Cult vessel in the form of a tower with cylinder seal impressions near the top

Unknown

ca. 19th century BCE · Ceramic · Ancient Near Eastern Art

This two-story tower is surmounted by a male figure grasping the hindquarters of two lions. A large vessel rests between the felines. A door is cut into the lower facade and a window on the upper floor; circular bosses indicating wooden beams appear at the top of each story. The entire stand is pierced from the vessel at the top through each level, including the bottom, so that liquid libations might be poured in a ritual of some sort. Such an object would have been used in a temple or sanctuary during religious rites. The style is crude in comparison to the delicacy of the multiple cylinder-seal impressions that were made across the top in front of the lions. The Syro-Anatolian seal depicts a seated male figure with a striding male before him dressed in a kilt with arms bent and held out in a gesture of respect and greeting. In between the two is a monkey as a filler motif. Behind the seated figure is a smiting deity wearing a kilt and horned crown. He holds what seem to be the weapons of the weather god—a lightning bolt and sword. The vessel is comparable to other second-millennium tower-shaped examples excavated in Mesopotamia and the Levant and probably was placed on top of an offering stand.

Artist

Unknown

Date

ca. 19th century BCE

Medium

Ceramic

Department

Ancient Near Eastern Art

Credit line

Rogers Fund, 1968