A red serpentine scaraboid seal. Lyra player with a bird.
15 x 19 x 10 mm
This seal shows a musician playing the lyra, with a bird standing behind and facing the player. The figures are engraved in a linear outline style. The musician wears a robe whose skirt is rendered in vertical lines and a slanting line at his waist indicates a sword or a dragger.
The seal belongs to a large group of scaraboid seals, made in Cilicia on the south coast of Anatolia and exported to Greece, particularly the island of Euboea. From there, many were carried to Greek colonies in Italy and Etruria, where they are frequently found in graves of children and infants, placed around the neck as a protective amulet.
For a parallel : Missouri, Museum of Art and Archeology inv. 92.2, Weinberg Fund. Anatolia, Cilicia. See : SPIER, J., Ancient Gems and Fingers rings; p.50-51, n°93-95.
Ca. 750-700 BC.