Scenes of lions and lionesses on flat and cylindrical seals

Abstract

The research sheds light on the scenes of the lion and lioness represented on the surfaces of the cylinder seals. Through our analysis of these scenes and the artistic elements they contain, we will review the most prominent artistic topics that the ancient Iraqi artist addressed in the cylinder seals. These topics were sometimes implemented in a high-level artistic style that gained the approval and acceptance of the viewer, and at other times they were implemented in a poor artistic style. In general, we can limit the artistic topics in which the lion and lioness appeared to four main artistic topics. The first included the lion and lioness in scenes of conflict, in which we notice the conflict of the lion and lioness with domesticated animals and the hero’s protection of these animals from the danger of predation. This topic also included the conflict of the lion and lioness with dogs, which are among the most important guard animals that the ancient Iraqis relied on to protect their livestock from the danger of predatory animals. There is also the conflict of the lion and the prophet with the hero, while the second topic included depicting the lion and lioness in religious scenes, which included depicting them in scenes of offering sacrifices and in scenes of their gathering with the gods after them as symbols of these gods. The lion and lioness also appeared in scenes of preying on domesticated animals such as bulls, deer, and even rabbits. It is worth noting that here we are faced with a pictorial language through which the ancient Iraqi expressed the danger posed by the lion and lioness to his domesticated animals and animals found in the wild, which led the ancient Iraqi to hunt and kill them.He possessed weapons such as spears, daggers, bows and arrows, and this is what the fourth topic included, scenes of hunting lions and lionesses, which conveyed to us the reality of the ancient Iraqis and the risks they endured when confronting these predatory animals.In an attempt to ward off their danger from his domesticated animals, on which he depends for his livelihood.