Sealing

33-35-379

From: Iraq | Ur

Curatorial Section: Near Eastern

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Object Number 33-35-379
Current Location Collections Storage
Provenience Iraq | Ur
Archaeology Area PG. Pit W. SIS 4-5
Section Near Eastern
Materials Terracotta
Iconography Deer | Lyre
Description

Primary image is of deer playing bow-shaped harps

a note in the same white ink as the UE III number states "3 frags"

UE III: banquet in fableland, where animals play the parts of men. The lion is the king, and he sits, tumbler in hand, on a stool with openwork sides and bull's feet as elegant as that of a queen (cf No. 382). Animals, too, are his servants: three asses (?) led by a goat, all standing on their hind legs. The two first bring a spouted vase and a sealed jar, the two last play the harp and the cymbals. Smaller animals, monkey, cat or jackal, complete with court, sitting, dancing, or catching a small beast in their claws. The butcher is a lion, who cuts with a dagger the throat of a young gazelle, over a young ass holding a stick or tuba (?). There is perhaps an eagle on the upper shelf, and a jumping kid. The offerings are piled before the king and on the shelf: spouted and two-handled jars, loaves or cheeses of round, oval, and triangular form, two legs of mutton. On the butt-end of the cylinder are cut three figures, a wild boar, a scorpion, and an arrow-point. Clay sealing. Baked and shellacked post-excavation. Fragment impressed with designs of animals playing instruments.

Credit Line British Museum/University Museum Expedition to Ur, Iraq, 1933
Other Number U.18408 - Field No SF | UE III: 384 - Other Number | 897 - Other Number

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