26th-mid 24th century BC. A limestone cylinder seal depicting Šamaš voyaging on his boat, from left to right: a large long-bearded feline (lion?), above the back of a ridge with a broad rim and a large opening, a sphere above the head, following the sun barge of the Šamaš, on which the god sits on a folding chair at the rear, wearing a horned crown and a long fringed robe, with both hands raised, holding a long pole to control the barge; as a rower, the river god appears with the long-bearded head of a sheep, with long ears and a horned crown, as well as the scaled body and the tail of a fish, the bent back of the river god forming the whole barge, which the river god punts forward by a pole held in his human arms; the resulting low depth is more of a channel, rather than a river, waves are symbolised by guilloche below the boat. See L. Delaporte, CCBN. Paris, 1910, fig. 54; W. Orthmann, PKG 14, Berlin, 1975, fig. 131c; H. H. von der Osten, AOSN, Chicago, 1934, pl.VI, fig. 47, p. 18; B. Buchanan, Catalogue of Ancient Near Eastern Seals in the Ashmolean Museum. Vol. I. Cylinder Seals, Oxford, 1966, pl. 20, fig. 257 and 258; B. Buchanan, Early Near Eastern Seals in the Yale Babylonian Collection, New Haven, London, 1981, p. 130-131, fig. 345 and 346; P. Amiet, La glyptique mésopotamienne archaique, Paris, 1980, p. 472-477; Sotheby's, Antiquities Including Western Asiatic Antiquities and Cylinder Seals from the Erlenmeyer Collection (Part II), London, 12.06.1997, lots 39a and 50a; J.-Margueron, Mari. Métropole de l'Euphrate au IIIe et au début du IIe millémaire av. J.-C., Paris, 2004, p. 296, fig. 285, 7; for the boat with human heads. J. Black; A. Green, Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia. An Illustrated Dictionary, London, 1992, p.45b. 4.65 grams, 24mm (1"). The Signo collection, the property of a West London businessman, formed in the late 1980s-early 1990s; academically researched and catalogued by the late Professor Lambert in the early 1990s; collection number 2923. Accompanied by a museum-quality impression.