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A cylinder seal was a cylinder engraved with a 'picture story', used in ancient times to roll an impression onto a sheet of wet clay. First appearing in the Near East during the Uruk period, later versions would employ notations with Mesopotamian hieroglyphs. In later periods, they were used to notarize or attest to multiple impressions of clay documents.
The seal itself was made from hard stone, glass or Egyptian faience. Many varieties of material such as hematite, obsidian, steatite, amethyst and carnelian were used to make cylinder seals, but lapis lazuli was especially popular because of the beauty of the blue stone. Graves and other sites hoarding precious items such as gold, silver, beads, and gemstones often included one or two cylinder seals.
Cylinder seals are a form of impression seal, a category which includes the stamp seal and finger ring seal.
Uses
Cylinder seal impressions were made on a variety of surfaces:- clay tablets
- doors
- storage jars
- bales of commodities
- components of fabricated objects
- amulets
Theme-driven, memorial, and commemorative nature
The images depicted on cylinder seals were mostly theme-driven, often sociological or religious. Instead of addressing the authority of the seal, a better study may be of the thematic nature of the seals, since they presented the ideas of the society in pictographic and text form. In the action-scene example of Darius I's cylinder seal, Darius' chariot horse is trampling a deceased lion, while he is aiming with drawn bow at an upright, enraged lion impaled with two arrows. The scene is framed between two slim palm trees, a block of cuneiformic text, and above the scene, the Faravahar symbol of Ahura Mazda, the god representation of Zoroastrianism.
Seal impression: a component of a liquid-offering receptacle
The Metropolitan Museum of Art publication, Ancient Near Eastern Art, contains ten cylinder seals, (and some stone types), and their modern impressions. (One is in the "Picasso-esque style," and impossible to categorize, and it is also a shorter non-standard length cylinder.) A "ceremonial" ceramic 'Liquid-Offering Receptacle' is pictured (possibly Syrian), and, as an explanation for some of the "cult" object's themes —
- It explains food and liquid offerings, ritually, (presumably daily).
- It shows the "priest/priestess" class and dual roles of kingship and priest responsibilities: (by way of the Cylinder seal "story", but only 1/20th of the entire object presentation).
- Iconography. The building roof-top, w/ the undefinable human figure is holding back two felines by the butt of the tails, (large Lion-headed, small bodies).
- Iconography: A 'two-story' building, small (one room), circular ceiling timbers(3,4 per "story") in mud brick, and Roof-top: Human and lions, 2X-sized compared to the "building".
The 3.5 inch square by 12.5 inch clay 'Liquid-offering Receptacle' has an opening for the liquids, on the "roof" between the two lions. The liquid exits from the front through the door 'openings', front side) of each story. At the front of the "Two Lions", a 'panel' – (as a cornice, or a type of Lintel (archaeology)), runs the entire cylinder seal impression — in two halves. For the category of its Theme, the Cylinder seal impression approximates: "Procession, with Bearers Bringing Gifts to the God's Shrine". See the Metropolitan Museum ref., pg 23, (Object 22).
See also
References
- Bahn, Paul. Lost Treasures, Great Discoveries in World Archaeology, Ed. by Paul G. Bahn, (Barnes and Noble Books, New York), c 1999. Examples of, or discussions of Stamp seals, cylinder seals and a metal stamp seal.
- Garbini, Giovanni. Landmarks of the World's Art, The Ancient World, by Giovanni Garbini, (McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, Toronto), General Eds, Bernard S. Myers, New York, Trewin Copplestone, London, c 1966. Discussion, or pictures of about 25 cylinder seals"; also lists the "Scaraboid seal", an impression seal (needs to be a mirror/reverse to be an impression seal).
- Metropolitan Museum of Art. Cuneiform Texts in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Tablets, Cones, and Bricks of the Third and Second Millennia B.C., vol. 1 (New York, 1988). The final section (Bricks) of the book concerns cylinder Seals, with a foreward describing the purpose of the section as to instigate Research into cylinder Seals. The 'cylinder sealing' on the bricks, was done multiple times per brick. Some are of high quality, and some are not. (Also contains the only 2 el Amarna letters, in the USA, with Analysis.)
- Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ancient Near Eastern Art, (Reprint), Metr. Mus. of Art Photograph Studio, Designed, Alvin Grossman, Photography, Lynton Gardiner, (Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin (Spring 1984)), c 1984. 56pgs.
- National Geogr. Soc. Wonders of the Ancient World; National Geographic Atlas of Archeology, Norman Hammond, Consultant, Nat'l Geogr. Soc., (Multiple Staff authors), (Nat'l Geogr., R.H.Donnelley & Sons, Willard, OH), 1994, 1999, Reg. or Deluxe Ed. Origins of Writing, section, pp 68-75. Akkadian Cylinder seal, with its modern seal impression. p. 71.
- Robinson,Andrew. The Story of Writing, Andrew Robinson, (Thames and Hudson), c 1995, paperback ed., c 1999. (Page 70, Chapter 4: Cuneiform) Ur-Nammu cylinder seal (and impression), with 2095 BCE hieroglyphs, 2X-3X; Darius I, impression only, of chariot hunting scene, 2X, ca 500 BCE.
"Cylinder seal"