Octagonal pyramid seal with royal hero

Octagonal pyramid seal with royal hero

Octagonal pyramid seal of bluish chalcedony. Royal hero with dagger in combat with rampant winged lion; 'court style'. Unknown provenance; bought at Smyrna (western Asia Minor). 

15mm x 12mm x 21mm.

Briggs Buchanan and P.R.S. Moorey, Catalogue of Ancient Near Eastern Seals in the Ashmolean Museum III: The Iron Age Stamp Seals (1988) no. 454 (Ashmolean 1890.118).

Commentary

Stamp-seals were used in the Achaemenid empire primarily in private contexts, with cylinder seals favoured for the sealing of official documents. This particular type of octagonal pyramid seal was especially favoured in the western Achaemenid provinces, and this example probably derives from Lydia (J. Boardman, 'Pyramidal stamp seals in the Persian empire', Iran 8 (1970), 19-45; this seal, p.42 no. 87, illustrated Plate 4, no. 93 [sic]). The iconography and style of this seal is purely Achaemenid, with a characteristic scene of heroic combat between the royal hero and a winged lion (compare the Ashmolean cylinder seal with royal hero and Bes, here).