Publications by Oya Topcuoglu
OI News and Notes Members' Magazine, 2019
Testing the Canon of Ancient Near Eastern Art and Archaeology, 2020
International Journal of Cultural Property, 2019
Discussions about looted antiquities often focus on large, culturally and monetarily valuable ite... more Discussions about looted antiquities often focus on large, culturally and monetarily valuable items. Nevertheless, it is clear that mundane small finds, which sell for relatively small amounts, account for a large portion of the global market in antiquities. This article highlights two types of small artifacts-namely, cylinder seals and coins, presumed to come from Syria and Iraq and offered for sale by online vendors. We argue that the number of cylinder seals and coins sold on the Internet has increased steadily since 2011, reaching a peak in 2016-17. This shows that the trade in Iraqi and Syrian antiquities has shifted from big-ticket items sold in traditional brick-and-mortar shops to small items readily available on the Internet for modest prices. The continuing growth of the online market in antiquities is having a devastating effect on the archaeological sites in Iraq and Syria as increasing demand fuels further looting in the region.
International Journal of Cultural Property, 2019
Archaeological looting correlates with a number of problems, including the destruction of stratig... more Archaeological looting correlates with a number of problems, including the destruction of stratigraphic data and the damage and loss of artifacts. Looting is also understood to generate revenue, but systematic analysis of this issue is challenged by its opacity: how can we study the economic effects of archaeological looting when the practice is rarely directly observable? To address this problem, we estimate the market value of archaeological sites where artifacts have been previously excavated and documented, using a machine-learning approach. The first step uses 41,587 sales of objects from 33 firms to train an algorithm to predict the distribution channel, lot packaging, and estimated sale price of objects based on their observable characteristics. The second step uses the trained algorithm to estimate the value of sites in which a large number of artifacts have been legally excavated and documented. We make an out-of-sample prediction on two Syrian sites, Tell Bi’a and Dura Europos.
This guide to over 100 highlights of the collections of the Oriental
Institute Museum at the Univ... more This guide to over 100 highlights of the collections of the Oriental
Institute Museum at the University of Chicago presents objects from
ancient Mesopotamia, Syria-Anatolia, the Levant, Egypt, Persia, Nubia,
and objects from the Islamic collection. It features all new
photography, provenance information, and a brief description of each
object, as well as a history of the collections and a concordance.
Current Research at Kültepe/Kanesh. An Interdisciplinary and Integrative Approach to Trade Networks, Internationalism, and Identity, Mar 31, 2014
Conference Presentations by Oya Topcuoglu
This paper examines the seals belonging to Šamši-Adad within their archaeological, historical, an... more This paper examines the seals belonging to Šamši-Adad within their archaeological, historical, and iconographic context, aiming to understand how Šamši-Adad employed seal imagery and inscription as tools of political legitimization as a foreign king.
As an Amorite, Šamši-Adad was perceived as a usurper and illegitimate ruler even in antiquity. On a stone tablet from Aššur, Puzur-Sin, who claims to have gained the throne of Aššur by deposing a successor of Šamši-Adad, scornfully emphasizes the foreign, i.e. non-Assyrian, origin of the king and boasts about restoring a native dynasty and customs to the City. However, a close reading of the material and textual record from his 30+ year reign suggests that Šamši-Adad successfully created a politically unified entity across Upper Mesopotamia by employing a unifying ideology expressed through text and image. Rather than imposing a new and foreign structure, his administration combined the preexisting political and ideological infrastructures of the region with the cultural memory and traditions of the Akkadian, Ur III, Old Assyrian, and Old Babylonian worlds. This strategy appears to have outweighed the king’s foreignness, presenting him as a legitimate ruler and allowing him to be included in the Assyrian King List after his death.
Impressions of seals bearing Šamši-Adad’s name draw heavily from earlier traditions of seal iconography, carving style, and royal epithets. By focusing on these seals, this paper explores the role of tradition, cultural memory, and visual representation as tools for navigating foreignness, gaining political legitimization, and forging royal ideology in the early second millennium BC.
Since the discovery of two monumental buildings containing large numbers of sealed bullae in 1980... more Since the discovery of two monumental buildings containing large numbers of sealed bullae in 1980, Acemhöyük has become a site of interest for both Anatolian and Mesopotamian studies. The proposed association of the site with ancient Burushanda, the center of a major Anatolian kingdom known from the Mesopotamian narrative ‘King of Battle,’ combined with the information provided by Old Assyrian texts from Kültepe describing Burushattum as the center of a large kingdom ruled by a Great King put Acemhöyük in the spotlight.
However, despite relatively large areas of exposure on the mound, no cuneiform tablets have been found so far, to help identify the site with an ancient settlement and place it in a secure historical context. As a result, the chronological and historical framework for Acemhöyük relies heavily on archaeological evidence. The much anticipated publication of the sealed bullae from Acemhöyük by Nimet Özgüç in 2015, which presents the site as ancient Burushaddum despite recent evidence to the contrary, provides a dating of the monumental structures based on glyptic evidence. However, a closer examination makes it clear that Özgüç’s work warrants a re-evaluation.
This paper presents a closer look at archaeological and glyptic evidence from Acemhöyük in conjunction with dendrochronological data and contemporaneous textual evidence from Kültepe, in an attempt to clarify the history and role of the site during the Middle Bronze Age in relation to the Old Assyrian trade network, and explore the interconnections between Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia.
The manipulation of the past and its material remains in the service of states has been a common ... more The manipulation of the past and its material remains in the service of states has been a common issue since the late 19th century in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas. In the Middle East, the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and changing borders in the aftermath of World War I, allowed ancient history an important role in processes of modernization and identity formation throughout the region.
This paper explores how history, archaeology and museums have been called to action in different periods of Turkish history, starting with the 19th century when interest in the ancient past and its remains was seen as a necessary item on the checklist of modernity and civilization. In this period, Hellenistic and Byzantine antiquities from all over the empire, which emphasized the Ottomans’ connections with European civilization, flooded to the Imperial Museum in Istanbul. Similarly, in an attempt to break away from its immediate past and to establish itself as an independent nation, the modern Turkish Republic undertook the task of creating a new and modern identity based on the remains of Hittite civilization, resulting in extensive research, excavations and the foundation of the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara. Finally, within the last decade the Turkish government under Ak Parti has been seeking to fashion yet another collective identity for the Turkish state, emphasizing a return to Central Asian and Ottoman roots, and pursuing an aggressive policy of repatriation of cultural property from European and American museums.
By exploring these periods of political change in the history of Turkey, this paper shows how political ideology and state policies create a perilous position for the past as a pawn in the assertion of national and cultural identities, and put the past and its material remains in peril through claims of ownership.
This paper examines the seals belonging to Šamši-Adad within their archaeological, historical and... more This paper examines the seals belonging to Šamši-Adad within their archaeological, historical and iconographical context, aiming to understand how seal imagery functioned as part of a visual system of administrative, social, and cultural communication and identity formation during Šamši-Adad’s reign.
Despite being perceived as a usurper and illegitimate ruler due to his Amorite origin, Šamši-Adad successfully created a politically unified entity across Upper Mesopotamia during the 18th century B.C. A close reading of textual and visual evidence suggests that the Kingdom of Upper Mesopotamia owed its success to a unifying ideology expressed through text and image, which combined the preexisting political and ideological infrastructures of the region with the cultural memory and traditions of the Akkadian, Ur III, Old Assyrian, and Old Babylonian worlds. In the visual realm, this strategically crafted program of representation is expressed through the iconography of royal and official seals. The audience scene and the figure-with-mace motif on the seals of royals and high-ranking officials not only communicated the legitimacy and high status of the seals owners, but also conveyed a political message regarding the power and authority of Šamši-Adad’s state.
Impressions of seals bearing Šamši-Adad’s name show great variety in terms of their imagery and inscriptions, although they draw heavily from earlier traditions of seal iconography, carving style and royal epithets. By focusing on these seals, this paper explores the role of cultural memory and visual representation as tools of political change and legitimization, royal ideology and identity in the early second millennium BC.
Since the discovery of two monumental buildings containing large numbers of sealed bullae in 1980... more Since the discovery of two monumental buildings containing large numbers of sealed bullae in 1980, Acemhöyük has become a site of interest for both Anatolian and Mesopotamian studies. The proposed association of the site with ancient Burushanda, the center of a major Anatolian kingdom known from the Mesopotamian narrative ‘King of Battle,’ combined with the information provided by Old Assyrian texts from Kültepe describing Burushattum as the center of a large kingdom ruled by a Great King put Acemhöyük in the spotlight.
However, despite relatively large areas of exposure on the mound, no cuneiform tablets have been found so far, to help identify the site with an ancient settlement and place it in a secure historical context. As a result, the chronological and historical framework for Acemhöyük relies heavily on archaeological evidence from the site. The much anticipated publication of the cylinder seals and bullae from Acemhöyük by Nimet Özgüç in 2015, which presents the site as ancient Burushaddum despite recent evidence to the contrary (Barjamovic 2011), provides a dating of the monumental structures based on glyptic evidence, which warrants a re-evaluation.
This paper presents a re-evaluation of archaeological and glyptic evidence from Acemhöyük in conjunction with dendrochronological data and contemporaneous written documentation from Kültepe, in an attempt to clarify the history and role of the site during the Middle Bronze Age in relation to the Old Assyrian trade network and political developments in Upper Mesopotamia.
Studies on women in the ancient Near East have dramatically increased since the orientalizing not... more Studies on women in the ancient Near East have dramatically increased since the orientalizing notions of the harem and the subservient role of women in society were gradually abandoned and women were perceived as having active social roles besides those of wife, mother, and daughter. Nevertheless, women are still much less visible than men in the public and private sphere both textually and archaeologically.
One exception to this are royal and other high-ranking women, who assumed public functions in the form of political, administrative, and cultic duties as well as commerce. Thanks to their high status in society and their various public duties, some of these women are known to us today, although they remain much less visible than their male counterparts.
This paper examines royal women in northern Mesopotamia during the late Old Assyrian period in an attempt to bring them into sharper focus through their seals. Šiptu, Adad-duri, Yatar-Aya, Iltani, and Ummi-waqrat are not the only royal women known through seals and seal impressions in the ancient Near East, but they present a special case as their seals bore the official iconography of the period, even though they were not officials themselves. Moreover, unlike elite women of the Ur III period, whose seals featured a modified version of the official iconography, where the male figures were often replaced by female ones, these women would be virtually unrecognizable if it weren’t for their seal inscriptions, as the iconography of their seals is identical to that of male officials.
Seals have been used in administrative practice as markers of identity and ownership for millenni... more Seals have been used in administrative practice as markers of identity and ownership for millennia. However, identifying the owners of these seals in the material record is almost impossible unless the seals are found with individuals in physical contexts, such as burials. A holistic approach, specifically one that integrates seals and sealings with the seal inscriptions, sealer’s notations, and textual evidence plays a crucial role in this respect. As recent studies have shown, when examined together, seal imagery, seal legend, and sealed documents can provide ample information regarding seal owners and their social and professional identities as well different sealing practices.
By bringing together seal imagery and textual evidence, this paper explores the practice of multiple seal ownership in official contexts in northern Mesopotamia in the late Old Assyrian period. Various cases attested at Tell Bi’a, Tell al-Rimah, Tell Leilan, and Mari are used to demonstrate how integrating iconography, prosopography, and texts can shed light on this complex practice and the relationship between seal owners and their seals. Whether the practice was seen as a symbol of wealth and prestige or was simply a consequence of personal recognition of the seal owner in a given context will also be discussed.
Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, archaeology, material heritage, and museums have be... more Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, archaeology, material heritage, and museums have been used as devices for the construction of new and modern national identities in Turkey. Attempts to create a common heritage in times of internal and external crises led to the formation of archaeology museums, first in the Ottoman imperial capital, Istanbul, and later in the newly established national capital of the Turkish Republic in Ankara.
Hellenistic and Byzantine antiquities from all over the empire, which emphasized the Ottomans’ connections with European civilization, flooded to the imperial capital. Similarly, in an attempt to break away from its immediate past and to establish itself as an independent nation, the modern Turkish Republic undertook the task of creating a new and modern identity based on the remains of Hittite civilization in Central Anatolia resulting in extensive collections of objects that were moved to the capital from Alacahöyük, Kültepe, Acemhöyük, and Boğazköy. By exploring the history of these two museums, this paper aims to show how the movement of archaeological material from various parts of the Ottoman Empire and the modern Turkish Republic contributed to the formation of distinct national ideologies and identities dictated by the politics of the time.
Despite their small size, seals constitute an excellent line of evidence for tackling key issues ... more Despite their small size, seals constitute an excellent line of evidence for tackling key issues like cultural exchange, identity, and political and social change. As markers of identity, authorization, and authentication, seals were used frequently during the Old Assyrian period by private individuals and state officials alike. While we have an extensive corpus of glyptic material from Anatolia both in the form of seals and seal impressions belonging to Assyrian merchants, especially from the earlier part of the Old Assyrian period, evidence of official glyptic in this period is mostly limited to impressions of royal seals of Old Assyrian kings on Kültepe documents. However, the situation is reversed for the late Old Assyrian period, when the number of written and sealed documents decreases dramatically in Anatolia, but palace archives from the northern Mesopotamian centers of Šamši-Adad’s Kingdom of Upper Mesopotamia present us with a large corpus of officials’ seals.
This paper examines the glyptic evidence of the late Old Assyrian period with special emphasis on the seals of Šamši-Adad’s officials. By focusing on certain aspects of iconography, such as the “king with mace” motif, the paper touches upon issues of political change and legitimization, representations of political agenda, and reflections of identity. In addition, a comparative look at the glyptic material from Kültepe and Acemhöyük in Anatolia, and Tell Bi’a, Tell Leilan, Tell al-Rimah, Chagar Bazar, and Mari in northern Mesopotamia attempts to explain the extent of cultural exchange over a vast geographic area during the late Old Assyrian period.
Late nineteenth century was a period of severe crisis for the Ottoman Empire due to a series of c... more Late nineteenth century was a period of severe crisis for the Ottoman Empire due to a series of challenges from both within and outside of its territories. Archaeology and museums were introduced into the Ottoman Empire during this period as parts of a program of radical and dynamic change in order to bring the Empire in line with the ever-growing power of the Western world.
The Ottoman Imperial Museum, known today as the Istanbul Archaeological Museums, emerged alongside many other European-style institutions in the Empire as part of this process of modernization and identity- formation. Nevertheless, in time the Imperial Museum developed into something more than a mere replica of its European counterparts both in terms of its collections and its mission.
This paper will explore the foundation of the Istanbul Archaeological Museums as a necessary item on the checklist of modernity and civilization and its development as a world class institution capable of representing developing state ideologies through the pioneering efforts of Osman Hamdi Bey. In light of recent developments, the aggressive policy of repatriation of cultural property actively pursued by the Turkish government will also be examined against these early ideas.
Despite the thousands of seals and impressions excavated in the Near East, we know very little ab... more Despite the thousands of seals and impressions excavated in the Near East, we know very little about the craftsmen who made them. Because they never signed their work and were almost never depicted, the study of craftsmen in the ancient Near East is relegated to a minor place and their role within society is largely ignored. Both textual and archaeological evidence concerning craftsmen and their work have their limitations. Texts mentioning them are mostly economic in nature, and archaeology only recovers the objects they produced and the places where they were made. Therefore, it is essential to combine a variety of sources, both textual and archaeological, in order to reconstruct the role of craftsmen in ancient Near Eastern society.
Working in miniature without the aid of magnification to carve designs in the negative on a curved surface, seal carvers represented a very specialized craft and were highly valued for
their skills, which gave them a distinct status and prominent position in society. However, studies on seal carvers are largely focused on attributing seals and styles to individual craftsmen or workshops through stylistic analysis.
This paper attempts to understand the position of the seal carver in Old Assyrian society, through a study of textual, archaeological, and glyptic evidence from Kültepe/Kanesh. Adapting to the new medium of the cylinder seal and a wide range of artistic traditions and foreign iconography, seal carvers at Kültepe served a cosmopolitan clientele, while creating a new glyptic style of their own.
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Publications by Oya Topcuoglu
Institute Museum at the University of Chicago presents objects from
ancient Mesopotamia, Syria-Anatolia, the Levant, Egypt, Persia, Nubia,
and objects from the Islamic collection. It features all new
photography, provenance information, and a brief description of each
object, as well as a history of the collections and a concordance.
Conference Presentations by Oya Topcuoglu
As an Amorite, Šamši-Adad was perceived as a usurper and illegitimate ruler even in antiquity. On a stone tablet from Aššur, Puzur-Sin, who claims to have gained the throne of Aššur by deposing a successor of Šamši-Adad, scornfully emphasizes the foreign, i.e. non-Assyrian, origin of the king and boasts about restoring a native dynasty and customs to the City. However, a close reading of the material and textual record from his 30+ year reign suggests that Šamši-Adad successfully created a politically unified entity across Upper Mesopotamia by employing a unifying ideology expressed through text and image. Rather than imposing a new and foreign structure, his administration combined the preexisting political and ideological infrastructures of the region with the cultural memory and traditions of the Akkadian, Ur III, Old Assyrian, and Old Babylonian worlds. This strategy appears to have outweighed the king’s foreignness, presenting him as a legitimate ruler and allowing him to be included in the Assyrian King List after his death.
Impressions of seals bearing Šamši-Adad’s name draw heavily from earlier traditions of seal iconography, carving style, and royal epithets. By focusing on these seals, this paper explores the role of tradition, cultural memory, and visual representation as tools for navigating foreignness, gaining political legitimization, and forging royal ideology in the early second millennium BC.
However, despite relatively large areas of exposure on the mound, no cuneiform tablets have been found so far, to help identify the site with an ancient settlement and place it in a secure historical context. As a result, the chronological and historical framework for Acemhöyük relies heavily on archaeological evidence. The much anticipated publication of the sealed bullae from Acemhöyük by Nimet Özgüç in 2015, which presents the site as ancient Burushaddum despite recent evidence to the contrary, provides a dating of the monumental structures based on glyptic evidence. However, a closer examination makes it clear that Özgüç’s work warrants a re-evaluation.
This paper presents a closer look at archaeological and glyptic evidence from Acemhöyük in conjunction with dendrochronological data and contemporaneous textual evidence from Kültepe, in an attempt to clarify the history and role of the site during the Middle Bronze Age in relation to the Old Assyrian trade network, and explore the interconnections between Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia.
This paper explores how history, archaeology and museums have been called to action in different periods of Turkish history, starting with the 19th century when interest in the ancient past and its remains was seen as a necessary item on the checklist of modernity and civilization. In this period, Hellenistic and Byzantine antiquities from all over the empire, which emphasized the Ottomans’ connections with European civilization, flooded to the Imperial Museum in Istanbul. Similarly, in an attempt to break away from its immediate past and to establish itself as an independent nation, the modern Turkish Republic undertook the task of creating a new and modern identity based on the remains of Hittite civilization, resulting in extensive research, excavations and the foundation of the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara. Finally, within the last decade the Turkish government under Ak Parti has been seeking to fashion yet another collective identity for the Turkish state, emphasizing a return to Central Asian and Ottoman roots, and pursuing an aggressive policy of repatriation of cultural property from European and American museums.
By exploring these periods of political change in the history of Turkey, this paper shows how political ideology and state policies create a perilous position for the past as a pawn in the assertion of national and cultural identities, and put the past and its material remains in peril through claims of ownership.
Despite being perceived as a usurper and illegitimate ruler due to his Amorite origin, Šamši-Adad successfully created a politically unified entity across Upper Mesopotamia during the 18th century B.C. A close reading of textual and visual evidence suggests that the Kingdom of Upper Mesopotamia owed its success to a unifying ideology expressed through text and image, which combined the preexisting political and ideological infrastructures of the region with the cultural memory and traditions of the Akkadian, Ur III, Old Assyrian, and Old Babylonian worlds. In the visual realm, this strategically crafted program of representation is expressed through the iconography of royal and official seals. The audience scene and the figure-with-mace motif on the seals of royals and high-ranking officials not only communicated the legitimacy and high status of the seals owners, but also conveyed a political message regarding the power and authority of Šamši-Adad’s state.
Impressions of seals bearing Šamši-Adad’s name show great variety in terms of their imagery and inscriptions, although they draw heavily from earlier traditions of seal iconography, carving style and royal epithets. By focusing on these seals, this paper explores the role of cultural memory and visual representation as tools of political change and legitimization, royal ideology and identity in the early second millennium BC.
However, despite relatively large areas of exposure on the mound, no cuneiform tablets have been found so far, to help identify the site with an ancient settlement and place it in a secure historical context. As a result, the chronological and historical framework for Acemhöyük relies heavily on archaeological evidence from the site. The much anticipated publication of the cylinder seals and bullae from Acemhöyük by Nimet Özgüç in 2015, which presents the site as ancient Burushaddum despite recent evidence to the contrary (Barjamovic 2011), provides a dating of the monumental structures based on glyptic evidence, which warrants a re-evaluation.
This paper presents a re-evaluation of archaeological and glyptic evidence from Acemhöyük in conjunction with dendrochronological data and contemporaneous written documentation from Kültepe, in an attempt to clarify the history and role of the site during the Middle Bronze Age in relation to the Old Assyrian trade network and political developments in Upper Mesopotamia.
One exception to this are royal and other high-ranking women, who assumed public functions in the form of political, administrative, and cultic duties as well as commerce. Thanks to their high status in society and their various public duties, some of these women are known to us today, although they remain much less visible than their male counterparts.
This paper examines royal women in northern Mesopotamia during the late Old Assyrian period in an attempt to bring them into sharper focus through their seals. Šiptu, Adad-duri, Yatar-Aya, Iltani, and Ummi-waqrat are not the only royal women known through seals and seal impressions in the ancient Near East, but they present a special case as their seals bore the official iconography of the period, even though they were not officials themselves. Moreover, unlike elite women of the Ur III period, whose seals featured a modified version of the official iconography, where the male figures were often replaced by female ones, these women would be virtually unrecognizable if it weren’t for their seal inscriptions, as the iconography of their seals is identical to that of male officials.
By bringing together seal imagery and textual evidence, this paper explores the practice of multiple seal ownership in official contexts in northern Mesopotamia in the late Old Assyrian period. Various cases attested at Tell Bi’a, Tell al-Rimah, Tell Leilan, and Mari are used to demonstrate how integrating iconography, prosopography, and texts can shed light on this complex practice and the relationship between seal owners and their seals. Whether the practice was seen as a symbol of wealth and prestige or was simply a consequence of personal recognition of the seal owner in a given context will also be discussed.
Hellenistic and Byzantine antiquities from all over the empire, which emphasized the Ottomans’ connections with European civilization, flooded to the imperial capital. Similarly, in an attempt to break away from its immediate past and to establish itself as an independent nation, the modern Turkish Republic undertook the task of creating a new and modern identity based on the remains of Hittite civilization in Central Anatolia resulting in extensive collections of objects that were moved to the capital from Alacahöyük, Kültepe, Acemhöyük, and Boğazköy. By exploring the history of these two museums, this paper aims to show how the movement of archaeological material from various parts of the Ottoman Empire and the modern Turkish Republic contributed to the formation of distinct national ideologies and identities dictated by the politics of the time.
This paper examines the glyptic evidence of the late Old Assyrian period with special emphasis on the seals of Šamši-Adad’s officials. By focusing on certain aspects of iconography, such as the “king with mace” motif, the paper touches upon issues of political change and legitimization, representations of political agenda, and reflections of identity. In addition, a comparative look at the glyptic material from Kültepe and Acemhöyük in Anatolia, and Tell Bi’a, Tell Leilan, Tell al-Rimah, Chagar Bazar, and Mari in northern Mesopotamia attempts to explain the extent of cultural exchange over a vast geographic area during the late Old Assyrian period.
The Ottoman Imperial Museum, known today as the Istanbul Archaeological Museums, emerged alongside many other European-style institutions in the Empire as part of this process of modernization and identity- formation. Nevertheless, in time the Imperial Museum developed into something more than a mere replica of its European counterparts both in terms of its collections and its mission.
This paper will explore the foundation of the Istanbul Archaeological Museums as a necessary item on the checklist of modernity and civilization and its development as a world class institution capable of representing developing state ideologies through the pioneering efforts of Osman Hamdi Bey. In light of recent developments, the aggressive policy of repatriation of cultural property actively pursued by the Turkish government will also be examined against these early ideas.
Working in miniature without the aid of magnification to carve designs in the negative on a curved surface, seal carvers represented a very specialized craft and were highly valued for
their skills, which gave them a distinct status and prominent position in society. However, studies on seal carvers are largely focused on attributing seals and styles to individual craftsmen or workshops through stylistic analysis.
This paper attempts to understand the position of the seal carver in Old Assyrian society, through a study of textual, archaeological, and glyptic evidence from Kültepe/Kanesh. Adapting to the new medium of the cylinder seal and a wide range of artistic traditions and foreign iconography, seal carvers at Kültepe served a cosmopolitan clientele, while creating a new glyptic style of their own.
Institute Museum at the University of Chicago presents objects from
ancient Mesopotamia, Syria-Anatolia, the Levant, Egypt, Persia, Nubia,
and objects from the Islamic collection. It features all new
photography, provenance information, and a brief description of each
object, as well as a history of the collections and a concordance.
As an Amorite, Šamši-Adad was perceived as a usurper and illegitimate ruler even in antiquity. On a stone tablet from Aššur, Puzur-Sin, who claims to have gained the throne of Aššur by deposing a successor of Šamši-Adad, scornfully emphasizes the foreign, i.e. non-Assyrian, origin of the king and boasts about restoring a native dynasty and customs to the City. However, a close reading of the material and textual record from his 30+ year reign suggests that Šamši-Adad successfully created a politically unified entity across Upper Mesopotamia by employing a unifying ideology expressed through text and image. Rather than imposing a new and foreign structure, his administration combined the preexisting political and ideological infrastructures of the region with the cultural memory and traditions of the Akkadian, Ur III, Old Assyrian, and Old Babylonian worlds. This strategy appears to have outweighed the king’s foreignness, presenting him as a legitimate ruler and allowing him to be included in the Assyrian King List after his death.
Impressions of seals bearing Šamši-Adad’s name draw heavily from earlier traditions of seal iconography, carving style, and royal epithets. By focusing on these seals, this paper explores the role of tradition, cultural memory, and visual representation as tools for navigating foreignness, gaining political legitimization, and forging royal ideology in the early second millennium BC.
However, despite relatively large areas of exposure on the mound, no cuneiform tablets have been found so far, to help identify the site with an ancient settlement and place it in a secure historical context. As a result, the chronological and historical framework for Acemhöyük relies heavily on archaeological evidence. The much anticipated publication of the sealed bullae from Acemhöyük by Nimet Özgüç in 2015, which presents the site as ancient Burushaddum despite recent evidence to the contrary, provides a dating of the monumental structures based on glyptic evidence. However, a closer examination makes it clear that Özgüç’s work warrants a re-evaluation.
This paper presents a closer look at archaeological and glyptic evidence from Acemhöyük in conjunction with dendrochronological data and contemporaneous textual evidence from Kültepe, in an attempt to clarify the history and role of the site during the Middle Bronze Age in relation to the Old Assyrian trade network, and explore the interconnections between Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia.
This paper explores how history, archaeology and museums have been called to action in different periods of Turkish history, starting with the 19th century when interest in the ancient past and its remains was seen as a necessary item on the checklist of modernity and civilization. In this period, Hellenistic and Byzantine antiquities from all over the empire, which emphasized the Ottomans’ connections with European civilization, flooded to the Imperial Museum in Istanbul. Similarly, in an attempt to break away from its immediate past and to establish itself as an independent nation, the modern Turkish Republic undertook the task of creating a new and modern identity based on the remains of Hittite civilization, resulting in extensive research, excavations and the foundation of the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara. Finally, within the last decade the Turkish government under Ak Parti has been seeking to fashion yet another collective identity for the Turkish state, emphasizing a return to Central Asian and Ottoman roots, and pursuing an aggressive policy of repatriation of cultural property from European and American museums.
By exploring these periods of political change in the history of Turkey, this paper shows how political ideology and state policies create a perilous position for the past as a pawn in the assertion of national and cultural identities, and put the past and its material remains in peril through claims of ownership.
Despite being perceived as a usurper and illegitimate ruler due to his Amorite origin, Šamši-Adad successfully created a politically unified entity across Upper Mesopotamia during the 18th century B.C. A close reading of textual and visual evidence suggests that the Kingdom of Upper Mesopotamia owed its success to a unifying ideology expressed through text and image, which combined the preexisting political and ideological infrastructures of the region with the cultural memory and traditions of the Akkadian, Ur III, Old Assyrian, and Old Babylonian worlds. In the visual realm, this strategically crafted program of representation is expressed through the iconography of royal and official seals. The audience scene and the figure-with-mace motif on the seals of royals and high-ranking officials not only communicated the legitimacy and high status of the seals owners, but also conveyed a political message regarding the power and authority of Šamši-Adad’s state.
Impressions of seals bearing Šamši-Adad’s name show great variety in terms of their imagery and inscriptions, although they draw heavily from earlier traditions of seal iconography, carving style and royal epithets. By focusing on these seals, this paper explores the role of cultural memory and visual representation as tools of political change and legitimization, royal ideology and identity in the early second millennium BC.
However, despite relatively large areas of exposure on the mound, no cuneiform tablets have been found so far, to help identify the site with an ancient settlement and place it in a secure historical context. As a result, the chronological and historical framework for Acemhöyük relies heavily on archaeological evidence from the site. The much anticipated publication of the cylinder seals and bullae from Acemhöyük by Nimet Özgüç in 2015, which presents the site as ancient Burushaddum despite recent evidence to the contrary (Barjamovic 2011), provides a dating of the monumental structures based on glyptic evidence, which warrants a re-evaluation.
This paper presents a re-evaluation of archaeological and glyptic evidence from Acemhöyük in conjunction with dendrochronological data and contemporaneous written documentation from Kültepe, in an attempt to clarify the history and role of the site during the Middle Bronze Age in relation to the Old Assyrian trade network and political developments in Upper Mesopotamia.
One exception to this are royal and other high-ranking women, who assumed public functions in the form of political, administrative, and cultic duties as well as commerce. Thanks to their high status in society and their various public duties, some of these women are known to us today, although they remain much less visible than their male counterparts.
This paper examines royal women in northern Mesopotamia during the late Old Assyrian period in an attempt to bring them into sharper focus through their seals. Šiptu, Adad-duri, Yatar-Aya, Iltani, and Ummi-waqrat are not the only royal women known through seals and seal impressions in the ancient Near East, but they present a special case as their seals bore the official iconography of the period, even though they were not officials themselves. Moreover, unlike elite women of the Ur III period, whose seals featured a modified version of the official iconography, where the male figures were often replaced by female ones, these women would be virtually unrecognizable if it weren’t for their seal inscriptions, as the iconography of their seals is identical to that of male officials.
By bringing together seal imagery and textual evidence, this paper explores the practice of multiple seal ownership in official contexts in northern Mesopotamia in the late Old Assyrian period. Various cases attested at Tell Bi’a, Tell al-Rimah, Tell Leilan, and Mari are used to demonstrate how integrating iconography, prosopography, and texts can shed light on this complex practice and the relationship between seal owners and their seals. Whether the practice was seen as a symbol of wealth and prestige or was simply a consequence of personal recognition of the seal owner in a given context will also be discussed.
Hellenistic and Byzantine antiquities from all over the empire, which emphasized the Ottomans’ connections with European civilization, flooded to the imperial capital. Similarly, in an attempt to break away from its immediate past and to establish itself as an independent nation, the modern Turkish Republic undertook the task of creating a new and modern identity based on the remains of Hittite civilization in Central Anatolia resulting in extensive collections of objects that were moved to the capital from Alacahöyük, Kültepe, Acemhöyük, and Boğazköy. By exploring the history of these two museums, this paper aims to show how the movement of archaeological material from various parts of the Ottoman Empire and the modern Turkish Republic contributed to the formation of distinct national ideologies and identities dictated by the politics of the time.
This paper examines the glyptic evidence of the late Old Assyrian period with special emphasis on the seals of Šamši-Adad’s officials. By focusing on certain aspects of iconography, such as the “king with mace” motif, the paper touches upon issues of political change and legitimization, representations of political agenda, and reflections of identity. In addition, a comparative look at the glyptic material from Kültepe and Acemhöyük in Anatolia, and Tell Bi’a, Tell Leilan, Tell al-Rimah, Chagar Bazar, and Mari in northern Mesopotamia attempts to explain the extent of cultural exchange over a vast geographic area during the late Old Assyrian period.
The Ottoman Imperial Museum, known today as the Istanbul Archaeological Museums, emerged alongside many other European-style institutions in the Empire as part of this process of modernization and identity- formation. Nevertheless, in time the Imperial Museum developed into something more than a mere replica of its European counterparts both in terms of its collections and its mission.
This paper will explore the foundation of the Istanbul Archaeological Museums as a necessary item on the checklist of modernity and civilization and its development as a world class institution capable of representing developing state ideologies through the pioneering efforts of Osman Hamdi Bey. In light of recent developments, the aggressive policy of repatriation of cultural property actively pursued by the Turkish government will also be examined against these early ideas.
Working in miniature without the aid of magnification to carve designs in the negative on a curved surface, seal carvers represented a very specialized craft and were highly valued for
their skills, which gave them a distinct status and prominent position in society. However, studies on seal carvers are largely focused on attributing seals and styles to individual craftsmen or workshops through stylistic analysis.
This paper attempts to understand the position of the seal carver in Old Assyrian society, through a study of textual, archaeological, and glyptic evidence from Kültepe/Kanesh. Adapting to the new medium of the cylinder seal and a wide range of artistic traditions and foreign iconography, seal carvers at Kültepe served a cosmopolitan clientele, while creating a new glyptic style of their own.
However, contemporary material has increased thanks to excavations at northern Syrian sites that were part of the vast Old Assyrian trade network. Glyptic finds from Tell Leilan, Tell al-Rimah, Tell Bi’a and Mari, which were important centers of Šamši-Adad’s kingdom, along with the few finds from the renewed excavations at Ashur can help us fill the gaps in our knowledge regarding the “true Old Assyrian” style.
With this in mind, this long-term project aims to conduct a comparative study of Old Assyrian period glyptic from Kültepe in Anatolia and the recently excavated material from northern Syrian sites in order to answer the question of whether a “true Old Assyrian” glyptic style unique to Assyria proper really existed or whether what has been termed “Old Assyrian” based on finds from Kültepe is in fact a mixture of traditions stemming from southern and northern Mesopotamia, Syria and Anatolia as a result of intensive trade contacts between these region
This paper focuses on a stylistic analysis of Walawala’s seal, impressed on the clay envelope of a letter. A comparison with contemporary parallels and an etymological and prosopographic study of the seal owner's name are conducted in order to address the question of whether certain iconographic styles within the Cappadocian text corpus can be attributed to distinct population groups.
In addition, this study also shows that cultural influence between the Assyrian and local Anatolian communities was not unilateral. It was not only local Anatolians who adopted elements of Mesopotamian culture introduced by the merchant community in diaspora. The prolonged stay in the colonies of a large number of merchants led to the adoption of several features of Anatolian culture by the Assyrians. In the case of cylinder seals, the highly dominant character of the local culture and the long-established religious and artistic traditions of Anatolia contributed to the development of a new style and its use by Anatolian and Assyrian merchants alike.
This paper focuses on cylinder seals and seal impressions from Anatolia in order to show the extent of interactions and reciprocal cultural borrowings which existed between two culturally and ethnically distinct communities that co-existed. The paper will specifically deal with a small sample of five seal impressions where seal styles, designs and the ethnic background of the seal owners will be used to suggest that not only did Anatolians adopt elements of Mesopotamian culture such as writing and cylinder seals, but also the sophisticated local culture and the long-established religious and artistic traditions of Anatolia contributed to the development of a new seal style widely used by both locals and Assyrian merchants.
This paper explores how history, archaeology and museums have been called to action in different periods of Turkish history, starting with the 19th century when interest in the ancient past and its remains was seen as a necessary item on the checklist of modernity and civilization. In this period, Hellenistic and Byzantine antiquities from all over the empire, which emphasized the Ottomans’ connections with European civilization, flooded to the Imperial Museum in Istanbul. Similarly, in an attempt to break away from its immediate past and to establish itself as an independent nation, the modern Turkish Republic undertook the task of creating a new and modern identity based on the remains of Hittite civilization, resulting in extensive research, excavations and the foundation of the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara. Finally, within the last decade the Turkish government under Ak Parti has been seeking to fashion yet another collective identity for the Turkish state, emphasizing a return to Central Asian and Ottoman roots, and pursuing an aggressive policy of repatriation of cultural property from European and American museums.
By exploring these periods of political change in the history of Turkey, this paper shows how political ideology and state policies create a perilous position for the past as a pawn in the assertion of national and cultural identities, and put the past and its material remains in peril through claims of ownership.
ASOR Annual Meeting, Denver, CO – November 14-17, 2018
Object, Text and Image: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Seals, Sealing Practices and Administration
Organizers/Chairs: Oya Topçuoğlu (Northwestern University) and Sarah J. Scott (Wagner College)
Papers in the Object, Text, and Image: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Seals, Sealing Practices, and Administration session at the 2016 and 2017 meetings considered glyptic materials through methodologies of practice, function, regional variation, audience, gender, iconography, and materiality. In all of the contributions, authors relied on analysis of both text and image. In the 2018 session we look to build upon two aspects of engagement that have been particularly fruitful in these past sessions. Building on and pushing past the tradition of text and image studies, we want to examine the specificity of the relationship between image and text. In other words, do these objects use text and image, text in image, or text on image; to what extent is the text/image binary ambiguous; to what extent is the text or image present? Second, we aim to explore how the glyptic material world addresses the concept of identity. Papers may approach the question of identity from any perspective, including but not limited to gender, office, region, ethnicity, body, personhood, and/or profession; papers may also question if identity relates to glyptic material. We seek papers that explore these questions of text/image and identity through the status of seals and sealings as objects; to what extent does the artifact’s object-hood speak to these modes of inquiry?
Presenters can submit an abstract of 250 words or less via ASOR's Online Abstract Management System at https://app.oxfordabstracts.com/login?redirect=/stages/453/submission.
Please note that professional membership (http://www.asor.org/membership/individual-memberships/#regular) and registration (http://www.asor.org/am/2018-registration/) for the Annual Meeting are required at the time of abstract submission.
Please contact Oya Topçuoğlu at [email protected] for questions.
- major and minor arts and artistic traditions of Anatolia from seals to rock reliefs
- burial customs
- craft production
- food production and consumption
- religious beliefs and ritual practices
- representations of identity (political, ethnic, gender etc.) in the material culture
- texts as material culture objects