Stamp seal (bifacial disk) with animals and divine symbols
Unknown Artist
7th century BCE
Medium
Steatite, brown
Dimensions
Seal Face: 1.97 x 1.48 cm Height: 0.85 cm String Hole: 0.3 cm
Classification
Stone-Stamp Seals
Culture & Period
Assyrian · Neo-Assyrian
Department
Ancient Near Eastern Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, 1899
Accession Number
99.22.45
Tags
Art Historical Context
This exquisite bifacial disk stamp seal, crafted from brown steatite in the Neo-Assyrian period around the 7th century BCE, measures just 1.97 x 1.48 cm across its face—small enough to fit in your palm. Produced by an unknown Assyrian artisan, both sides are intricately engraved with animals and divine symbols, including crescents, evoking the sacred motifs of ancient Mesopotamian cosmology. A central string hole (0.3 cm) allowed it to be worn as an amulet or strung onto documents, blending practicality with protective magic. In the powerful Neo-Assyrian Empire, which dominated the Near East ...