Cylinder seal
Sello cilíndrico
- Date
- c. 3500 BCE · confidence high
- Place
- Uruk, Iraq; Susa and Sharafabad, Iran
- Credited to
- Uruk and Susa societies
- Field
- Communication
What it is
Stone cylinder carved in intaglio that, when rolled over wet clay, prints a continuous, unrepeatable scene onto bullae, jar stoppers and tablets. Signature, mark of authority and miniature work of art for three millennia.
What it led to
- Authentication of documents and goods by a state bureaucracy
- Iconography of power (the priest-king, the temple's flocks) reproduced in series
- The craft of seal engraving and trade in hard stones
- Authentication of documents and goods, a necessary condition for contracts and long-distance trade
- Personal and institutional administrative identity (the seal of the king, of the temple)
- Miniature art and the spread of royal and religious iconography across the Near East
Built on
- Bow drillc. 7000 BCE
- Stamp seal and clay sealingsc. 6000 BCE
- City and urbanismc. 3700 BCE
- Clay envelope (bulla) with tokensc. 3500 BCE
- Bulla with impressions
- Stamped seal
Made possible
- Clay envelope (bulla) with tokensc. 3500 BCE
- Proto-cuneiform writingc. 3300 BCE
- Cuneiform writingc. 3200 BCE
- Pin tumbler lock and keyc. 2000 BCE
- Sealed clay envelopec. 2000 BCE
- Coinage (Lydian electrum coins)c. 620 BCE
- Written contract with witnessesc. 450 BCE
- Royal signature and seal
- Mesopotamian glyptic art
- Royal seal