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[[Seals and sealings in the Ancient Near East]]
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seals_and_sealings_in_the_ancient_near_east [2015/01/28 14:23] – [[[resources_links_bibliographies|Resources, Links, Bibliographies]]] millerseals_and_sealings_in_the_ancient_near_east [2020/03/03 15:22] (current) – [Data] lafont
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-====== Seals and sealings in the ancient Near East ======+====== Seals and sealings in the Ancient Near East ======
 ~~NOTOC~~ ~~NOTOC~~
  
 +[[Main keywords]]: economic and social life; seals\\
 +Secondary: arts and crafts; jewellery; stone 
 ==== Introduction ==== ==== Introduction ====
  
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 For more than three millennia cylinder seals, which appear to have originated in Southern Mesopotamia or Western Iran, were in constant use across most of the eastern Mediterranean, in every area that cuneiform culture touched. A portable, engraved cylindrical item, it could be rolled over wet clay to seal and mark it. The technology was easily adaptable and so pervasive that it became an essential aspect of various areas of Mesopotamian life: administrative, legal, personal, social, religious.\\ For more than three millennia cylinder seals, which appear to have originated in Southern Mesopotamia or Western Iran, were in constant use across most of the eastern Mediterranean, in every area that cuneiform culture touched. A portable, engraved cylindrical item, it could be rolled over wet clay to seal and mark it. The technology was easily adaptable and so pervasive that it became an essential aspect of various areas of Mesopotamian life: administrative, legal, personal, social, religious.\\
  
-L'usage du sceau cylindre est étroitement lié à l'histoire de l'écriture cunéiforme sur tablette d'argile. Fondamentalement, comme son nom l'indique,  il s'agit d'un petit cylindre le plus souvent en pierre dure, d’une hauteur moyenne de 35 mm pour 15 mm de diamètre, et gravé en entaille d'une scène –figurative ou non–, augmentée parfois d'une inscription. Cette gravure était réalisée "en négatif" sur le cylindre, afin qu'un "positif" de l'empreinte puisse être déroulé sur l'argile fraîche. La plupart du temps, les sceaux sont perforés longitudinalement ce qui permettait d'y faire passer une cordelette ou une épingle afin qu'il puisse être porté en pendentif.    //[[seals_introduction|read more]]//\\+L'usage du sceau cylindre est étroitement lié à l'histoire de l'écriture cunéiforme sur tablette d'argile. Fondamentalement, comme son nom l'indique,  il s'agit d'un petit cylindre le plus souvent en pierre dure, d’une hauteur moyenne de 35 mm pour 15 mm de diamètre, et gravé en intaille d'une scène –figurative ou non–, augmentée parfois d'une inscription. Cette gravure était réalisée "en négatif" sur le cylindre, afin qu'un "positif" de l'empreinte puisse être déroulé sur l'argile fraîche. La plupart du temps, les sceaux sont perforés longitudinalement ce qui permettait d'y faire passer une cordelette ou une épingle afin qu'il puisse être porté en pendentif.    //[[seals_introduction|read more]]//\\
  
  
 +==== The use of seals in the Ancient Near East ====
 +
 +Go [[seals diachronic|here]] for a diachronic view of the use of seals in the Ancient Near East.\\
 +
 +[[Important seals and seal impressions]].\\
  
 ==== Data ====  ==== Data ==== 
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 * [[Seal inscriptions]] * [[Seal inscriptions]]
  
-* [[Seals and glyptic by region]]+* [[List of physical seals with original impressions]]
  
-* [[Quelques grandes collections de sceaux cylindres]]+* [[Major collections of seals]]
  
 * [[L'exemple de la collection des sceaux de la Bibliothèque nationale de France]] * [[L'exemple de la collection des sceaux de la Bibliothèque nationale de France]]
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-**Seals on the CDLI database**+**Seals and CDLI**
  
 Online resources for the study of Mesopotamian stamp and cylinder seals are difficult to come by, even though this small administrative tool has played a very substantial role in the development of writing, and in the smooth functioning of advanced ancient societies. Often seals come with incised legends naming the owner, his profession or educational standing, his patronymic and, looking up in the Mesopotamian hierarchy, his administrative affiliations. Online resources for the study of Mesopotamian stamp and cylinder seals are difficult to come by, even though this small administrative tool has played a very substantial role in the development of writing, and in the smooth functioning of advanced ancient societies. Often seals come with incised legends naming the owner, his profession or educational standing, his patronymic and, looking up in the Mesopotamian hierarchy, his administrative affiliations.
  
-The CDLI [[http://cdli.ucla.edu/projects/seals/seals.html|"Mesopotamian Seals"]] project is offered in order to bring attention to the limited text annotation files of the CDLI, as one of several avenues of research available for the study of seals, a sub-field more often treated by archaeologists and art historians than by philologists. The CDLI catalogue currently contains entries documenting ca. 32,450 Mesopotamian artifacts related to seals and sealing: 31,300 represent clay tablets, tags or other sealings, most of whose seal impressions included owner legends, and currently just 1,150 are physical seals; 5,370 more CDLI entries represent composites derived from seal impressions, and therefore the negatives of original cylinder seals now lost (see also R. K. Englund's contribution [[http://cdli.ucla.edu/pubs/cdln/php/single.php?id=000031|Seals and sealing in CDLI files]]). For information on the process of digitizing seals, see Klaus Wagensonner's presentation, {{:undefined:workshop_digitizing_wagensonner_2014.pdf|"digitising in the round"}}.  +The CDLI [[http://cdli.ucla.edu/projects/seals/seals.html|"Mesopotamian Seals"]] project is offered in order to bring attention to the limited text annotation files of the CDLI, as one of several avenues of research available for the study of seals, a sub-field more often treated by archaeologists and art historians than by philologists. The CDLI catalogue currently contains entries documenting ca. 32,450 Mesopotamian artifacts related to seals and sealing: 31,300 represent clay tablets, tags or other sealings, most of whose seal impressions included owner legends, and currently just 1,150 are physical seals; 5,370 more CDLI entries represent composites derived from seal impressions, and therefore the negatives of original cylinder seals now lost (see also R. K. Englund's contribution [[http://cdli.ucla.edu/pubs/cdln/php/single.php?id=000031|Seals and sealing in CDLI files]]). For information on the process of digitizing seals, see Klaus Wagensonner's presentation, {{:undefined:workshop_digitizing_wagensonner_2014.pdf|"digitising in the round"}}.  
 + 
 +In 2019 a new website (in English and in French) devoted to seals and directly linked to the CDLI was launched, called [[http://sespoa.huma-num.fr|SESPOA (Sceaux et Empreintes de sceau du Proche-Orient ancien)]].
  
 ====Resources, Links, Bibliographies==== ====Resources, Links, Bibliographies====
  
- +[[Seals_bibliographies|read more]]
-* [[:buchananmooreystampsealstypology.pdf|Link to PDF of Buchanan and Moorey's typology of stamp seals (1988)]]\\ +
- +
-**Catalogues** +
- +
-**Large Catalogues** +
- +
-**Amiet, Pierre.** 1972. //Glyptique susienne, Volume 1 – 2// (= Mémoires de la Délégation Archaéologique en Iran 43; Paris. +
- +
-**Buchanan, B.**  +
-1981. //Early Near Eastern Seals in the Yale Babylonian Collection//. New Haven: Yale University Press. +
- +
-1966. //Catalogue of Ancient Near Eastern Seals in the Ashmolean Museum, Volume 1: Cylinder Seals//. Oxford: Oxford University Press. +
- +
-**Buchanan, B. and Moorey, P. R. S.**  +
-1988. //Catalogue of Ancient Near Eastern Seals in the Ashmolean Museum, Volume 3: The Iron Age Stamp Seals (c. 1200-350 B.C.)//. Oxford: Oxford University Press. +
- +
-1984. //Catalogue of Ancient Near Eastern Seals in the Ashmolean Museum, Volume 2: Prehistoric Stamp Seals//. Oxford: Oxford University Press. +
- +
-**Collon, D.** +
-2001. //Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum: Cylinder Seals, Vol. V//. London: British Museum Publications. +
- +
-1986. //Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum: Cylinder Seals, Vol III//. London: British Museum Publications. +
- +
-1982. //Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum: Cylinder Seals, Vol. II//. London: British Museum Publications. +
- +
-**Delaporte, L.**  +
-1920. //Catalogue des cylindres, cachets et pierres gravées de style oriental du Musée du Louvre//. Paris: Hachette. +
- +
-**Hammade, H.** +
-1994. //Cylinder Seals From the Collections of the Aleppo Museum, Syrian Arab Republic, Vol. 2: Seals of Known Provenance//. Oxford: Tempus Reparatum. +
- +
-1987. //Cylinder Seals From the Collections of the Aleppo Museum, Syrian Arab Republic, Vol. 2: Seals of Unknown Provenience//. Oxford: B.A.R. +
- +
-**Keel-Leu, H. and Teissier, B.**  +
-2004. //Die vorderasiatischen Rollsiegel der Sammlungen «Bibel+Orient» der Universität Freiburg Schweiz//. Fribourg: Academic Press. +
- +
-**Kist, J.**  +
-2003. //Ancient Near Eastern Seals from the Kist Collection: Three Millennia of Miniature Reliefs//. Leiden: Brill. +
- +
-**Le Brun, A.** 1978. "La glyptique du niveau 17B de l’acropole (campagne de 1972). " Cahiers de la D.A.F.I. (CahDAFI) Paris.  +
- +
-**Merrillees, P. H.**  +
-2005. //Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum: Cylinder Seals, Vol. VI//. London: British Museum Publications. +
- +
-1990. //Cylinder and Stamp Seals in Australian Collections//. Victoria, Australia: Victoria College Press. +
- +
-**Møller, E.**  +
-1992. //Ancient Near Eastern Seals in a Danish Collection//. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press. +
- +
-**Moorey, P. R. S., and Gurney, O. R.**  +
-1978. ‘Ancient Near Eastern Cylinder Seals Acquired by the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford 1963-1973’. //Iraq// 40. No. 1: 41-60. +
- +
-**Porada, E.** +
-1947. //Mesopotamian Art in Cylinder Seals of the Pierpont Morgan Library//. New York: Pierpont Morgan Library. +
- +
-**Porada, E., with Buchanan, B.** +
-1948. //Corpus of Ancient Near Eastern Seals in North American Collections: The Collection of the Pierpont Morgan Library (2 volumes)//. Washington, D.C.: Bollingen Foundation. +
- +
-**Roach, K.J.**  +
-2008. //The Elamite Cylinder Seal Corpus, c. 3500 - 1000 BC// Doctor of Philosophy, (Near Eastern) Archaeology The University of Sydney. [[http://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/handle/2123/5352 | Download PDFs]] +
- +
-**Teissier, B.**  +
-1984. //Ancient Near Eastern Cylinder Seals From the Marcopoli Collection// Berkeley, California: University of California Press. +
- +
-**Wiseman, D. J.**  +
-1962. //Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum: Cylinder Seals, Vol. I//. London: Trustees of the British Museum.\\ +
-\\ +
- +
-**Small Catalogues** +
- +
-**Ben-Tor, A.** +
-1978. //Cylinder Seals of Third-Millenium Palestine//. Cambridge, Massachusetts: American Schools of Oriental Research. +
- +
-**Collon, D.** +
-1982. //The Alalakh Cylinder Seals: A New Catalogue of the Actual Seals Excavated by Sir Leonard Woolley at Tell Atchana, and From Neighbouring Sites on the Syrian-Turkish Border//. Oxford: B.A.R. +
- +
-**Frankfort, H.** +
-1955. //Stratified Cylinder Seals From the Diyala Region//. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. +
- +
-**Glock, A.** +
-1988. //Minuscule Monuments of Ancient Art: Catalogue of Near Eastern Stamp and Cylinder Seals Collected by Virginia E. Bailey in Memory of Katherine J. Hammersley//. Madison, New Jersey: New Jersey Museum of Archaeology at Drew University. +
- +
-**Kjærum, P.** +
-1983. //Failaka/Dilmun : The Second Millennium Settlements, Vol.1:1, The Stamp and Cylinder Seals: Plates and Catalogue Descriptions//. Moesgård, Aarhus: Jysk Arkæologisk Selskab. +
- +
-**Meijer, D. J. W.** +
-1978. //Mesopotamian Cylinder Seals in the Allard Pierson Museum, Amsterdam//. Leiden: S.N.  +
- +
-**Noveck, M.** +
-1975. //The Mark of Ancient Man: Ancient Near Eastern Stamp Seals and Cylinder Seals, The Gorelick Collection//. New York: Brooklyn Museum. +
- +
-**Ravn, O. E.** +
-1960. //A Catalogue of Oriental Cylinder Seals and Seal Impressions in the Danish National Museum//. Copenhagen: Nationalmuseet. +
- +
-**Van Buren, E. D.** +
-1959. //Catalogue of the Ugo Sissa Collection of Stamp and Cylinder Seals of Mesopotamia//. Rome: S.N. +
- +
-1940. //The Cylinder Seals of the Pontifical Biblical Institute//. Rome: Pontificium Institutum Biblicum. +
- +
-**Williams-Forte, E.** +
-1976. //Ancient Near Eastern Seals: A Selection of Stamp and Cylinder Seals From the Collection of Mrs William H. Moore//. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. \\ +
-\\ +
- +
-**Technological Studies** +
- +
-**Gorelick, L.** +
-1975. ‘Near Eastern cylinder seals studied with dental radiography‘. //Dental Radiography and Photography//, v. 48, no. 1: 17-21. +
- +
-**Mahrzahn, J.**  +
-1997. ‘Der «Siegelschneider» nach keilschriftlichen Quellen’. In //Mit Sieben Siegeln versehen: Das Siegel in Wirtschaft und Kunst des Alten Orients//. Ed. E. Klengel-Brandt. Berlin: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Vorderasiatisches Museum. +
- +
-**Sax, M.**  +
-1991. ‘Innovative Technqiues Used to Decorate the Perforations of Some Akkadian Rock Crystal Cylinder Seals’. //Iraq//, 53: 91-95. +
- +
-**Sax, M., Collon, D., and Leese, M. N.**  +
-1993. ‘The Availability of Raw Materials for near Eastern Cylinder Seals during the Akkadian, Post Akkadian and Ur III Periods’. //Iraq//, 55: 77-90. +
- +
-**Sax, M., Meeks, N. D., and Collon, D.**  +
-2000. ‘The Early Development of the Lapidary Engraving Wheel in Mesopotamia’. //Iraq//, 62: 157-176. +
- +
-**Sax, M. and Meeks, N. D.**  +
-1994. ‘The Introduction of Wheel Cutting as a Technique for Engraving Cylinder Seals: Its Distinction from Filing’. //Iraq//, 56: 153-166. +
- +
-**Sax, M., McNabb J., and Meeks, N. D.**  +
-1998. ‘Methods of engraving Mesopotamian cylinder seals: experimental confirmation’. //Archaeometry//, 40: 1-21.\\ +
-\\ +
- +
- +
-**Glyptic Studies** +
- +
-**Boehmer, J. M.**  +
-1965. //Die Entwicklung der Glyptik während der Akkad-zeit//. Berlin: De Gruyter. +
- +
-**Pittman, Holly.** +
-2013. 'Imagery in administrative context: Susiana and the west in the fourth millennium BC'. //Iran and Its Neighbours. Local developments and long-range interactions in the fourth millennium BC//. 293-336.\\ +
-\\ +
- +
- +
-**General Studies** +
- +
-**Al-Gailani Werr, L.**  +
-1988. ‘Cylinder Seals Made of Clay’. //Iraq// 50: 1-24. +
- +
-1986. ‘The Sippar Workshop of Seal Engraving’. //American Journal of Archaeology//, Vol. 90, No. 4: 461-463. +
- +
-1988. //Studies in the Chronology and Regional Style of Old Babylonian Cylinder Seals//. Malibu: Undena Publications. +
- +
-**Altavilla, S. and Walker, C. B. F.**  +
-2009. //Late Babylonian Seal Impressions on Tablets in the British Museum. Part 1: Sippar.// Messina: Di.Sc.A.M. +
- +
-**Amiet, P.**  +
-1980. ‘The Mythological Repertory in Cylinder Seals of the Agade Period (c. 2335-2155 B.C.)’. In //Ancient Art in Seals//. Ed. E. Porada. Princeton: Princeton University Press: 35-59. +
- +
-**Asher-Greve, J. M.**  +
-1995. ‘A Seal-Cutter’s Trial-Piece in Berlin and a New Look at the Diqdiqqeh Lapiday Workshops’. //Iraq// 57: 49-60. +
- +
-**Auerbach, E.**  +
-1991. ‘Heirloom seals and political legitimacy in Late Bronze Age Syria’. //Akkadica// 74-75: 19-36. +
- +
-**Brandes, M. A.** +
-1979. //Siegelabrollungen aus den archaischen Bauschichten in Uruk-Warka//. Wiesbaden: F. Steiner. +
- +
-**Brinkman, J. A.**  +
-1981. ‘The Western Asiatic Seals Found at Thebes’. //Archiv für Orientforschung// 28: 73-78. +
- +
-**Charpin, D.**  +
-1980. //Archives familiales et propriété privée en Babylonie ancienne: étude des documents de «Tell Sifr»//. Genève: Droz. +
- +
-**Collon, D.**  +
-2005. //First Impressions: Cylinder Seals in the Ancient Near East// (2nd Ed). London: British Museum Press. +
- +
-1975. //The Seal Impressions from Tell Atchana/Alalakh//. Kevelaer: Butzon & Bercker. +
- +
-**Feingold, R.** +
-2014. //Engraved on Stone : Mesopotamian Cylinder Seals and Seal Inscriptions in the Old Babylonian Period//. Piscataway, New Jersey: Gorgias Press. +
- +
-**Greengus, S.**  +
-1995. ‘Legal and Social Institutions of Ancient Mesopotamia’. In //Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, Vol. I//. Ed. J. Sasson, et al. New York: Scribners: 469-484.  +
- +
-**Hallo, W. W.**  +
-‘Seals Lost and Found’. In //Seals and Sealing in the Ancient Near East//. Ed. M. Gibson and R. D. Biggs. Malibu: Undena Publications: 55-60. +
- +
-**Hamilton, R. W.**  +
-1967. ‘A Sumerian Cylinder Seal with Handle in the Ashmolean Museum’. //Iraq// 29, No. 1: 34-41. +
- +
-**Kirk Grayson, A. and Ruby J.**  +
-1997. ‘Instructions for Inscribing Sennacherib’s Seal’. //Iraq// 59: 89-91. +
- +
-**Klengel-Brandt, E (Ed).**  +
-1997. //Mit Sieben Siegeln versehen: Das Siegel in Wirtschaft und Kunst des Alten Orients//. Berlin: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Vorderasiatisches Museum. +
- +
-**Larsen, M. T.**  +
-1977. ‘Seal Use in the Old Assyrian Period’. In //Seals and Sealing in the Ancient Near East//. Ed. M. Gibson and R. D. Biggs. Malibu: Undena Publications: 89-106. +
- +
-**Marcus, M. I.** +
-1990. ‘Glyptic Style and Seal Function: the Hasanlu Collection’. In //Aegean Seals, Sealings and Administration//. Ed. T. G. Palaima. Liège : Université de Liège, Histoire de l'art et archéologie de la Grèce antique. +
- +
-**Moortgat, A.**  +
-1940. //Vorderasiatische Rollsiegel: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Steinschneidekunst//. Berlin: Verlag Gebr. Mann.  +
- +
-**Nissen, H. J.**  +
-1977. ‘Aspects of the Development of Early Cylinder Seals’. In //Seals and Sealing in the Ancient Near East//. Ed. M. Gibson and R. D. Biggs. Malibu: Undena Publications: 15-24. +
- +
-**Nissen, H. J., Damerow, P., and Englund, R. K.**  +
-1993. A//rchaic Bookkeeping: Early Writing and Techniques of the Economic Administration in the Ancient Near East//. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. +
- +
-**Porada, E.**  +
-1981. ‘The Cylinder Seals Found at Thebes in Boeotia’. //Archiv für Orientforschung// 28: 1-70. +
- +
-1960. ‘Notes on the Sargonid Cylinder Seal, Ur 364’. //Iraq// 22: 116-123. +
- +
-1947. //Seal impressions of Nuzi//. New Haven, Connecticut: American Schools of Oriental Research. +
- +
-**Rathje, W. L.**  +
-1977. ‘New Tricks for Old Seals: A Progress Report’. In //Seals and Sealing in the Ancient Near East//. Ed. M. Gibson and R. D. Biggs. Malibu: Undena Publications: 25-32. +
- +
-**Renger, J.**  +
-1977. ‘Legal Aspects of Sealing in Ancient Mesopotamia’. In //Seals and Sealing in the Ancient Near East//. Ed. M. Gibson and R. D. Biggs. Malibu: Undena Publications: 75-88. +
- +
-**Rohn, K.**  +
-2011. //Beschriftete mesopotamische Siegel der Frühdynastischen und der Akkad-Zeit//. Fribourg: Academic Press. +
- +
-**Singer, I.**  +
-1995. ‘Borrowing Seals at Emar’. In //Seals and Sealing in the Ancient Near East: Proceedings of the Symposium held on September 2, 1993, Jerusalem, Israel//. Ed. J. Goodnick Westenholz. Jerusalem: Bible Lands Museum: 57-64. +
- +
-**Sollberger, E.**  +
-1966. ‘Lettre d’époque sargonique’. //Revue d'Assyriologie// 60: 71. +
- +
-**Steinkeller, P.**  +
-1977. ‘Seal Practice in the Ur III Period’. In //Seals and Sealing in the Ancient Near East//. Ed. M. Gibson and R. D. Biggs. Malibu: Undena Publications: 41-54. +
- +
-**Teissier, B.**  +
-1998. ‘Sealing and Seals: Seal-Impressions from the Reign of Hammurabi on Tablets from Sippar in the British Museum’. //Iraq//, 60: 109-186. +
- +
-1994. //Sealing and Seals on Texts from Kültepe Kārum Level 2//. Istanbul: Nederlands Historisch-Archaeologisch Instituut te Istanbul. +
- +
-**Wiseman, D. J.**  +
-1958. //The Vassal-Treaties of Esarhaddon//. London: British School of Archaeology +
-in Iraq. +
- +
-**Zettler, R. L.**  +
-1977. ‘The Sargonic Royal Seal: A Consideration of Sealing in Mesopotamia’. In //Seals and Sealing in the Ancient Near East//. Ed. M. Gibson and R. D. Biggs. Malibu: Undena Publications: 33-40. +
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