Stamp seal, 6th millennium b.c.; Halaf period
Syro/Cilicia
Steatite or chlorite
Technical Glossary
Syro/Cilicia
Steatite or chlorite
0.55 x 0.43 x 1.02 in. (1.4 x 1.09 x 2.59 cm)
Gift of Martin and Sarah Cherkasky, 1986 (1986.311.1)
Mesopotamian pendants of the Halaf period are usually of simple, mostly geometric forms. However, this stamp seal appears to represent a hedgehog, an animal that was native to northern Mesopotamia. The stamping surface is decorated with two superimposed grid patterns and a chevron pattern with a central line under the animal's head. Hedgehogs continued to be represented in Mesopotamia for millennia but the animal's symbolic or mythological significance is unknown.
