Scene of Fighting with Serpent(s) on the Old Assyrian Seal Impression from Kültepe (Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, I 2 b 1591)

Antiguo Oriente. 2021. Vol. 18. P. 207–234.

Nemirovsky A., Шелестин В. Ю., Ясеновская А. А.

The aim of the article is to publish and present in detail an Old Assyrian sealing from
Kültepe (collection of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow), which
carries a scene of a hero’s struggle with a serpent-like monster. Such scenes are rare
in the Ancient Near Eastern art, while the seal is one of the few highly original artifacts
from Kültepe (most seals from Kültepe, on the contrary, present images repeated on other seals from there or other centers). This interpretation of the scene is confirmed
in detail by photographs and parallels in the glyptics as well as among other preserved
artifacts of cuneiform cultures of the 3rd–1st millennia BC that existed in the
Mesopotamian and Syro-Anatolian spaces. The closest parallel to the monster on the
seal in question can be seen, apparently, in the monstrous serpent on the famous Neo-
Hittite relief from Malatya, suggesting an essential role of Anatolian imagery in the
genesis of composition at our seal.

Keywords: змей, seals, Dragon slayer, Kültepe, Old Assyrian period, Serpent, Змееборец, Кюльтепе, Староассирийский, Глиптика

Publication based on the results of: Anthropology of Socio-Cultural Systems: Historical Dynamics and Regional Variability (2021)