Hero fighting bull


Hero fighting bull
Kategória Cylinder Seals
Description of the seal image A bearded hero grasps the foreleg of a rampant bull with one hand and holds a mace in the other. He wears a long, belted, fringed, open robe over a short tunic. Behind the two figures is a vertically-set, two-line cuneiform inscription framed and separated by rulings.
Figures, motifs/symbols - bull: rampant, head turned backwards
- hero: bearded, wearing a long, belted, fringed, open robe over a short tunic, holding a mace
- inscription: cuneiform, vertically-set, two-line, framed and separated by rulings
Subcategory cylinder seal
Collection The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore
Museum number WAM 42.791 – WAM C29
Condition, shape slightly chipped upper and lower edges
Culture Neo-Babylonian
Provenance ex-Henry Walters Collection (Baltimore); inherited by Sadie Jones (Mrs Henry Walters) in 1931 (New York); purchased by Joseph Brummer (Paris and New York) in 1941; purchased by The Walters Art Museum in 1941
First occurence before 1931
Archaeological context N/A
Registration number N/A
Dimensions (mm): height, diameter h: 37, d: 18
Material and features "chalcedony"
Style modelled
Scene contest
Writing system, language cuneiform: Akkadian
Transliteration

1. at-kal-ka a-a-ba-áš!



2. dAMAR.UTU ARḪUŠ TUKU.A
Translation 1. I have trusted in you, may I not be put to shame,
2. o Marduk, have mercy!
Bibliography

Gordon 1939, 30 no. 101 and pl. XII.



Gordon, C. H.: "Western Asiatic Seals in the Walters Art Gallery". Iraq 6/1 (1939) 3–34.



For the seal legend, see Niederreiter 2023, 333–334 no. 1.4.



Niederreiter Z.: “Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Inscribed Cylinder Seals: Two Prayers”, in: Cousin, L. – Quillien, L. – Ramez, M., eds., Material Culture of Mesopotamia and Beyond 1: People and their Material Environment in the First Millennium BCE Babylonia. (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 319) Leuven – Paris – Bristol, Connecticut 2023, 327–362.



WAM: https://art.thewalters.org/detail/31646/cylinder-seal-with-a-contest-scene-and-an-inscription/ [accessed: 12-11-2023].