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Cylinder seal. View of surface with carved hero-king figure, two lion-griffins and two winged sphinxes. (Courtesy of the Vedat Nedim Tör Museum, Istanbul)
Cylinder seal
The Lydians and their World
(2010)
Cat. 128
- Date
- Late Lydian (Persian)
- Museum
- Istanbul, Archaeological Museum, 4581
- Museum Inventory No.
- 4581
- Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
- IAM 4581
- Material
- Agate, Stone
- Object Type
- Jewelry and Ornaments, Seal
- Site
- Sardis
- Sector
- Nec
- Trench
- Butler Tomb 813
- Locus
- Butler Tomb 813
- Description
- Agate cylinder seal in a gold mounting consisting of a pin held in place by two gold plates, with a gold loop on top set with granulations. The seal shows a crowned hero-king figure controlling two rampant lion-griffins, with two winged, crowned sphinxes as pedestal figures crouching on a ground line. Total height 3 cm, height of stone 1.85 cm, diameter 7.5 mm.
- Comments
- From Sardis, Tomb 813. In the same tomb were found gold ornaments of no. 12 (Curtis). For Tomb 813, one of the few tombs excavated by Butler that can now be identified, see Greenewalt et al. 1987, 36-44.
- See Also
- Dusinberre, “Seals”.
- Bibliography
- Curtis 1925, no. 104.
- Author
- ED