Triangular head

The figure with a triangular head A5q923.6, A5q939.9, A1.500, A1.486(GIVE COMPOSIT NUMBER) shows the figure with a frontal view and the human figure placed next as a frontal body and a head in profile. The triangular headed figure has a single drill hole for the neck, a triangular torso ,and a very small waist. His arms and tapered sword are tubular.The carving of the head and body are not flat but are full with rounded edges. However the forms have sharp angles which give the impression of the original material of the seal as being wood or possibly clay. There is a variation in size between the triangular man and the small figure to his left placed near his head and torso. This figure is more modeled in its body and its head is carved as a small triangle with rounded edges and a large drill hole for the single eye shown in front view. This has a similar effect as the carving of the eye in the Dotted eye style even if the line of the eye is not connected with the nose.

We can see from A1.500 carving style that the carving is at right angles to the background and edge of top surface also at right angles; only possible trace of a drill hole at the neck and the eye. These characteristics also contribute to the thinking that the original material for the seal was something softer than stone.

The heads of the birdman and the nude woman in the circus scene c1 (A1.127, A1.135, A1q978.6 and smaller fragments A1.128, A1.377, A5q933.4 and posibly A1.142) and its reverse c2 (A1.159, A5q835.3, A1.275) are done in the style of a large circle or oval in the center and the empty space around. This is extreme in these two figures in the circus scene. Also contributing to this impression is the fact that the heads of these two figures, while stylized, are shown in front view. In the case of the nude woman her whole figure is shown in front view- but the figure of the bird man is shown in profile and only the eye part of the face is seen in front view. This front view is not well articulated as it has only the exterior line as a slight oval and a drill hole for the eye in the center of this, the carving of the drill hole is continued down to indicate the very thin neck.

The fact the circus scene is connected to Dotted Eye Style is confirmed by the carving of the two human figures in the scene; they have the same dotted eye and full bodies with undifferentiated volumes as the figures in the Innin Shadu scene (h4).

A5.135, Lyre-att (q4), lyre-table (q6,q7 and probably q8)

Comments on A5.135 Many times in this style the surface of the figure is flat (as in lion here). The characteristic deeply incised decoration on the edge is shown by the lion’s mane carved along the upper edge of the figure. The fact that it is carved along the upper edge is only significant in that it was not seen by the seal cutter as a realistic design (and so to be shown also on the surface and lower edge of the figure) but as an edge pattern. This is also the case in the hair behind the leg of the caprid on the left. Some animals have full bodies as the lion on the left but here too a small portion of the lion’s mane with the characteristic deeply cut hair pattern on the edge is hinted at.