YBC: Highlights 53 (2023-12-16)

Created by: Wagensonner, Klaus

Cylinder Seal Showing Pazuzu, Lulal, and Ugallu (YPM BC 026360, YBC 12601; Neo-Babylonian period (626–539 BC); 26 x 13 mm (with convex ends); blue chalcedony)

This remarkable seal shows a combination of two distinct scenes. The first is a contest scene of a fight between a hero and a rampant bull. An ostrich is below them. The bearded hero is holding a scimitar and the ear(s) of the bull. His left foot is placed on the bull’s rump. The second scene depicts the demon Pazuzu adjacent to Lulal and the lion-headed Ugallu, as well as the crescent moon and the eight-pointed star, with an outlined globe in the middle above Pazuzu. Despite its minute size—the Lulal and Ugallu pair is eight millimeters (a third of an inch) in height—the seal image is carved in an elaborately modeled style with anatomical details, with the surface patterning formed mainly with a combination of cutting wheel and drills. The magical scene with the demonic and divine figures is what makes this seal unique. There are representations of Pazuzu on a variety of artifacts, such as Lamashtu plaques, statuettes, fibulas, and so on, as well as handles on seals terminating in a Pazuzu head (Heeßel 2002, 131, nos. 36, 213; and 130, nos. 33, 212). As for depictions of Pazuzu carved on seals, however, merely one on a cylinder seal and two on stamp seals have been identified so far (Delaporte 1923, 168, no. A.701; Gabbay 2001, 151–152, no. 13, fig. 5; Niederreiter 2017, 128–129, fig. 6). Lulal and Ugallu are attested on only a couple of stamp seals and scaraboids (Delaporte 1923, 168, no. A.705; Von der Osten 1934, no. 527; Von der Osten 1936, 19–20, no. 139; Gordon 1939, 33, no. 119). This seal provides the first depiction of Lulal and Ugallu shown together with Pazuzu in glyptic art. See it in the exhibition “Ancient Mesopotamia Speaks ... Highlights from the Yale Babylonian Collection” at the Peabody Museum of Natural History, New Haven, 6 April 2019 – 30 June 2020

credit: Niederreiter, Zoltán
image credit: Wagensonner, Klaus