Circa 1000-539 BC. A finely cut agate cylinder seal of a high official Ur-egal, servant of (the god) Damu, with worship scene with garbled inscription; contrary to ordinary seals, the inscription on the seals of these officials were engraved in positive and come out reversed in impressions; very fine double drilling to either end as usual, tapering towards the middle; accompanied by a scholarly note, which states: 'A large carved (stone type?) cylinder seal with a bearded worshipper, who stands facing left between two deities, with a crested cap, in a fringed, tight robe with a double belt, and points with his raised right hand and extends the other palm up; before him, on the left, a god, facing right and standing on a bull, wears a tall, cylindrical, feather-topped head-dress with a thick tassel or necklace counterweight hanging down the back, and a fringed, tiered robe, hanging open over a fringed kilt; armed with two bow-cases and a short sword in his belt, all together with the head-dress globe-tipped, he raises his right hand and holds a beaded ring in his left; behind the worshipper, facing left, the goddess Ištar, wearing a square-topped head-dress with a star on top, a tassel or necklace counterweight hanging down her back, and a tiered, striated, open robe over a fringed kilt; on her back she wears two crossed star-tipped bow cases and a quiver; she also raises her right hand and holds a beaded ring in her left; across the image area from left to right as symbols appear the wedge or stylus of the god Nabu next to the tasselled spade of the god Marduk, a rhomb, a crescent, the winged disc with the sun god Šamaš, a six-pointed star, an ibex sitting on his haunches before a cactus-like plant, consisting of a central spike with a curved leaf on either side; between the deities a two-line inscription. The sun god in fully anthropomorphic form and the cactus-like plant show, that the seal is Neo-Babylonian and not Neo-Assyrian.'; accompanied by a museum-quality impression. See Collon, D., Catalogue of the Seals in the British Museum. Cylinder Seals V. Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Periods, London, 2001.38.5 grams, 42mm (1 1/2"). Property of a London lady, part of her family's Swiss collection; formerly acquired in the 1980s; accompanied by a copy of a scholarly note, report number 157484.