1926), 1–23.



Niederreiter 2020, footnote 487 on page 197.



Niederreiter Z.: Catalogue of the Cylinder Seals in the Royal Museums of Art and History. I: Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Periods (Circa 1000–500 B.C.). (Antique et Orientalia 7 – Assyriologia 10) Budapest, 2020.



 

Object history The publications mentioning the objects in this database were collected and the objects classified by ZN; data for the present object was input and description of the object done by HL based on the relevant publication provided, then object data and description were finalized by ZN (20 March 2026). HL – Huba Lőrincz, ZN – Zoltán Niederreiter
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