18 In Good Company

A cylinder seal found during recent excavations at Tel Akko (ancient Akko, an important southern Phoenician city) provides intriguing insights into the site’s history under Assyrian imperial rule. Discovered in the area of Iron Age II–III administrative quarters, the seal can be dated to the late eighth century BCE. It depicts an exceptionally complex scene of a ritual encounter, staging the Assyrian king and no less than three major deities: a goddess (most likely Ishtar), the storm-god (Adad) as the composition’s central figure, and the moon-god (Sîn). This paper situates the cylinder seal within its archaeological context, examines its material characteristics and iconography, and discusses the find’s implications against the religious and socio-political background of early Sargonid rule in the southern Levant.