Early 1st millennium BC. An unusually layered lapis lazuli seal with tapering column pierced for suspension; the incuse design comprises a pair of opposed human-headed winged bulls with scorpion tail to the back, on a baseline with crescent above; accompanied by a museum-quality impression. Cf. Collon, D., First Impressions. Cylinder Seals in the Ancient Near East, London, 2005, items 354, 360, for type.28 grams, 42mm (1 3/4"). Property of a Connecticut, USA, collector; formerly in a New York, USA, collection; acquired from S. Khayat before 1970; this lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by AIAD certificate number no. 10468-167850. These figures are known as Girtablulu, or 'scorpion-people' in Akkadian. The creature is first seen in the art of the Third Dynasty of Ur and of the Akkadian period, but was common only in Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian times. The type survived into the art of the Hellenistic period. As attendants of Shamash, the sun-god, the scorpion-men were also, by the Neo-Assyrian Period, powerful protectors against demons. Wooden figurines of them are prescribed, along with figurines of other beneficent demons and monsters, in Neo-Assyrian instructions for rituals of protective magic, and an example has been found in a storeroom at the 7th century BC Urartian city of Teishebaini. In the Babylonian Epic of Creation, the scorpion-man is counted as one of Tiamat's creatures, while in the Epic of Gilgamesh, a terrifying scorpion-man and scorpion-woman guard the gate of Mount Mashu, where the sun rises.