Mesopotamian cylinder seal with water creatures
€700
available
Object number
AR3384-07
| Object: |
Mesopotamian cylinder seal with water creatures
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| Material: |
Light red stone.
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| Period: |
3300 BC to 2900 BC, Late Uruk period to Jemdet Nasr period. Transition from Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age of Mesopotamia. |
| Description: | Cylindrical seal with through hole along the central axis. A scene with aquatic animals is engraved into the mantle of the seal. The seal impression shows two identical panels, each with two interposed and stylized water creatures, probably highly stylized fish. The motif is well-known from Mesopotamia, but also from Elam in today's Iran. |
| Background: |
Cylinder seals have been invented by the early civilizations of Mesopotamia. From the 4th Millenium BC onwards they conquered the whole Near East and beyond.
The emergence of this type of seal coincides with the first abundant use of scripture to manage the young highly organized city states. Such early seals are therefore a glimpse at the beginnings of civilization in Mesopotamia. Later seals broaden the view to all areas of administration, but also to trade and even personal matters. Many officials, traders and private persons must have possessed cylinder seals during the Bronze Age of Mesopotamia. What a happy instance for today's historians. Cylinder seals were made of durable materials and survived the millenia nearly unchanged. A treasury of images and inscriptions is reaching out to us from the Bronze Age. Thanks to the diverse original owners many stray finds have been made in the Near and Middle East. After the interest in antiquity has been reborn in Europe such finds have been preserved and valued. Many pieces could be attended to in private and public collections. And because of academic excavations with documented find contexts a chronology could be worked out. Today, also the stray pieces on the art market and in collections can be dated by iconographic means. For us it is a very special sensation to hold such seals in our hands and reflect the rise and fall of civilizations. |
| Dimensions: |
19mm length, 9mm diameter.
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| Preservation: |
Very good condition. Only small chips at the sides and minor wear. The seal imprint is enclosed.
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| Provenance: |
Acquired by us in 2022 from Dr. I. Bonchev, London, where the seal had been for some time. Previously in a UK collection, acquired in the early 1990s. A note by Professor Lambert, who was examining the seals of the collection at the time, also dates from this period. The piece was purchased along with other cylinder seals from an older British collection built between 1960 and 1989. Wilfred George Lambert (1926 to 2011), a British archaeologist specialized on Western Asia, was a professor at the University of Birmingham. After his retirement he was active in the ancient near eastern department of the British Museum. |
| Referencen: |
Cf. E. Moeller, Ancient Near Eastern Seals in a Danish Collection, p. 85, no. 38.
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| Authenticity: |
We guarantee the authenticity of this object and all works of ancient art sold by us for life.
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