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.

Le sceau-cylindre a, dès l'origine (fin du IVe millénaire avant notre ère), acquis une structure et une fonction narratives particulières et l’iconographie de ce que l’on appelle la glyptique est devenue un champ d'étude à part entière de l'archéologie proche-orientale.

Les sceaux cylindres ont notamment été utilisés pour sceller et authentifier des documents légaux, comme les contrats de vente ou de prêt, les reçus, les listes de rations, les pièces officielles (traités, etc.). À certaines époques, plutôt que de dérouler le sceau directement sur la tablette, l'habitude a été prise d'enfermer la tablette dans une enveloppe d'argile qui portait le sceau. Celui-ci avait donc valeur de signature, garantissant la propriété d'un individu, son engagement dans une transaction ou la légalité de cette dernière.

• Usages du sceau cylindre.
  
• Typologie des sceaux.
  
• Quelques grandes collections de sceaux cylindres.
  
• L'exemple de la collection des sceaux de la Bibliothèque nationale de France.
  

Seals on the 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.

The CDLI "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 Seals and sealing in CDLI files).

Buchanan, B. 1966. Catalogue of Ancient Near Eastern Seals in the Ashmolean Museum, Volume 1: Cylinder 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.

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.

Merrillees, P. H. 2005. Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum: Cylinder Seals, Vol. VI. London: British Museum Publications.

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.

Wiseman, D. J. 1962. Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum: Cylinder Seals, Vol. I. London: Trustees of the British Museum.

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.

Boehmer, J. M. 1965. Die Entwicklung der Glyptik während der Akkad-zeit. Berlin: De Gruyter.

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.

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.

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. Archaic Bookkeeping: Early Writing and Techniques of the Economic Administration in the Ancient Near East. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Porada, E. 1980. ‘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.

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.