Image Details

Photo: Courtesy of Claude Doumet-Serhal

HUNTING SCENE. This third-millennium B.C.E. seal impression from Sidon depicts a male hunter and a lion. The lion appears upside down in the scene, according to the tête-bêche arrangement. With raised arms, the hunter holds a three-stemmed plant in his left hand, while his other hand is depicted with outstretched fingers. The hunter’s penis is erect. Such a scene was popular in the third millennium B.C.E. at Sidon. As seen in the photograph and drawing of this piece, the hunter and lion motif is a repeating pattern. This impression would have been made by rolling a cylinder seal across the pottery while its clay was still wet.