Cylinder Seal with Goddess Ishtar

2350 BC - 2100 BC
Stone
Original Site Unknown
4.2 cm x 2.5 cm diam.
A27903

Oriental Institute Museum

Artifact Description

Cylinder Seal with Goddess Ishtar

This cylinder seal was made from a piece of black stone. It would have been rolled onto clay to produce a unique impression, or "signature," that was used either to indicate ownership or to safeguard personal possessions. This seal shows Ishtar, goddess of love and war, who is identified by the maces and scimitars that project from her shoulders and by the lion that she restrains with a rope and her foot. The accompanying inscription was written in such a way as to be read on the seal itself, not in the impression.

Multimedia

Cylinder Seals
What are cylinder seals and how were they used by the ancient Mesopotamians?

Suggested Readings

Black, Jeremy and Anthony Green. Gods, Demons, and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Illustrated Dictionary. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1992.

Collon, Dominique. Interpreting the Past: Near Eastern Seals. University of California Press. 1990.

Wolkstein, Diane, and Samuel Noah Kramer. Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer. New York: Harper & Row, 1983.

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