Stamp Seal with Worshipper before Symbols

Description During the 1st millennium BC, Aramaic alphabetic script written on parchment rather than clay tablets led to the gradual disappearance of the cylinder seal. Stamp seals returned to Mesopotamia for the first time since the 4th millennium BC. Due to the decreased area of the stamp seal, images became less complicated. The most common scene shows a single worshiper standing before divine symbols, in this case including the spade of Nabu, god of wisdom, and the crescent of the moon-god Sin.

Provenance Sadie Jones (Mrs. Henry Walters), New York [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Sale, Joseph Brummer, New York, 1941; Walters Art Museum, 1941, by purchase.

Credit Museum purchase, 1941