Khollan Vafa : اخوان صفا

A cylinder seal is a small round cylinder, typically about one inch (2 to 3 cm) in width, engraved with written characters or figurative scenes or both, used in ancient times to roll an impression onto a two-dimensional surface, generally wet clay. According to some sources, cylinder seals were invented around 3500 BC in the Near East, at the contemporary sites of Uruk in southern Mesopotamia and slightly later at Susa in south-western Iran during the Proto-Elamite period, and they follow the development of stamp seals in the Halaf culture or slightly earlier.^[4] They are linked to the invention of the latter's cuneiform writing on clay tablets.^[5]^[6]

Cylinder seals are a form of impression seal, a category which includes the stamp seal and finger ring seal. They survive in fairly large numbers and are important as art, especially in the Babylonian and earlier Assyrian periods. Impressions into a soft material can be taken without risk of damage to the seal, and they are often displayed in museums together with a modern impression on a small strip.

Materials

The cylinder seals themselves are typically made from hardstones, and some are a form of engraved gem. They may also use glass or ceramics, like Egyptian faience. Many varieties of material such as hematite, obsidian, steatite, amethyst, lapis lazuli and carnelian were used to make cylinder seals. As the alluvial country of Mesopotamia lacks good stone for carving, the large stones of early cylinders were imported probably from Iran.^[7] Most seals have a hole running through the centre of the body, and they are thought to have typically been worn on a necklace to be always available when needed.

Uses

Cylinder-seal impressions served as an administrative tool, a form of signature,^[8] and for product branding.^[9] The cylinders themselves functioned as jewelry and as magical amulets;^[10] later versions^[when?] would employ notations with Mesopotamian cuneiform. In later periods, they were used^{[citation needed]} to notarize or attest to multiple impressions of clay documents. Graves and other sites housing precious items such as gold, silver, beads, and gemstones often included one or two cylinder seals, as honorific grave goods.

Most Mesopotamian cylinder seals form an image using depressions in the cylinder surface (see lead photo above) to make bumps on the impression and are used primarily on wet clay; but some cylinder seals (sometimes called roller stamps) print images using ink or similar using raised areas on the cylinder (such as the San Andrés cylinder seal, found not in Mesopotamia but in an Olmec archaeological site in the present-day Mexican state of Tabasco) and produce images on cloth and other similar two-dimensional surfaces.

Cylinder seal impressions appear on a variety of surfaces:

amulets
bales of commodities
bricks
clay tablets
cloth
components of fabricated objects
doors
envelopes
storage jars

Theme-driven, memorial, and commemorative nature

The images depicted on cylinder seals were mostly theme-driven and 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 a famous cylinder depicting Darius I of Persia, he is aiming his drawn bow at an upright enraged lion impaled by two arrows, while his chariot horse is trampling a dead lion. The scene is framed between two slim palm trees and a block of cuneiform text and, above the scene, the Faravahar symbol of Ahura Mazda, the god representation of Zoroastrianism.

Categories of seals

The reference below, Garbini, covers many of the following categories of cylinder seal. Dominique Collon's book First Impressions, which is dedicated to the topic, has over 1000 illustrations.

A categorization of cylinder seals:

Akkadian cylinder seals.
- Akkadian seal, c. 2300 BC, stone seal w/ modern impression. See National Geographic Ref. The glyptic (the Scenes) shows "God in barge", people, and offerings.
Assyrian cylinder seals.
Cypriote Cylinder Seals.
Egyptian cylinder seals.
- Predynastic Egyptian Naqada era tombs and graves (imported).
- Egyptian Faience; see Pepi I ext link.
Hittite cylinder seals.
- Clay envelope usage, etc.; see Kultepe.
Kassite (the Kassites), cylinder seals.
Mittanian cylinder seals.
Old Babylonian cylinder seals.
Persian cylinder seals; see Darius I, Robinson ref.
Proto-Elamite cylinder seals.
Sumerian cylinder seals.
- Seals of the "Moon-God"; see Sin.
- see Ref. (Robinson), Seal of Ur-Nammu, 2112-2095 BC. Close-up picture of Seal, and adjacent 'modern impression', high resolution, 2X-3X natural size :: see https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_1880-1009-1
- "Shamash pictographic seals"; see Mari, Syria.
Neo-Sumerian cylinder seals.
- see Ref (Garbini), "Seated God, and Worshippers", Cylinder seal, and a modern Impressin, p. 40, (British Museum, London).
Syrian cylinder seals.

References

British Museum notice WA 121544
Crawford, Harriet (2013). The Sumerian World. Routledge. p. 622. ISBN 9781136219115.
Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and; Hansen, Donald P.; Pittman, Holly (1998). Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur. UPenn Museum of Archaeology. p. 78. ISBN 9780924171550.
Brown, Brian A.; Feldman, Marian H. (2013). Critical Approaches to Ancient Near Eastern Art. Walter de Gruyter. p. 304. ISBN 9781614510352.
Mesopotamian cylinder seals, British Museum
Why Cylinder Seals? Engraved Cylindrical Seal Stones of the Ancient Near East, Fourth to First Millennium B.C., by Edith Porada © 1993 College Art Association., The Art Bulletin, Vol. 75, No. 4 (Dec., 1993), pp. 563-582, JSTOR
Why Cylinder Seals? Engraved Cylindrical Seal Stones of the Ancient Near East, Fourth to First Millennium B.C., by Edith Porada © 1993 College Art Association., The Art Bulletin, Vol. 75, No. 4 (Dec., 1993), pp. 563-582, JSTOR
"Ancient Cylinder Seals". Johns Hopkins Archaeological Museum. Johns Hopkins University. Archived from the original on 30 June 2019. Retrieved 23 April 2023. Throughout much of the ancient Near Eastern world, from the end of the 4th millennium B.C.E. until the 5th century B.C.E., cylinder seals were used both as administrative tools – functioning much as a signature does on an official document today, or used to mark one's property and to prevent tampering with sealed doors or containers [...].
Greenberg, Raphael (7 November 2019). "Urbanism and Its Demise in the Early Bronze II and III". The Archaeology of the Bronze Age Levant: From Urban Origins to the Demise of City-States, 3700-1000 BCE. Cambridge World Archaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 92. ISBN 9781107111462. Retrieved 23 April 2023. [...] cylinder-seal impressions appeared randomly on ceramic vessels, especially on pithoi manufactured in the region [...] the seal-impression is the mark of the fabricant, intended to brand the vessel [...].
"Ancient Cylinder Seals". Johns Hopkins Archaeological Museum. Johns Hopkins University. Archived from the original on 30 June 2019. Retrieved 23 April 2023. Throughout much of the ancient Near Eastern world, from the end of the 4th millennium B.C.E. until the 5th century B.C.E., cylinder seals were used [...] as decorative or protective amulets – often worn on a necklace or a pin.
"Cylinder Seal with a Nude Goddess". The Walters Art Museum.

External links

a collection of seals and scarabs from international collectors and galleries, accompanied by an archeologist
Seals on the Persepolis Fortification Tablets Archived 25 March 2013 at the Wayback Machine - by Mark B. Garrison and Margaret C. Root, at the Oriental Institute webpage
Cylinder seal of Pepi I Meryre. Serpentinite, click on pictures; (possibly not meant to be an 'Impression seal').
Kassite, Seal Impression, Department of the History of Art, University of Pennsylvania
Seal impressions-(High Res), (1 Seal), God/Symbols explanations.
3D development simulation of the Cylinder Seal of Ibni Sharrum by D. Pitzalis on YouTube.

[1] British Museum notice WA 121544

[2] Crawford, Harriet (2013). The Sumerian World. Routledge. p. 622. ISBN 9781136219115.

[3] Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and; Hansen, Donald P.; Pittman, Holly (1998). Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur. UPenn Museum of Archaeology. p. 78. ISBN 9780924171550.

[4] Brown, Brian A.; Feldman, Marian H. (2013). Critical Approaches to Ancient Near Eastern Art. Walter de Gruyter. p. 304. ISBN 9781614510352.

[5] Mesopotamian cylinder seals, British Museum

[6] Why Cylinder Seals? Engraved Cylindrical Seal Stones of the Ancient Near East, Fourth to First Millennium B.C., by Edith Porada © 1993 College Art Association., The Art Bulletin, Vol. 75, No. 4 (Dec., 1993), pp. 563-582, JSTOR

[7] Why Cylinder Seals? Engraved Cylindrical Seal Stones of the Ancient Near East, Fourth to First Millennium B.C., by Edith Porada © 1993 College Art Association., The Art Bulletin, Vol. 75, No. 4 (Dec., 1993), pp. 563-582, JSTOR

[8] "Ancient Cylinder Seals". Johns Hopkins Archaeological Museum. Johns Hopkins University. Archived from the original on 30 June 2019. Retrieved 23 April 2023. Throughout much of the ancient Near Eastern world, from the end of the 4th millennium B.C.E. until the 5th century B.C.E., cylinder seals were used both as administrative tools – functioning much as a signature does on an official document today, or used to mark one's property and to prevent tampering with sealed doors or containers [...].

[9] Greenberg, Raphael (7 November 2019). "Urbanism and Its Demise in the Early Bronze II and III". The Archaeology of the Bronze Age Levant: From Urban Origins to the Demise of City-States, 3700-1000 BCE. Cambridge World Archaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 92. ISBN 9781107111462. Retrieved 23 April 2023. [...] cylinder-seal impressions appeared randomly on ceramic vessels, especially on pithoi manufactured in the region [...] the seal-impression is the mark of the fabricant, intended to brand the vessel [...].

[10] "Ancient Cylinder Seals". Johns Hopkins Archaeological Museum. Johns Hopkins University. Archived from the original on 30 June 2019. Retrieved 23 April 2023. Throughout much of the ancient Near Eastern world, from the end of the 4th millennium B.C.E. until the 5th century B.C.E., cylinder seals were used [...] as decorative or protective amulets – often worn on a necklace or a pin.

[11] "Cylinder Seal with a Nude Goddess". The Walters Art Museum.

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Authority control databases
International	GND
National	United States Israel
Other	Yale LUX

Khollan Vafa : اخوان صفا

۱۴۰۵ مرداد ۲۹, پنجشنبه

مهر استوانه ای

Materials

Uses

Theme-driven, memorial, and commemorative nature

Categories of seals

See also

References

Further reading

External links

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