Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum. Cylinder Seals VI. Pre-Achaemenid and Achaemenid Periods. By P. H. Merrillees with a contribution by M. Sax. London: The British Museum Press, 2005. Pp. x + 161 + 35 pls. $180.

2011 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 150-156
Author(s):  
Mark B. Garrison
Keyword(s):  
British Museum ◽  
Cylinder Seals

scholarly journals PIGS AND PLAQUES: CONSIDERING RM. 714 IN LIGHT OF COMPARATIVE ARTISTIC AND TEXTUAL SOURCES

Iraq ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 80 ◽  
pp. 151-165
Author(s):  
Gina Konstantopoulos
Keyword(s):  
British Museum ◽  
Potential Functions ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Cylinder Seals

Rm. 714, a first millenniumb.c.e.tablet in the collections of the British Museum, is remarkable for the fine carving of a striding pig in high relief on its obverse. Purchased by Hormuzd Rassam in Baghdad in 1877, it lacks archaeological context and must be considered in light of other textual and artistic references to pigs, the closest parallel being a sow and her piglets seen in the reliefs of Court VI from Sennacherib's palace at Nineveh. Unlike depictions of pigs on later cylinder seals, where they are often shown as a dangerous quarry in hunting scenes, Rm. 714's pig appears in a more neutral, non-aggressive posture, similar to the sow in the Assyrian reliefs. Although Rm. 714's highly curved reverse would inhibit its use as a mounted or otherwise easily displayed object, the tablet may still have served as an apotropaic object or sculptor's model, among other potential functions.

Impressions of the Past

Antiquity ◽  
1967 ◽  
Vol 41 (163) ◽  
pp. 202-212
Author(s):  
M. E. L. Mallowan
Keyword(s):  
Personal Identity ◽  
British Museum ◽  
The Past ◽  
Cylinder Seals

The collection of over 1,100 cylinder seals and impressions on clay, now housed in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, is, after that of the British Museum, the richest of the kind in England. Here we have memories of Oxford Worthies beginning with the Reverend Greville Chester, who a hundred years ago travelled afar and brought home many antiquities. But it is appropriate that the first seal to be illustrated in this comprehensive catalogue is a boldly carved, prehistoric specimen purchased in Aleppo, in 1913, by T. E. Lawrence of Arabia, quondam Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, friend and protCgC of D. G. Hogarth who was then Keeper of the Museum. To these two men we must add a third, no less famous, namely Leonard Woolley who was then directing the British Museum's excavations at Carchemish: the extensive travels of this trio not only in north Syria, but also throughout the Levant, enabled them to acquire from the peasantry these delectable little souvenirs of personal identity. Carved cylinder seals, sometimes worn as amulets, were often made for the purpose of registering ownership to property. There must have been much competition to acquire them, for Lawrence writing from Carchemish in a letter dated ‘End of February [1913]’ says to Hogarth: ‘Seriously, this last half-dozen, bought by me on the fringe of Abu Galgal, is very good. I rushed back, and have not been down again, because some villains began a dig at Deve Hüyük.… I got some good fibulae which are yours, and not Kenyon's this time at all events…’. Nonetheless, the British Museum was not forgotten and was moreover acquiring some share of the spoils from Carchemish (PL. XXXII).

ANALYSIS OF CYPRUS ARCHEOLOGICAL CYLINDER SEAL VISUALS

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 10-26
Author(s):  
Yücel YAZGIN
Keyword(s):  
Visual Imagery ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
British Museum ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Historical Process ◽  
Ancient Times ◽  
Archaeological Artifacts ◽  
Production Agriculture ◽  
Cylinder Seals

People have tried to determine their "personality" and "property" rights by using special signs and symbols since ancient times. These symbols are the signs that people who lived together and formed a community in the conditions of that day that they agreed on. One of the human-made tools, on which these special personality and property markers appear are cylinder seals. Different expressions were made besides determining personality and property by means of text and images engraved on cylinder seals. In this research, cylinder seals, which are archaeological artifacts in the island of Cyprus, exhibited in museums and may be subject to the relevant literature were examined. The seals that make up the sample consist of cylinder seals exhibited in Cyprus archaeological museums, in the British Museum, Metropolitan Museum and the Cyprus artifacts sections of the John Hopkins Museum. The cylinder seals used by the communities and governments that have dominated Cyprus in the historical process have been investigated as visual imagery. Therefore, images on cylinder seals produced in Cyprus or neighbouring cultures between 2000 BC and 600 BC were investigated. In this research, the engravings on seals that were produced in neighbouring cultures and brought to Cyprus as a gift or were imported also examined. All figures made on the seals were produced in neighbouring cultures and brought to the island with different methods were also included in the study. In this context, the features of the motif, figure, inscription, decoration and patterns used on 191 cylinder seals obtained during the research process were investigated. As a result of the examination, figures which engraved on the seals was coded in accordance with their themes, all the images engraved on the seals were divided into categories. Six main categories were determined as a result of categorical division. Twenty-seven themes belonging to the identified main six categories were also determined. Among the scrapings on the cylinder seals that constitute the sample of the research; visuals that determine the variety of food production, agriculture, mining, blessing and sacrifice scenes, and demonstrating the scenes of a birthday of the seal owner were encountered. From the pictures drawn on the cave walls, it is known that such special signs or images serving different purposes were used. In this context, the fact that only pictorial images were engraved on some of the cylinder seals reveals the view that they existed before the writing and that the tradition of that period continued on the seal engraving after the writing was found.

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