“The Seals of Curium,” c. 1950

Two of the most curious objects found in the precinct of Apollon are crudely carved cylindrical seal stones of which the one assigned to the University Museum is/dark green at the base [handwritten: light] of steatite, grey on top. This color contrast doubtlessly enhanced the value of the object. The top is narrowed [handwritten: xxx], shaped to resemble a rosette and pierced for suspension. The bottom has a design which is difficult to interpret beyond a rosette formed by seven drillings in the center. The cylindrical sealing surface is engraved with [handwritten: xx] two facing men, a rampant griffin and a hero fighting a lion. [handwritten: x]Despite the crudeness of the design it is possible nevertheless to establish that the resemblance to Mesopotamian cylinders/ designs of the latter third millennium, is very superficial and that the stamp-cylinder was surely carved/in imitation of an earlier first millennium in the earlier first millennium example. The example may have been a stamp cylinder of the type [handwritten: xxx] for example, at Byblos and found, also been a stamp cylinder of the type for example, at Byblos and found, in Lemnos [handwritten: 2]. The appearance of the griffin, however, as well as the monster's posture of which the hindlegs recall these of the bird in the "tree field jug in the Cyprus Museum (Guide pl. XIV:2) are sufficient to place the design in the ninth to seventh centuries B.C.