The two examples shown above are from the important collection of 228 seals formed at the beginning of the twentieth century by the donor's grandfather Dikran Kelekian. Included in the group are cylinder and stamp seals that date from the late fourth millennium B.C. to the Sasanian and Early Byzantine periods of the early first millennium A.D. The geographical range extends from Anatolia to Mesopotamia and Iran, with rich material from Syria and Cyprus.

These two seals can be dated on stylistic grounds to the late fourteenth to thirteenth century B.C., a period of intense interaction between parts of the eastern Mediterranean world and the Near East. The Mesopotamian seal (top) was made when there was a growing interest in portraying animals in a modeled style, in the treatment of figures in space, and in movement—all features associated with Western stimuli. The winged horse has talons usually seen on the lion-griffin, cervine horns, and a dragon-shaped phallus. The inscription names a court cupbearer. The second seal is a near-duplicate of an example excavated at Enkomi, Cyprus, in 1934. Both depict a hero in a short kilt, his arms outstretched over two lions with their forelegs on altars. On the Museum's example the hero may wear the Mycenaean boar's-tusk helmet. In style the two are identical and point to the production of "look-alikes" by the same hand.