Near Eastern Seals

Not only their function in Ancient Near Eastern daily life makes stamp and cylinder seals an important subject of study, but also their outstanding aesthetic beauty. The examples of stamp and cylinder seals catalogued and described in the present volume are part of the collection of Ancient Near Eastern glyptic art acquired by the Kist family during the last century. The collection consists of hundreds of seals ranging from the fourth millennium Uruk and Jemdet Nasr periods up to the Achaemenid period of the first millennium B.C. The majority of the artifacts are published here for the first time, making the volume into a unique and essential resource for Ancient Near Eastern scholars and art historians.

Identification and classification of a private Danish collection of seals, which were acquired in Baghdad over a number of years more than 30 years ago. The collection covers a period extending from the late Ubaid to the Sasanian dynasty, c. 4000 BC -- 642 AD, and includes twenty-five cylinder seals from the Late Uruk period to Early Dynastic I, nine Early Dynastic II-III seals, eleven Akkadian and Post-Akkadian, six Neo-Sumerian, eight Old Babylonian, three seals of the second half of the second millennium BC, thirteen Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian stamp and cylinder seals, three seals of the second half of the first millennium BC, three bullae and a stamp seal of Seleucid date, thirty Sasanian stamp seals, and finally four fragmentary seals of uncertain date. The seals are listed in chronological order by period. The middle chronology has been used for dating.

In this survey, the author looks at the development and use of cylinder seals over 3000 years. She discusses the information that they provide on religion, design and aspects of daily life in the Near East for this period.

Studies of seals and sealing practices have traditionally investigated aspects of social, political, economic, and ideological systems in ancient societies throughout the Old World. Previously, scholarship has focused on description and documentation, chronology and dynastic histories, administrative function, iconography, and style. More recent studies have emphasized context, production and use, and increasingly, identity, gender, and the social lives of seals, their users, and the artisans who produced them. Using several methodological and theoretical perspectives, this volume presents up-to-date research on seals that is comparative in scope and focus. The cross-cultural and interdisciplinary approach advances our understanding of the significance of an important class of material culture of the ancient world. The volume will serve as an essential resource for scholars, students, and others interested in glyptic studies, seal production and use, and sealing practices in the Ancient Near East, Egypt, Ancient South Asia and the Aegean during the 4th-2nd Millennia BCE.

A rich source of pictorial information about the Ancient Near East comes to us in the form of miniature reliefs, created from the impressions made in clay by tiny engraved stone seals. Originally used for sealing goods and writing tablets, these seals now provide important evidence for administrative practices, technical development, and long-distance trade. The designs themselves record religious beliefs, mythical characters, architectural styles, musical instruments, festivals, sport, warfare, transportation, and fashions in dress. In this first comprehensive introduction to pre-Islamic Near Eastern seals, Dominique Collon discusses cylinder seals--a form unique to the Ancient Near East--as well as stamp seals, the earliest dating from the fifth millennium B.C. As a reflection of how their owners saw the world around them, Near Eastern seals are an essential tool for archaeologists in interpreting the past. A rich source of pictorial information about the Ancient Near East comes to us in the form of miniature reliefs, created from the impressions made in clay by tiny engraved stone seals. Originally used for sealing goods and writing tablets, these seals now provide important evidence for administrative practices, technical development, and long-distance trade. The designs themselves record religious beliefs, mythical characters, architectural styles, musical instruments, festivals, sport, warfare, transportation, and fashions in dress. In this first comprehensive introduction to pre-Islamic Near Eastern seals, Dominique Collon discusses cylinder seals--a form unique to the Ancient Near East--as well as stamp seals, the earliest dating from the fifth millennium B.C. As a reflection of how their owners saw the world around them, Near Eastern seals are an essential tool for archaeologists in interpreting the past.