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Six Babylonian and Assyrian Seals
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Extract
The design on this seal confines its classification to the period of the Dungi and the Isin dynasty (2409–2075). The worshipper stands, with hands folded at the waist, before a seated deified king, and behind him stands the mother goddess with both hands raised (palms outward), imploring the aid of the divine king for her human protegé. This liturgical pose and design are characteristic of the Ur and Isin periods. See Delaporte, Catalogue des Cylindres Orientaux de la Bibliothèque Nationale, pp. 57–70, and Langdon, R.A., 16, 64–5. Compare, for example, Delaporte, ibid., 116. The deified king extends a small cup toward the worshipper with his right hand. In the field above are the lunar crescent and emblem of the stellar Ishtar (Venus).
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- Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1927
References
page 43 note 1 Ki-Ag. The ideogram for râmu, in names of this kind, has not been translated into Semitic by Ranke, , Personal Names, 129Google Scholar. With the above translation, an abbreviated form like Nabu-ra'im (râm)-napišti must be assumed.
page 43 note 2 For definite proof that the seated deities with low round broad brimmed head-dress really represent the deified kings of Ur and Isin, see the seal of Ibi-Sin, Museum Journal,1920, 169, and the writer's previously published statement, R.A., 16, 65.
page 45 note 1 The Assyrian gesture with pointing index finger, described by Latin writers, and also common in Greece, was discussed, ibid., 539 fl., and 546 fi. Heuzey, , Origines orientales, p. 270Google Scholar, suggests that this gesture represents a snapping of the fingers to attract the attention of the god, but it is more likely a modification of the Sumerian kiss-hand, from which the Greek προσκυνεῖν was derived. See JRAS.,1919, 544. Heuzey's conclusion was adopted by Thureau-Dangin, , RA., 21, 189Google Scholar, who believes that the gesture of the pointing index finger is not found later than Ashurhaddon, but he does not refer to the discussion and evidence in JRAS., 1919.
page 46 note 1 See the writer's Epic of Creation, p. 19, n. 1.
page 46 note 2 Compare the remarks of Ward, ibid. p. 200 and p. 209.
page 46 note 3 See also the early seal from Susa, Delaporte, Cat. Louvre, S. 306; Speleers, p. 179, No. 596.
page 47 note 1 See Langdon, , Epic of Creation, 88, 141Google Scholar.
page 47 note 2 Epic of Creation, p. 87, n. 9.
page 49 note 1 I would translate the cartouche “To Agshagga, the protecting genius, who bestows the breath of life, Apil-Ishtar, the servant, his worshipper.”
page 50 note 1 This explanation has been suggested to me by Dr. A. M. Blackman.