6 It would be inaccurate to call the deity someone’s “personal god,” however. If the entity that the person was devoted to was a deity, the deity would have usually been a minor deity who was worshiped in the neighborhood or part of the city in which the owner lived, giving that person a local identity. What can the information contained on a seal tell us? During the Old Babylonian period a person’s name, his father’s name, and an entity that the person was devoted to was the essential information about an individual’s identity. Significance of the Information on a Seal In the bed of (the one who holds) the status of the head of your household,Īlthough the owner of the seal, Mili-Shipak, serves in a professional capacity in the temple of Ninmah (one of the mother goddesses), he appeals to the goddess Ninlil to intercede on his behalf with her husband, Enlil, who is one of the supreme gods of the Mesopotamian pantheon. 4Īnother seal in the same collection (no. The prayer could be general, as in one seal from Thebes now in the Archaeological Museum of Thebes (no. 3ĭuring the Kassite period, while seal inscriptions could contain information similar to that of seals from the Old Babylonian period, they could also contain prayers, which generally ask for protection for the owner of the seal. 1 A seal impressed on a fragment of a letter envelope found at Number 7 Quiet Street in the city of Ur, an important city-state in southern Mesopotamia located near the Persian Gulf, reads:Īt Ur, Nimintabba was a minor female deity, one of the “standing gods” at the temple of Sîn who were responsible for guarding the libations and food offerings. A seal made of greenstone, now in the British Museum (BM 89115) identifies the owner of the seal as:ĭuring the Old Babylonian period, three pieces of information were normally included: the owner’s name, his father’s name, and the name of the deity that the owner served. Some have just the owner’s name, others have “personal name, scribe,” and a third group are of the type “personal name, profession (other than scribe).” These groups of seals vary widely in quality (how well the seal was cut) and subject matter of the image. Seals from the Sargonic period have different types of inscriptions. What kind of information is found in the inscription on a seal? This varies depending on the time period. Type of Information Contained in a Seal’s Inscription The type of information found on a seal, the significance of the information, and whether there is a relationship between the inscription and the image on a seal will be discussed using examples from the Sargonic (2334–2154 BCE), Ur III (2112–2004 BCE), Old Babylonian (2000–1600 BCE), and Kassite (1595–1155 BCE) periods. The inscription, known from either the physical seal itself or its impression in clay, contained different types of information, which, in combination with the context in which the seal was used, gives us insights into the lives and cultural practices of the people who utilized them. Cuneiform, one of the earliest known writing systems, is characterized by its wedge-shaped marks. In Mesopotamia, the inscription was written using the cuneiform script. However, on occasion, the seals also contained writing. Terri Tanaka, University of California, Berkeley Mesopotamian Cylinder Seal InscriptionsĪncient Near Eastern seals are best known for their wide iconographic repertoire, from geometric designs to animals to human figures to scenes.
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