Image Details

Assyrian stamp seal. Beneath a crescent moon, an Assyrian king holds up an offering bowl before the god Assur, who raises a hand in a benedictory gesture as rays shoot from his body. Made of brown agate, this imported seal, at left, was found on the floor of an Assyrian building near the gate, in excavation area B1 at Tel Dor. An Assyrian official may have used this seal in the course of administrative duties at Dor during the period (from 733 to 630 B.C.E.) when the city was the capital of an Assyrian province that included the Carmel and Sharon coasts. A modern impression, at right, made by pressing the seal in wet clay, as would have occurred when sealing ancient documents, highlights the seal’s images.