Harvard Art Museums > 1984.815: Scaraboid Stamp Seal: Lioness Carrying Prey Seals Collections Search Exit Deep Zoom Mode Zoom Out Zoom In Reset Zoom Full Screen Add to Collection Order Image Copy Link Copy Citation Citation"Scaraboid Stamp Seal: Lioness Carrying Prey , 1984.815,” Harvard Art Museums collections online, Apr 24, 2024, https://hvrd.art/o/289054. Reuse via IIIF Toggle Deep Zoom Mode Download This object does not yet have a description. Identification and Creation Object Number 1984.815 Title Scaraboid Stamp Seal: Lioness Carrying Prey Classification Seals Work Type seal Date 400-300 BCE Period Classical period Culture Achaemenid Persistent Link https://hvrd.art/o/289054 Physical Descriptions Medium Chalcedony Technique Intaglio Dimensions 1.6 x 2.3 cm (5/8 x 7/8 in.) Acquisition and Rights Credit Line Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Jerome B. Spier in honor of Professor Hanfmann Accession Year 1984 Object Number 1984.815 Division Asian and Mediterranean Art Contact am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu Permissions The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request. Descriptions Description This chalcedony scaraboid stamp seal features an image of a lioness carrying the severed limb of an animal, probably a stag. The modeling of the lioness’ body is flat yet detailed, with musculature visible on her hindquarters and chest. Her mouth is open, and the haunch of a hooved animal is in the opening. There are a few other seals featuring images of feeding lions (1), though these show the lion eating rather than carrying its prey. The pose of the walking lioness is reminiscent of images on other seals, including a seal attested on the bullae from Daskyleion (2), a gold signet ring found at Sardis in a tomb of Achaemenid date (3), and an Achaemenid cylinder seal found in a tomb on the northern Black Sea coast (4). This latter seal was found with a coin of Lysimachus (king of Thrace and parts of Asia Minor c. 306-281 BCE). This suggests a fourth century BCE date for this seal. This date receives further support from similar imagery of the walking lion that occurs on the reverse of the silver coins issued by Mazaeus at Babylon c. 331-328 BCE (5). NOTES 1. Examples in J. Boardman, Greek Gems and Finger Rings: Early Bronze Age to Late Classical (London, 1970) fig. 312, no. 970; idem., “The Danicourt Gems in Péronne,” Revue archéologique (1971) no. 12. 2. D. Kaptan, The Daskyleion Bullae: Seal Images from the Western Achaemenid Empire (Leiden, 2002) no. 46. 3. E. R. M. Dusinberre, Empire, Authority, and Autonomy in Achaemenid Anatolia (Cambridge, 2013) 155-6 fig. 80. 4. Now in St. Petersburg; D. Collon, First Impressions: Cylinder Seals in the Ancient Near East (Chicago, 1987) no. 432; Boardman, Greek Gems, no. 878. 5. E.g. O. Mørkholm, Early Hellenistic Coinage from the Accession of Alexander to the Peace of Apamea, 336-186 B.C. (Cambridge, 1991) pl. 2.28. Verification Level This record was created from historic documentation and may not have been reviewed by a curator; it may be inaccurate or incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
