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--- use_of_seals [2014/12/17 12:27] – miller
+++ use_of_seals [2015/08/20 13:19] (current) – external edit 127.0.0.1
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 Personal and purely institutional seals existed alongside one another in all but the very earliest periods. In the Ur III period, for example, we find suggestions that official seals could be rolled in an official’s absence (that is, that it was the mark of his office, not his personal involvement that mattered), but at the same time we find a seal belonging to a slave (NATN 679). The latter was certainly an individual with no authority stemming from an office or an institution who nonetheless had his own personal seal (Steinkeller 1979: 44-45).
+===== Where Were Seals Rolled? =====
+Although we have seen that seals were being used on tablets already in the Uruk period, after the end of this period seals disappear from tablets except in very rare instances. Fewer than ten sealed tablets dating from the Sargonic period have been identified. These are all administrative in nature and come from a scattered geographical area. Two sealed but blank tablets were found at Tello (AOT b 404, 406), and another one at Umm el-Jerab (Ashm 1932.344). Zettler suggest that these may have been trial rollings or may have been carried by an agent ‘to prove the authority of a verbal message’ (1979: 37). Sealed but uninscribed pieces of clay like this are found in small numbers in all periods and their function in not known (Collon 2005: 119).
-Although we have seen that seals were mbeing used on tablets already in the Uruk period, after the end of this period seals disappear from tablets except in very rare instances. Fewer than ten sealed tablets dating from the Sargonic period have been identified. These are all administrative in nature and come from a scattered geographical area. Two sealed but blank tablets were found at Tello (AOT b 404, 406), and another one at Umm el-Jerab (Ashm 1932.344). Zettler suggest that these may have been trial rollings or may have been carried by an agent ‘to prove the authority of a verbal message’ (1979: 37). Sealed but uninscribed pieces of clay like this are found in small numbers in all periods and their function in not known (Collon 2005: 119).
+Seals were still used extensively in the Early Dynastic and Akkadian periods, on jar sealings or on bullae. These bullae were simply flat lumps of clay which apparently hung loose around the necks of jars or baskets (see for example VA 6298, [[http://cdli.ucla.edu/search/archival_view.php?ObjectID=P473021|Ashm 1939.332]]). We frequently find impressions of string, jar lips, or basket edges on these bullae. On rare occasions a brief cuneiform inscription may be found beside or over the sealing, giving details of ownership or contents (for example, [[http://cdli.ucla.edu/search/archival_view.php?ObjectID=P125263|VAT 7187]]). Because of the interests of museum curators and cuneiformists, sealings on tablets and envelopes tend to occupy the greatest part of our attention. However, as we continue examining sealing practices, the continued use of seal on containers, bullae, or even buildings (Larsen 1977: 94-95) should not be overlooked.
-Seals were still used extensively in the Early Dynastic and Akkadian periods, on jar sealings or on bullae. These bullae were simply flat lumps of clay which apparently hung loose around the necks of jars or baskets (see for example VA 6298, Ashm 1939.332). We frequently find impressions of string, jar lips, or basket edges on these bullae. On rare occasions a brief cuneiform inscription may be found beside or over the sealing, giving details of ownership or contents (for example, VAT 7187). Because of the interests of museum curators and cuneiformists, sealings on tablets and envelopes tend to occupy the greatest part of our attention. However, as we continue examining sealing practices, the continued use of seal on containers, bullae, or even buildings (Larsen 1977: 94-95) should not be overlooked.
 From the Ur III period onwards, the full possibilities of sealing begin to be realised. No longer is sealing used only for economic and administrative matters. A seal is now a guarantee in any sense: economic, yes, but also legal or personal. Seals reappear on tablets, but more commonly on envelopes around a tablet (Steinkeller 1979: 45). In legal documents, an envelope generally contained a summary of the tablet (sometimes repeating the entire contents) and an indication of persons involved together with seal impressions (Renger 1977: 75). The envelope fell out of favour for the most part by the first millennium. Instead, legal and administrative texts were often written in duplicate (Greengus 1995: 475).
-Although sealing a tablet before use was the norm in the earliest periods, by the Ur III period tablets were sealed after being written. This is perhaps a reflection of the changing and expanding nature of sealing practices. To make a modern comparison, we might think on the one hand of letterheaded stationary and on the other of an individual’s signature. The former can be used by anyone legitimately associated with an institution and represents an authority stemming from the institution. Only an institution that feels legitimately confident in its ability to prevent unauthorised use of its authority and to make good on any claims legitimately made in its name can confidently produce such a thing. The practice of sealing before inscribing rather than after can thus be seen as an illustration of the characteristic strong temple institutions of the Uruk period, a world in which essentially only temple administration was involved in the sealing business, and only in limited areas. In the more varied landscape of the Ur III period and onwards, this was no longer the case.
+Although sealing a tablet before use was the norm in the earliest periods, by the Ur III period tablets were sealed after being written. This is perhaps a reflection of the changing and expanding nature of sealing practices. The practice of sealing before inscribing rather than after can be seen as an illustration of the characteristic strong temple institutions of the Uruk period, a world in which essentially only temple administration was involved in the sealing business, and only in limited areas. In the more varied landscape of the Ur III period and onwards, this was no longer the case.
 There is evidence that the presence of a seal on a tablet could be invoked later on with genuine force (Renger 1977: 76, 79). Whether that force was always legal, or merely social is not entirely clear (i.e., whether a sealed promise was legally enforceable because of its sealing). A sealing was designed to hold the sealer to account, as is indicated by the fact that the party required to seal seems generally to have been the one with the most reason to protest later on—the recipient of goods in economic texts, the seller of items in sale documents (Steinkeller 1977: 45; Renger 1977: 76).
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 Seals likely also served a talismanic function. The appearance of short prayers on cylinder seal inscriptions beginning in the Kassite period shows that the powerful benevolent potential of a seal was explicitly recognised. A typical prayer would praise a god and ask briefly for intercession on the owner’s behalf: ‘O Ninlil, Lady of the Lands, in your marriage bed, in the abode of you delight, intercede for me with Enlil, (your) beloved. Mili-Shipak, shatammu on Ninmah’ (Porada 1981: 60, no. 32; Brinkman 1981: 75 for inscription). Or: ‘Šamaš, the great lord,/the merciful god,/who opens the fount of plenty,/a slave who reveres him/(is) the holder of this seal’ (VR 1981.202, Keel-Leu and Teissier 2004: 369, no. 137). Thus an individual always wore a prayer to his god on his person. Given the strong association between individual identity and seal, this prayer would be almost as if coming from the owner’s own lips.
+=== Works Cited ===
+**Auerbach, E.**
+. ‘Heirloom seals and political legitimacy in Late Bronze Age Syria’. //Akkadica// 74-75: 19-36.
+**Brinkman, J. A.**
+. ‘The Western Asiatic Seals Found at Thebes’. //Archiv für Orientforschung// 28: 73-78.
+**Charpin, D.**
+. //Archives familiales et propriété privée en Babylonie ancienne: étude des documents de «Tell Sifr»//. Genève: Droz.
+**Collon, D.**
+. //First Impressions: Cylinder Seals in the Ancient Near East// (2nd Ed). London: British Museum Press.
+. //The Seal Impressions from Tell Atchana/Alalakh//. Kevelaer: Butzon & Bercker.
+**Greengus, S.**
+. ‘Legal and Social Institutions of Ancient Mesopotamia’. In //Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, Vol. I//. Ed. J. Sasson, et al. New York: Scribners: 469-484.
+**Keel-Leu, H. and Teissier, B.**
+. //Die vorderasiatischen Rollsiegel der Sammlungen «Bibel+Orient» der Universität Freiburg Schweiz//. Fribourg: Academic Press.
+**Larsen, M. T.**
+. ‘Seal Use in the Old Assyrian Period’. In //Seals and Sealing in the Ancient Near East//. Ed. M. Gibson and R. D. Biggs. Malibu: Undena Publications: 89-106.
+**Marcus, M. I.**
+. ‘Glyptic Style and Seal Function: the Hasanlu Collection’. In //Aegean Seals, Sealings and Administration//. Ed. T. G. Palaima. Liège : Université de Liège, Histoire de l'art et archéologie de la Grèce antique.
+**Nissen, H. J., Damerow, P., and Englund, R. K.**
+. A//rchaic Bookkeeping: Early Writing and Techniques of the Economic Administration in the Ancient Near East//. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
+**Porada, E.**
+. ‘The Cylinder Seals Found at Thebes in Boeotia’. //Archiv für Orientforschung// 28: 1-70.
+**Rathje, W. L.**
+. ‘New Tricks for Old Seals: A Progress Report’. In //Seals and Sealing in the Ancient Near East//. Ed. M. Gibson and R. D. Biggs. Malibu: Undena Publications: 25-32.
+**Renger, J.**
+. ‘Legal Aspects of Sealing in Ancient Mesopotamia’. In //Seals and Sealing in the Ancient Near East//. Ed. M. Gibson and R. D. Biggs. Malibu: Undena Publications: 75-88.
+**Sax, M.**
+. ‘Innovative Technqiues Used to Decorate the Perforations of Some Akkadian Rock Crystal Cylinder Seals’. //Iraq//, 53: 91-95.
+**Singer, I.**
+. ‘Borrowing Seals at Emar’. In //Seals and Sealing in the Ancient Near East: Proceedings of the Symposium held on September 2, 1993, Jerusalem, Israel//. Ed. J. Goodnick Westenholz. Jerusalem: Bible Lands Museum: 57-64.
+**Steinkeller, P.**
+. ‘Seal Practice in the Ur III Period’. In //Seals and Sealing in the Ancient Near East//. Ed. M. Gibson and R. D. Biggs. Malibu: Undena Publications: 41-54.
+**Teissier, B.**
+. //Sealing and Seals on Texts from Kültepe Kārum Level 2//. Istanbul: Nederlands Historisch-Archaeologisch Instituut te Istanbul.
+**Wiseman, D. J.**
+. //The Vassal-Treaties of Esarhaddon//. London: British School of Archaeology
+in Iraq.
+**Zettler, R. L.**
+. ‘The Sargonic Royal Seal: A Consideration of Sealing in Mesopotamia’. In //Seals and Sealing in the Ancient Near East//. Ed. M. Gibson and R. D. Biggs. Malibu: Undena Publications: 33-40.