Stamp Seals

The paper probes the distribution of the various stamped and incised Judahite jars with two criteria in mind: (1) their estimated date; (2) the assumption that in addition to Jerusalem, sites that yielded large quantities of stamped handles (mainly lachish and Ramat Ra el) served as major collection centres while sites that yielded only a few dozen stamped handles served as secondary administrative centres of the kingdom. Based on their findings, the authors reconstruct the evolution of the royal administrative system in the late 8th through the early 6th centuries BCe.

A large number of lmlk (57) and 'private' (18) Judahite stamp impressions have been unearthed at Tel Beth-Shemesh. All but one are of the early types dated to the late 8th century BCE. The site has not yielded any lmlk stamp impressions of the late types dated to the early 7th century BCE, concentric-circle incision types from the middle of the 7th century or rosette stamp impressions from the late 7th and early 6th century BCE. This information helps in the reconstruction of the history of this significant lowland center during the period of 'Pax-Assyriaca' in the southern Levant.

The presence and unusual structure of clay stamps found in Neolithic settlements often give rise to multiple interpretations to define their character. The small dimensions and specific shape of the stamps suggests that these portable objects were important in the social relations and visual communication between members within the same community and, possibly, more distant communities. The definite patterns distinguishe their function in maintaining the visual traditions of the populations inhabiting southeastern Europe. They had an important role in building the Neolithic image modularity, so that they fitted into the comprehensive decorative structure of Neolithic iconography, and the patterns present on the stamps are related to several aspects of Neolithic material culture from the Balkans and Anatolia. This homogeneity of patterns indicates that they were actively included in the transposition of cognition into visual metaphors.

Almost a thousand beads, pendants and seals have been excavated from the site of Domuztepe
over the past decade. This paper is based on an examination of the general typology and technology
of this assemblage. Manufacturing systems based upon social networks of decentralised
organisation of small production ‘workshops’ are explored. It is suggested that these networks
shared a system of sequenced actions according to raw material and finished products. A group
of unfinished beads in the preliminary phase of production suggests evidence of batched reduction
and finishing strategies that balanced breakage risk with a high level of proficiency.
At Domuztepe the reduction sequences proposed here would have required tools for pecking,
cutting, snapping, perforating, grinding and polishing of stones to create beads, pendants and
seals of great quantity and variety. This paper is intended to open a dialogue between small finds
and lithic specialists about the technological processes and tools used to create stone ornaments
in the Neolithic Near East.

In this article, 13 cylinder and stamp seals are examined. They were found at Tatarlı Höyük during the 2008–2012 excavations. The interesting and significant collection of cylinder and stamp seals of the second millennium BC reveals the importance of Tatarlı Höyük in the archaeology of Kizzuwatna. Stamp seals from earlier periods were found out of context and shed light on prehistoric Tatarlı Höyük. We believe that Tatarlı Höyük is ancient Lawazantiya – the famous ‘lost’ city of the Hittites and of Kizzuwatna.

A partir da análise iconográfica dos selos de estampar da região do platô de Benjamim no Ferro I-IIB, o artigo examina a presença de conceitos de realeza. Reconhecida na literatura política no decorrer da história pelas personalidades ‘bíblicas’ que abrigou, a região ainda não viu um estudo dedicado à ideologia real feito exclusivamente com fontes visuais primárias em recorte. O estudo cresce em importância uma vez que se note que, mesmo no contexto judaíta, a iconografia da região fronteiriça de Benjamim provavelmente serviu de elo entre o imaginário real de Israel e Judá. Argumenta-se que no Período do Ferro I-IIA, a iconografia realça aspectos de vigor e filiação divina dos reis, estes criados à sombra do domínio egípcio, enquanto, no Ferro IIA tardio-IIB, ela passa a enfatizar a agressividade e perfil vitorioso dos reis.

A difícil relação entre “cultura popular” e “religião” é alvo recorrente de discussões nas Ciências da Religião e na História da Religião do Antigo Israel. Dentre as variadas aproximações ao tema, há dificuldades na categorização dos conceitos, assim como posições divergentes sobre o lugar dessas práticas dentre o quadro sócio-religioso mais amplo. O presente artigo, alimentado e reagindo à discussão, coopera através da conceituação de objetos de poder como mídia, i.e., como objetos que, ao encarnar “poder religioso”, tornam-se, em si, poder religioso, hibridizando alteridade e identidade últimas. Para tanto, é realizado breve panorama sobre a discussão de magia na História da Religião de Israel e uma discussão, a partir da filosofia de mídia e estudos de cultura material, para a conceituação de objetos de poder. Ao fim, é apresentado estudo de caso com análise de um selo de estampar de osso de tell en-Nasḅeh.

Tatarlı Höyük is one of the largest settlements of Cilicia Pedias (Campestris). It is located on the important commercial and military
routes at the western exit of the Amanus Mountains, in the eastern part of the Ceyhan district of Adana. It is also close to the Hittite-Kizzuwatna Caravan Road and connected to Central Anatolia by this route. This article discusses a seal and two seal impressions found in the excavations of Tatarlı Höyük in 2013 and 2015. One of the seal impressions is without an inscription and can be suggested to belong to the 16th-15th century BC. The other seal impression is inscribed with the
female name Pa-ti. We can propose a date for this hieroglyphic seal impression from the 14th to the 13th century BC. One terracotta
stamp seal was found out of context during the 2015 excavation season. We can read the name of the seal owner as Sà-li-pi with a proposed dating to the 15th-14th century BC.

Tatarlı Höyük, Ovalık Kilikya’nın (Kilikia Pedias / Campestris) en büyük yerleşim yerlerinden birisidir. Adana’da Ceyhan ilçesinin doğusunda, Amanos Dağları’nın batı çıkışındaki önemli ticari ve askeri yol güzergâhları üzerinde yer almaktadır. Hitit-Kizzuwatna Karavan Yolu’na da yakındır ve bu güzergâh ile Orta Anadolu’ya bağlanmaktadır. Makalenin konusunu, 2013 ve 2015 yılı kazılarında bulunmuş olan bir pişmiş topraktan mühür ve iki mühür baskısı oluşturmaktadır. Bu malzemenin biri yazıtsız bir mühür baskısıdır ve MÖ 16.-15. yüzyıla tarihlenmesi teklif edilmiştir. Diğer mühür baskısı ise yazıtlıdır ve Pa-ti kadın adı okunmaktadır. Tarafımızdan MÖ 14. yüzyıldan 13. yüzyıla geçiş dönemine tarihlenmiştir. Bulunan pişmiş toprak mühür üzerinde ise
Sà-li-pi adı okunabilmekte ve MÖ 15.-14. yüzyıla tarihlenmesi teklif edilmiştir.

Different ideas have been put forward by the researchers for the functions of the seals made of baked clay, stone and metal. The most common view among these is that particularly beginning from the Early Bronze Age, seals were used for expressions of ownership and registration. Another view is that seals could be stamping tools used on the body or in textile printing. The pottery with seal impressions recovered in excavations is important archaeological evidence demonstrating that the find termed a 'seal' was used also for decorative purposes. A total of 11 stamp seals dated to the Early Bronze Age were recovered from Küllüoba Höyük between the years of 1996 and 2019. It could be observed that the stamp seals uncovered in Küllüoba share many common characteristics with those unearthed in other contemporary settlements in Anatolia. Particularly, the close resemblance of the motifs seen on the stamping surfaces of the seals gives rise to the thought that there was a common sealing tradition in Anatolia in the Early Bronze Age. Towards the end of the Early Bronze Age, an organized trade had developed as a result of the close relations with distant regions. This study aims to examine the seals that have been found in the excavations at Küllüoba Höyük, located in Western Central Anatolia, which lay along a significant trade route and which has provided important data on urbanization and trade in the EBA.

AS ELSEWHERE IN the premodern world, seals — and, even more importantly,conceptions of seals, and of the human behaviors that featured them — were central to the practice of religion in premodern China. They are perhaps most famous in what are called the “ Esoteric, ” or Tantric, forms of Buddhism in China, which, as in India, feature hand gestures and bodily postures known as mudrās — literally “ seal ” in Sanskrit — a word that in Chinese is straightforwardly translated by the main word for seal (and stamp) in that language: yin 印 . Beyond ritual postures, and again following Indic conventions, seals in the Esoteric traditions also provided
central metaphors for a range of practices and ideas in the Esoteric traditions. Seals indeed — in part due to the infusion of Indic conceptions and practices — possessed a nearly unmatched richness of polysemy in Chinese religious discourse and practice. But they did more thanprovide metaphors for practice: actual seals (and stamps) also had their places in the hand of Chinese religious specialists of a range of traditions and
styles. Echoing both older Chinese and Indic techniques alike, seals in the period treated here (ca. 600 – 1000 CE, an age sometimes called “ late medieval ” ) were key tools of ritualists, employed either as adjuncts to spells or as the delivery mechanisms of inscribed spells or talismanic texts and images. These metaphors and physical practices, and the interplay between them, are the subject of this brief survey.

Terracotta seals that reprise the iconography and shape of seals produced in more prestigious materials are found throughout Southern and Central Asia. They are particularly common at the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC sites of the Ahar Banas culture in southwestern Rajasthan. All the seals found at these sites were made of baked clay, contrasting sharply with the stone or metal seals made by the cultures that surrounded them. Yet the shape and iconography of the Ahar Banas seals often imitate those of stone and metal seals from neighboring regions, suggesting that these seals were in fact a local adaptation of a foreign technology. Nonetheless, the people of the Ahar Banas were not alone in making terracotta seals. A closer examination of the material from the area shows that the archaeological record, particularly in the periods before and after the Mature Harappan Period, is littered with what may be considered prestige items made in the least prestigious material available. This paper examines the clay seals found in Southern and Central Asia and Iran in the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC and contemplates the role that imitation and adaptation play in their production, as well as reconsidering the intrinsic value of the materials in which they are made and the role that technological styles play in defining local identities.

In this study, two seals and one bulla from the Achaemenid Period, which were uncovered in the satrapy of Daskyleion, have been examined. The first is a cylinder seal, the second a pyramidal stamp seal, and the third is a bulla impressed with a stamp seal. The third sample, now preserved in the Ekrem Akurgal collection of Ankara University’s Faculty of Letters, was probably found at Daskyleion. The new glyptic art samples studied here are quite important as they demonstrate the presence of a cosmopolitan structure in Daskyleion, which was the satrapy center in the western part of Anatolia.

This second part of the study of Daoist seals focuses on types, building on Wang Yucheng’s earlier studies. They come in four: 1) seal script; 2) heavenly scripts; 3) talisman-inspired; and 4) graphic. The underlining criterion is the Daoist strategy of image-making: it sheds light on the interlocking relationship of Daoist texts and images. The first type is purely script-based, while the fourth is purely graphic. Between the two is the core zone of Daoist visual culture as it blends image with text.

https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/DIA900058

Some Facts:  This paper was conceived and outlined during my time working for the Detroit Institute of Art. As a Research Associate, I examined and studied the entire collection of the Middle/Near Eastern iconography.
In addition, the study of the paper was supported with the most distinguished and significant examples of cylinder seals -- they were photographed in high-quality technology by Professor Wayne Pitard, for whom I am most grateful.

Summary of the paper:
Seals, particularly the cylinder form, are one of the most distinctive features of Mesopotamian art. High-resolution, 360-degree photography is utilized to show details that are barely visible in tiny modern impressions—not only reveals the beauty of the stones, but allows us a deeper understanding of the iconography of Mesopotamian cylinder seals, seal-carving styles, and the abilities of carvers in the Old Babylonian period.      Please See the Attached Links -- they include information on the cylinder seals illustrated in this paper.

Smith, Joanna S. 2015 "Impressing Aphrodite: Stamped Loom Weights from Polis Chrysochous," Cahier du Centre d’Études Chypriotes 45: 41–56.

Among eight stamped terracotta weights from Polis Chrysochous, Cyprus, is a discoid loom weight impressed with a metal ring engraved with a standing figure of Aphrodite and Eros. Together, these weights preserve evidence for development and change in sealing and weaving traditions at Marion, the earlier of the two cities below modern-day Polis. They span the late Archaic into the early Hellenistic period when the goddess of Cyprus came to be called Aphrodite on the island.

Lucrarea este dedicată unor artefacte ceramice care caracterizează centrul de producţie de la Porolissum: vasele de lux decorate prin ştampilare.
Studiul a demonstrat că la Porolissum a existat cel mai mare centru de producere a vaselor cu decor ştampilat din Imperiul Roman, de unde s-a răspândit şi în Barbaricum.
Concepută ca un înlocuitor al vaselor terra sigillata, producţia de ceramică ştampilată va atinge apogeul în Dacia romană, influenţând centrele din provinciile vecine (Pannoniile şi Moesiile), dar mai ales pe cele din Barbaricum.

Il contributo propone lo studio di quattro sigilli romani di bronzo conservati presso i Musei Civici di Piacenza, un tempo appartenuti alle raccolte Chiappini e Poggi. La ricerca approfondisce le vicende antiquarie ricostruibili e fornisce un'edizione dei signacula basata sull'esame autoptico e sui confronti forniti dalle fonti epigrafiche.

A brief outline of the current discussion on the Neolithic “stamps” archaeological literature introduces the presentation of a “stamp” found at the lakeside Neolithic settlement of Dispilio, Greece. This clay “stamp” bears an unique motif resembling to a fish spine. The description of the characteristics concerning its morphological and technological attributes and the analogies of its decorative elements with other artifacts is followed by the results retrieved by an experimental reproduction of the motif of this “stamp” on textile and on human body surfaces.
Although the form, the possible syntax and grammar, and the meanings of the practices of visual communication in a Neolithic society are not accessible to us in entirety, we are quite aware that these practices existed: either in the form of decorated pottery or in body adornment, to name but a few. The difference that one could discern in a “stamp” is its ability to reproduce typographically one specific “image”. In our case, the “stamp” with the fish-bone motif could be thought as the objectification of “copying” an element of the near physical environment (the lake) and its (repetitive) “pasting” into the social environment.