__NOTOC__ The stamp seal is a carved object, usually stone, first made in the

4th millennium BC The 4th millennium BC spanned the years 4000 BC to 3001 BC. Some of the major changes in human culture during this time included the beginning of the Bronze Age and the invention of writing, which played a major role in starting recorded history. ...

, and probably earlier. They were used to impress their picture or inscription into soft, prepared clay. Seal devices have seldom survived through time; it is usually only their impressions. A major exception are the

cylinder seal A cylinder seal is a small round cylinder, typically about one inch (2 to 3 cm) in length, engraved with written characters or figurative scenes or both, used in ancient times to roll an impression onto a two-dimensional surface, generally ...

s made of stone, of which examples of their ancient impressions have survived as well, the majority being of

clay tablet In the Ancient Near East, clay tablets (Akkadian ) were used as a writing medium, especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age. Cuneiform characters were imprinted on a wet clay tablet with a stylu ...

s sealed as an ''authentication''. The

Halaf culture The Halaf culture is a prehistoric period which lasted between about 6100 BC and 5100 BC. The period is a continuous development out of the earlier Pottery Neolithic and is located primarily in the fertile valley of the Khabur River (Nahr al-K ...

saw the earliest known appearance of stamp seals in the Near East.

Indus stamp-seal

Different from the Minoan stamp-seals, the Indus stamp-seals probably have a different function from the stamp seals of the

Minoan civilization The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age Aegean civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean Islands, whose earliest beginnings were from 3500BC, with the complex urban civilization beginning around 2000BC, and then declining from 1450BC ...

, as they typically have script characters, with still undeciphered associations.

Gallery

File:WLA brooklynmuseum Stamp Seal of Meru-the Answerer of Horus.jpg, Stamp seal of an Egyptian named:
Meru-the Answerer of

Horus Horus or Heru, Hor, Har in Ancient Egyptian, is one of the most significant ancient Egyptian deities who served many functions, most notably as god of kingship and the sky. He was worshipped from at least the late prehistoric Egypt until the P ...

(

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

) File:Cylinder seals and stamps REM.JPG, Stamp seals

References

* Garbini. ''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. Numerous examples of the

; ( 3 ) separate Discussions (only) of "Stamp sealing". No seals, or impressions thereof. *P. Yule, ''Early Cretan Seals: A Study of Chronology.'' Marburger Studien zur Vor und Frühgeschichte 4 (Mainz 1981), http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/yule1981/ Online

External links

Detail of Stamp seal-Medium Res

mcclungmuseum.utk.edu—''Jar, and associated Stamp Seal''

– at the

Oriental Institute of Chicago The Oriental Institute (OI), established in 1919, is the University of Chicago's interdisciplinary research center for ancient Near Eastern ("Orient") studies and archaeology museum. It was founded for the university by professor James Henry Brea ...

. {{Authority control Seals (insignia)

Indus stamp-seal

Gallery

See also

References

External links