This pyramid-shaped stamp seal is executed in the cut and drill style, exhibiting a rounded top and convex octagonal face. The cut and drill style was used in Assyria by seal cutters in the late eighth century BCE and continued to be used in the seventh century BCE. This technique was achieved by using a rotating cutting disc that produces a series of narrow, shallow, and straight incisions; a fine drill was occasionally used to mark details. The motif consists of a worshiper with raised hands facing an altar placed on the right (in impression). The divine symbols of Marduk (spade) and Nabu (stylus) are placed atop a podium with a low base; above is a crescent moon. Seals from this period have the general common theme of a worshiper before divine symbols, normally gesturing with one hand. These seals seem to appear under Nebuchadnezzar II (604--562 BCE). Many Neo-Babylonian seal designs show a standing or kneeling worshiper with raised hands before divine symbols or an altar. In some cases, the figure is beardless and is clearly a priest; in others, as here, the figure may represent a priest or king. Although often finely carved, the seals are notable for the simplicity of their compositions and, unusually for ancient Near Eastern seals, their inclusion of large areas of blank, uncarved space.

References:

Buchanan, Briggs, and Peter Roger Stuart Moorey. 1988. Catalogue of ancient Near Eastern seals in the Ashmolean museum. The iron age stamp seals (c.1200-35BC) 3 3. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Teissier, Beatrice. 1984. Ancient Near Eastern Cylinder Seals: From the Marcopoli Collection. Berkeley: University of California Press.