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Openwork stamp seal: figure holding snakes

ca. late 3rd–early 2nd millennium BCE
Not on view
Western Central Asia, now known as Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and northern Afghanistan, has yielded objects attesting to a highly developed civilization in the late third and early second millennium B.C. Artifacts from the region indicate that there were contacts with Iran to the southwest.

Openwork copper or bronze stamp seals, often called "compartmented" seals, were cast in both geometric and figural patterns in Bactria-Margiana and are distinctive to that region. This copper-alloy example represents a male figure dressed in a short kilt and mountain boots with upturned toes. If his horned headdress is similar in meaning to examples found in Mesopotamia and Iran, the figure may be divine. The arrow-shaped forms emerging from his shoulders and under his arm may represent snakes or lightning bolts.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Openwork stamp seal: figure holding snakes
  • Period: Bronze Age
  • Date: ca. late 3rd–early 2nd millennium BCE
  • Geography: Bactria-Margiana
  • Culture: Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex
  • Medium: Copper alloy
  • Dimensions: H. 9.1 cm
  • Credit Line: Purchase, David L. Klein Jr. Memorial Foundation Inc. Gift and Gift of Lester Wolfe, by exchange, 1984
  • Object Number: 1984.4
  • Curatorial Department: Ancient West Asian Art

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Shaft-hole axe head with bird-headed demon, boar, and dragon, Silver, gold foil, Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex
Shaft-hole axe head with bird-headed demon, boar, and dragon
Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex
ca. late 3rd–early 2nd millennium BCE
Beaker with birds on the rim, Electrum, Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex
Beaker with birds on the rim
Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex
ca. late 3rd–early 2nd millennium BCE
Openwork stamp seal: figure holding snakes, Copper alloy, Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex
Openwork stamp seal: figure holding snakes
Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex
ca. late 3rd–early 2nd millennium BCE
Stamp seal, Copper alloy, Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex
Stamp seal
Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex
ca. late 3rd–early 2nd millennium BCE
Compartmented stamp seal, Copper alloy, Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex
Compartmented stamp seal
Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex
ca. late 3rd–early 2nd millennium BCE

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