Cylinder Seal and Modern Impression: Bull Man, Hero, and Lion Contest in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, August 2008

Cylinder Seal and Modern Impression: Bull Man, Hero, and Lion Contest
Marble
Mesopotamia
Early Dynastic III, 2600-2334 BC

Accession # 55.65.4

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.


and


Seals

Although engraved stones had been used as early as the seventh millennium BC to stamp impressions in clay, the invention in the fourth millennium BC of carved cylinders that could be rolled over clay allowed the development of more complex seal designs. These “cylinder seals,” first used in Mesopotamia, served as a mark of ownership or identification. Seals were either impressed in clay masses that were used to close jars, doors, and baskets, or they were rolled onto clay tablets that recorded information about commercial or legal transactions. The seals were often made of precious stones. Protective properties may have been ascribed to both the material itself and the carved designs. Seals are important to the study of ancient Near Eastern art because many examples survive from every period and can, therefore, help to define chronological phases. Often preserving imagery no longer extant in any other medium, they serve as a visual chronicle of style and iconography.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art plaque.