Seal Amulet in the form of a Lion's Head (3800–3500 BCE): Art, History and Details

Seal Amulet in the form of a Lion's Head (3800–3500 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Delicately carved from exotic semiprecious stone, this tiny seal in the shape of a lion's head (rendered in profile) would have functioned not only as the legal signature of its ancient owner but also a protective amulet, magically conferring to its wearer the lion's natural virtues of courage, leadership, and strength.

Object facts

• Title: Seal Amulet in the form of a Lion's Head
• Date: 3800–3500 BCE
• Culture: Mesopotamia, Iraq
• Type: Amulets
• Technique: agate
• Dimensions: Diameter: 2.8 x 2.7 x 0.9 cm (1 1/8 x 1 1/16 x 3/8 in.)
• Collection: Near Eastern Art
• Department: Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art
• Accession number: 2000.42

A detail from the museum

These amulets were commonly found in tombs of women and children.

Collection credit

Gift of Mabel Porozynski in honor and remembrance of Eugene Porozynski

Further reading listed by the museum

• Del Bufalo, Dario. Precious portraits: small precious stone sculptures of Imperial Rome. 2020.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.