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Description (Modern):
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Matthews (1993) p. 62 no. 11
'U14586, UM 31.16.602. U14777, BM 1930.12.13.398. UE 3:398. SIS4. H >4.7, , L >10.1. Loosely arranged symbols: ?complex motif, NUN (Eridu), UNUG (Uruk), human/bull heads, leg cross, U4 AB (Larsa), ? UNUG, UB.
U14777. Sealing 12.2 x 7.8 x 4.7. Four rollings. Smooth ?ne-grained (?wood/ bone) peg impression, di. 2.1, with string impressions, including length suspended from peg, sd di. 0.3, sg di. 0.35. TP 0.6, SSD: Z. Base fairly level, with impressions of plastered wall. Functional type: door peg.'
UE 3 p. 37-38 no. 398
'A remarkable ideographic inscription made of pictographs with an abstract meaning in three main groups, and individual pictographs of various cities.
The first group of composite pictures is again a wind-rose made of two human heads and
two bull's heads. These archaic Sumerian heads are an anthropological document. They are remarkable for their receding forehead, long nose, small chin, large ears, and heavy eyebrows, and especially for the lock of hair, almost a queue, at the top of the skull. The group is sur- rounded by pictographs. First a club with curved blade of a very archaic type which, like the sign pa, means 'master of'. Next the sign UB with its understood meaning: the four points of the compass. Then the loom sign, which suggests the to and fro activity of the shuttle. Finally two uncertain ovals, jars or leaves (?).
The second group is a new version of the Swastika. Four legs point again at the four corners of the compass. The meaning is emphasized by two hands or arms, one right, one left, one up, one down, which leave no doubt as to the general sense of orientation.
The third group, which is used frequently in the inscriptions following, is not so easily explained. Its general outline is, in the main, a cross with unequal branches round a central circle. A vertical pole cuts cross and circle in two, and horizontal bars with dentils further divide the cross into four unequal parts. The two larger opposite quarters enclose a leg, one pointing up, one pointing down. At the four corners of the cross are sometimes stars or hands, and here leaves (?).
All three groups are variants of the wind-rose, made of four elements or pictographs, equal or in pairs, alternately up and down, which find their best interpretation in the historical title: lugal an-ub-da tab-tab-ba or shar ki
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