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 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] Other sources, however, date the earliest cylinder seals to a much earlier time, to the Late Neolithic period (7600-6000 BC) in Syria, hundreds of years before the invention of writing.[7][8]
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.
^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.
A cylinderseal is a small round cylinder, typically about one inch (2 to 3Â cm) in length, engraved with written characters or figurative scenes or both...
cylinderseal, also known as the "temptation seal", is a small stone cylinder of post-Akkadian origin, dating from about 2200 to 2100 BCE. The seal depicts...
Akkadian cylinderseal impression depicting a vegetation goddess, possibly Ninhursag, sitting on a throne surrounded by worshippers (c. 2350–2150 BC)...
Archaeologically, he is known from several objects, including six cylinderseals,and two scarab seals. His name appears as graffito in the tomb of queen Khuit...
of the cylinder. The piston has sliding rings and seals. The piston divides the inside of the cylinder into two chambers, the bottom chamber (cap end) and...
gasket provides the seal between the engine block and cylinder head(s). Its purpose is to seal the combustion gases within the cylinders and to avoid coolant...
is generally thought that cylinderseals were introduced from Mesopotamia to Egypt during the Naqada II period. Cylinderseals, some coming from Mesopotamia...
Satans the friends of those who do not believe. A cylinderseal, known as the Adam and Eve cylinderseal, from post-Akkadian periods in Mesopotamia (c. 23rd...
onto them. The stamp seals were replaced in the 4th millennium BC by cylinderseals that had to be rolled over the soft clay to leave an imprint. From the...
relations. Ivory cylinderseals discovered in Nekhen Nekhen ivory cylinder with kneeling men, with impression (drawing) Nekhen ivory cylinder with animals...
vol. 108, no. 1, 2018, pp. 1–9. "CDLI-Found Texts". cdli.ucla.edu. "CylinderSeal with King or God and Vanquished Lion". The Walters Art Museum. Norman...
Two main types of seals were used in the Ancient Near East, the stamp seal and the cylinderseal. Stamp seals first appeared in 'administrative' contexts...
plant-based decorative schemes, though most sculptures were also painted. Cylinderseals have survived in large numbers, many with complex and detailed scenes...
1988. Studies in the chronology and regional style of Old Babylonian CylinderSeals. Bibliotheca Mesopotamica, Volume 23. Vedeler (2006), pp. 8–15. "However...
research. A cylinderseal from Tlatilco, dated to a time frame of Olmec occupation, appears to carry a non-pictographic, linear script. A cylinderseal from...
period cylinderseal (3350-2900 BC). Late uruk/ Jeldet Nasr period cylinderseal (3350-2900 BC). Jemdet Nasr-style Mesopotamian cylinderseal, from Grave...
temples were sometimes branded with the seal of the eight-pointed star. On boundary stones and cylinderseals, the eight-pointed star is sometimes shown...
BC). Examples include the Narmer Palette and the Oxford Palette. The cylinderseal of Uruk (image above) displays the motif very clearly. Typically, two...
when the Royal Cemetery of Ur was excavated between 1922 and 1934. Cylinderseal and impression in which appears a ritual scene before a temple façade;...
impressed with cylinderseal. Receipt of goats, c. 2040 BC, year 7 of Amar-Sin. Neo-Sumerian. Cuneiform tablet impressed with cylinderseal. Receipt of goats...
In 1985, the German Archaeological Institute discovered seal impressions of a cylinderseal in the tomb of First Dynasty king Den. They were published...
complete). Even before dominating the region they had continued the cylinderseal tradition with designs which are often exceptionally energetic and refined...
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