Stamp seal and modern impression: horned animal and bird

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The impressing of carved stones into clay to seal containers had a long tradition in Mesopotamia, with the earliest evidence found in Syria dating to the seventh millennium B.C. During the Ubaid period, the variety of designs carved on seals expanded from simple geometric forms to include animals with humans, snakes, and birds. Seals like this one with deeply carved animal motifs became characteristic of northern Syria and southeastern Anatolia. It is decorated with a four-legged horned animal. Above the animal is a leaf shape, possibly a stylized bird, while two bent lines under its body may represent vegetation or perhaps snakes.

Ancient Near Eastern Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art cares for approximately 7,000 works ranging in date from the eighth millennium B.C. through the centuries just beyond the emergence of Islam in the seventh century A.D. Objects in the collection were created by people in the area that today comprises Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Syria, the Eastern Mediterranean coast, Yemen, and Central Asia. From the art of some of the world's first cities to that of great empires, the department's holdings illustrate the beauty and craftsmanship as well as the profound interconnections, cultural and religious diversity, and lasting legacies that characterize the ancient art of this vast region.

Metropolitan Museum of Art