Ancient Museum Store

Original in the collection of the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, 1250 B.C. This Leaping Stags in a Landscape Relief is taken from a cylinder seal or roller stamp dating back to the Middle Assyrian period (ca. 13th century) from Mesopotamia. The relief is the impression one sees when the original cylinder seal is rolled across clay. Cylinder seals were engraved with visual stories about mythology, historical events and scenes from everyday life. Sometimes they were used to notarize documents. The cylinder seal was made of a hard material such as limestone, glass or ceramics. Later seals also included hieroglyphs.