Stamp Seal of Recumbent Bull

Found below “pavement IV” in a probe/test pit below the well in temple courtyard G50

White marble

1931.162.6

Height: 2.2 cm

Length: 3.4 cm

Max. width: 2.5 cm

Zoomorphic stamp seal in the shape of a reclining bull with head, horns, and legs clearly represented. The bull’s eyes are indicated by drilled holes. The piece is pierced laterally near the base. An incised decoration of two quadrupeds (dogs?) appears on the flat underside. The animals’ bodies were created by shallow drill holes and the limbs by incised lines, making taxonomic identification difficult.

Context

Excavator Starr took advantage of the depth of a previously emptied well shaft to probe down to the level of virgin soil. The well shaft ended at 5.5 m below the 1930s level of the plain (882 m total depth), and Starr probed down an additional 85 cm to reach a so-called pavement. This was likely a floor or living surface of an earlier stratum. On this pavement in an area roughly 1 m square, Starr fortuitously discovered a cache of 29 stamp and cylinder seals. Because of the depth of the find, these seals could not be correlated with the stratigraphy of the site but on stylistic grounds may be dated roughly to the Jemdet Nasr period (c. 3100–2900 BC).

Publications: Starr 1937, pls. 40C1 and C2; Starr 1939, 381

Original Field Catalogue Entry

30.12.208 “button Stamp [pencil annotation] Seal, representing a lying animal bull [pencil annotation], horned. Creamy white stone, yellow spots; three long tailed animals; G50.”