7th-mid 6th century BC. A carved carnelian Neo-Babylonian cylinder seal with worshipping scene; a male worshipper in a globular head-dress, wearing a long, vertically-striated and fringed robe, stands facing right, pointing with his raised left hand and extending the right, palm up, towards two deities who face him; the front god, also in a globular head-dress, wearing a vertically-striated, open robe over a kilt, both fringed, raises his left hand, palm up; in the right extended he holds a double-topped mace with two balls on each end; from his back protrude three rays, each ending in a globe; between worshipper and god are above the Pleiades (but one globe absent) and below the tasselled spade (MAR / marru), the symbol of Marduk, the chief god of Babylon; right behind the god a second with a high globular head-dress seats on a throne with a high back, ending up in a ball, wearing a long fringed robe he raises his left hand, palm up, and holds in his right extended a ring of seven drill-holes; above between the both deities is a crescent; a vertical row of four stars serves as a scene separator; thus on this seal the three deities Marduk, Venus-Star and the Pleiades are worshipped; line borders at top and bottom; accompanied by a museum-quality impression. For this image cf. Collon, D. Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum. Cylinder Seals V. Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Periods, London, 2001, pl. XIX-XX; for the row of stars as scene separator see ibid., No.234 and 238. 4.26 grams, 17mm (3/4"). Property of a London lady, part of her family's Swiss collection; formerly acquired in the 1980s. [No Reserve]