A SUMERIAN MARBLE CYLINDER SEAL
EARLY DYNASTIC, CIRCA 2600-2400 B.C.
With a contest scene of six figures, a nude hero with spiky hair holding a sword in one hand and an inverted lion in the other, a Lahmu (hairy hero) with head turned frontally, holding the same lion in one hand and grasping the hindquarters of an inverted ram in the other, the ram being mauled by a lion on the other side, its body crossed with a human-headed bull, a scorpion and recumbent quadruped in the field, the terminal with two crossed bulls with double line above
1 5/8 in. (4.2 cm.) high
Provenance
Surena collection, London, late 1970s-early 1980s.