Matching Near Eastern seals and sealings: current issues and new perspectives

Abstract

Seals and seal impressions known at present from the Ancient Near East amount to some tens of thousands. Despite this number only a few matches between extant seals and impressions have been identified. The reason may be ascribed to the mobility of seals and sealed objects in the past as well as in more recent times: clay bullae and tablets could be sent to distant places after being sealed. Actual seals have been often brought to light by illegal excavations and sold on the antiquity market. Seals and sealings might therefore not be found in the same expected place. Moreover, the common practice of re-carving seals caused the loss of many original designs whose existence is now testified only by ancient impressions. Other reasons, however, may be considered. Museum and private collections have been published in several editions and online catalogues. Though a number of innovative methods for imaging and presenting seals and seal impressions have been developed, the cross comparison of seal designs for the discovery of new matches remains a long and laborious process. This paper will discuss some issues related to the matching of seals and their impressions in current studies by presenting a new cataloguing approach for the dataset offered by Kültepe/Kaniš.Seals and seal impressions known at present from the Ancient Near East amount to some tens of thousands. Despite this number only a few matches between extant seals and impressions have been identified. The reason may be ascribed to the mobility of seals and sealed objects in the past as well as in more recent times: clay bullae and tablets could be sent to distant places after being sealed. Actual seals have been often brought to light by illegal excavations and sold on the antiquity market. Seals and sealings might therefore not be found in the same expected place. Moreover, the common practice of re-carving seals caused the loss of many original designs whose existence is now testified only by ancient impressions. Other reasons, however, may be considered. Museum and private collections have been published in several editions and online catalogues. Though a number of innovative methods for imaging and presenting seals and seal impressions have been developed, the cross comparison of seal designs for the discovery of new matches remains a long and laborious process. This paper will discuss some issues related to the matching of seals and their impressions in current studies by presenting a new cataloguing approach for the dataset offered by Kültepe/Kaniš.