Seal-amulet in the form of a recumbent lioness - Pink calcite

Seal-amulet in the form of a recumbent lioness.
On the seal, two animals upside down.
Pink calcite. Length 3,5 cm.
3200-2900 B.C. Sumer. Jemdet-Nasr Period.
Intact.

These zoomorphic seals preserved in large number, were sculptured with the aid of a drill. They represented very often a bovine, a lion or a lying stag, the head of face. The name of the owner, often a storekeeper, appeared on the lower face of the object. The seal was printed in some clay to identify the sender of the goods.

Cf. De Gilgamesh à Zénobie. Trésors de l’antiquité, Proche-Orient et Iran. Exhibition at the Musées Royaux d’Art et d’Histoire, 6 décembre – 27 avril 2008, Bruxelles, 2007, p. 62 ; Sumer Assur Babylone. 7000 ans de culture et d’art sur le Tigre et l’Euphrate. Exhibition at the Neue Galerie – Sammlung Ludwig – Aachen, 1st June -26 August 1979, Berlin, 1979, n°39-42.