Hero grasping griffin on either side
| Kategória | Cylinder Seals |
| Description of the seal image | A bearded hero grasps a griffin by the neck on either side. He wears a dentate crown (cidaris) and a long, double-belted, fringed, open robe over a short tunic. |
| Figures, motifs/symbols |
- griffins (2): rampant, crested, winged - hero: bearded, wearing a dentate crown (cidaris) and a long, double-belted, fringed, open robe over a short tunic |
| Subcategory | bead cylinder seal |
| Collection | The British Museum |
| Museum number | BM ANE 113878 – 1919-7-12, 627 |
| Condition, shape | damaged upper and lower edges |
| Culture | Achaemenid |
| Provenance | said to be from Susa; acquired from I. Élias Géjou |
| First occurence | 1919 |
| Archaeological context | N/A |
| Registration number | N/A |
| Dimensions (mm): height, diameter | h: 36; d: 10 (14) (barrel-shaped) |
| Material and features | "Quartz, eyed sardonyx (artificially dyed): banded, browns and white-grey. The surface of the brown bands is partly damaged by shallow flaking, creating a patchy appearance and revealing that the brown coloration is restricted to the surface of a grey matrix. The seal was probably worked in grey and whitish agate and then dyed, using a honey-like solution so that the induced colouring follows rhe natural banding of the material (see Chapter VI.1.4 and VI.2.1.6). The barrel shape of the seal suggests it was reworked from a bead (see Chapter VI.4)." |
| Style | modelled |
| Scene | contest |
| Transliteration |
N/A |
| Translation | N/A |
| Bibliography |
Merrillees 2005, 57 no. 25 and pl. XI. Merrillees, P. H.: Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum. Cylinder Seals VI: Pre-Achaemenid and Achaemenid Periods. (Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum. Cylinder Seals 6) London, 2005. |