Notes on an Old Syrian Seal Impression from Sippar

Abstract

Among the seal impressions on the British Museum tablets from Abu Habbah/Sippar dating from the reign of Hammurabi (Teissier 1998), one impression seems of particular importance for the cultural and religious aspects connected with it (Fig. 1). A so-called suppliant goddess is the last figure in a scene at the other end of which (the central part is not preserved) there appear, framed by two guilloches, a kneeling nude male figure, a sort of stylized altar, and a bird with outstretched wings over a standard with two human heads (the upper one long-haired and thus female), apparently standing on a crouching lion. Beatrice Teissier (1998: 119) thinks that it “is probably a recut Old Syrian/Syro-Cappadocian seal: the small motifs are characteristic of these styles, whereas the suppliant goddess is not”. Although this remains a possibility, several considerations call for a different and more detailed historical framework for this impression. The seal was impressed on the case of a house rental contract, together with two other Old Babylonian seals, respectively with a presentation and a contest scene, the latter one belonging to the typical Sippar style. On the tablet (in which all the individuals cited bear Akkadian names) only the month and the day of the contract are indicated, but on the case there also appears a dating formula from year 43 of Hammurabi.