Ninurta pursuing Anzu on the back of Abubu between a worshipper and Adad


Ninurta pursuing Anzu on the back of Abubu between a worshipper and Adad
Kategória Cylinder Seals
Description of the seal image The scene is framed by line borders at the top and bottom. Ninurta aims his globe-studded bow at the rampant Anzu (lion-griffin) while standing on the back of the charging Abubu (lion-dragon). He is further armed with star-topped, tasselled bows crossed on his back, a sickle sword (scimitar) hanging from his quiver and a sword in a sheath at his waist. Behind Ninurta, there is a worshipper in a devotional pose wearing a long, fringed robe, while in front of Anzu, Adad appears, holding a lightning bundle (double fork) in his lowered right hand. In the sky, there is an eight-rayed, globe-centred star, a winged sun-disc and a crescent moon. Three lines of a cuneiform inscription are engraved between the worshipper and Ninurta, between Ninurta and Anzu, and between Adad and the worshipper. The upper part of the latter is missing due to a large chip.
Figures, motifs/symbols - Abubu: lion-dragon, charging, with a bull horn, a forked tongue and a scorpion tail
- Adad: holding a bundle of lightning (double fork) in his lowered right hand and raising the left (smiting pose), wearing a star-topped, horned headdress and a long, multi-tiered, broad-belted fringed robe over a short tunic
- Anzu: lion-griffin, rampant, with donkey ears and bird tail
- borderlines (2): line borders at the top and bottom
- crescent moon
- inscription: cuneiform, three lines
- Ninurta: armed god, archer, aiming globe-studded bow, star-topped, tasselled bows on his back, a sickle sword (scimitar) hanging from his quiver, and a sword at his waist, wearing a star-topped, horned headdress and a long, double-belted, tiered and fringed open robe over a short tunic, aiming a globe-studded bow
- star: eight-rayed, globe-centred
- winged sun-disc
- worshipper: in a devotional pose, wearing a long, fringed robe
Subcategory cylinder seal
Collection Vorderasiatisches Museum
Museum Number VA 5180
Condition, shape chipped upper and lower edges; large chip distorts the worshipper's head and the legend behind him
Culture / Production Place Neo-Assyrian
Provenance excavated at Assur
First Occurrence before 1940
Archaeological context Assur
Registration number Ass 9451
Dimensions (mm), height, diameter h: 42, d: 17
Material and features "Chalcedon"
Style drilled
Scene pursuing
Writing system, language cuneiform: Akkadian
Transliteration

1. šá {md}MAŠ–EN–PAB



2. LÚ*.SAG



3. [šá {md}M]AŠ?–SAG
Traduction 1. Property of Ninurta-bēlu-uṣur,
2. the eunuch
3. [of] Ninurta-ašarēd.
Bibliography

Moortgat 1940, 66, 139 no. 595 and Taf. 71.



Moortgat, A.: Vorderasiatische Rollsiegel. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Steinschneidekunst. Berlin, 1940.