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Lexicon Corpus of Inscriptions
Artefacts Decipherment |
Pectoral, Mohenjodaro; vase from which two streams of water
flow
Cylinder seal, Mesopotamia (British Museum, No.
89538)
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Clay relief stamped
with the figure of the Babylonian hero Gilgamesh, holding a vase from which two streams of
water flow. (British Museum No. 21204) Fragment of limestone sculptured in relief with vases from which streams of water flow. (British Museum No. 95477) [Leonard W. King, 1916, A History of Sumer and Akkad, London, Chatto and Windus, p.73) |
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Engraved shell
plaques, Telloh, 3rd millennium B.C. (London)[Note the trident, spears and the lion biting
into the neck of the one-horned bull] Animals depicted on a gaming board (Mesopotamia) |
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Group 1:
hatched face animal (with zig-zag or straight cage on the standard) is associated with the
north, around Harappa and the Sarasvati river Group 2: (with collared necks and straight
cage on the standard) is found in the south, around Mohenjodaro
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Decorations on the head and neck of the 'unicorn' |
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Three groups of 'unicorn' seals; cf. Franke-Vogt 1992: fig. 13.3 |
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Inscribed copper tablet DK 11307 Mohenjodaro. Conjoined bovids (with 'unicorn' stripes on the face) with two 'altars' in front. Four signs on reverse. (Jansen and Urban, 1987, p. 71). [The stylised pannier on the bovids is an indicator that a 'unicorn' (ibex/urus) is depicted with two horns. The 'altars' may be 'troughs' which normally appear in front of other animal pictorials such as the bison, tiger, elephant or rhinoceros.] |
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Cylinder seal impression, Tell as-Sulema, Mesopotamia, level IV (Akkadian to Early Old Babylonian)(IM 87798); gypsum; length 2.6 cm., dia. 1.6 cm. Drawing by Lamia Al-Gailani Werr; cf. Collon 1987: 143, no. 609; Parpola, 1994, p. 181; bird over a unicorn; fish over a bison. |
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Cylinder seal; Louvre, ca. 3000 B.C |
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Cylinder seal; Louvre, ca. 3000 B.C. (Sumerian seal from Jemdet Nasr showing 13 'unicorns'; cf. Heras, 1953, p. 220). |
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Standard of Ur depicting the one-horned bull and other scenes. |
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Ram's body and the
elephant's trunk; SD 1109; Stone statue; Mohenjodaro Museum 430 (H 25.5cm; L: 19.5 cm; B:
13 cm.)
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Kalibangan: copper bull (ca. 2300 to 1750 B.C., Period II); Pl. XXV, Possehl, ed., 1979, Ancient Cities of the Indus. |
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Mehrgarh; stone bull, Period I, Neolithic (5378+/- 290 and 5182+/-80 B.C.); Jarrige, Jean Francois, Towns and Villages of Hill and Plain, in Frontiers of the Indus Civilization, 1984, Fig. 33.3 |
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Inlay of a bull; Tell El-obeid, ca. 3300 B.C. |
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Bull-god and goddess, Susa, 2nd millennium B.C. (Paris) [Note the high quiver holding 5 spears indicating a hieroglyphic semantic link between the bull icon and weapons]. There are ligatured pictorials on the seals and tablets of the Sarasvati Sindhu civilization depicting a horned person with hoofs and tail. |
  (colour image of the Ishtar gate) |
From the Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar Dr. Koldewey recovered the magnificent Ishtar Gate. It has been restored and erected in the Berlin Museum. Note the depiction of the one-horned bull. |
