Bulla

This lump of clay, called a ‘bulla,’ bears three impressions of the same cylinder seal. The image on the seal depicts a warrior wearing a bashlyk (a Persian hat that covers most of the head) and carrying a dagger in one hand advancing on an enemy who is poorly preserved. In the middle of two of the impressions a circular object – probably one end of the cylinder seal – has been impressed. Given its condition it is not clear to what it was attached originally, but it may have been a stopper in the mouth of a jar.

Seals were ancient accounting tools, used for example to indicate who supplied a commodity, who was responsible for its disbursement, or who received it. In this case, the seal impressions may indicate who supplied the contents of the jar. Once the jar was opened, the bulla was discarded. The seal used on this bulla is interesting because it dates to the Achaemenid period (probably ca. the early 5th century B.C.), at least five centuries before it was used at Hecatomplyos. This shows how seals could be used and reused for generations – all that a seal needed to function was to be able to make a distinctive mark in clay.

This bulla was excavated at Shahr-i Qumis in northern Iran, which has been identified as the ancient city of Hecatompylos, established by the Parthians as the capital of their empire by about 200 B.C. In Greek Hecatompylos means ‘a hundred gates,’ suggesting that the city was quite large. Indeed, the modern archaeological site includes several mounds, only a few of which have been excavated, and a vast area covered with potsherds. This bulla was found in a large building at Site V, which has been tentatively identified as an elite residence. This building was completely filled with dirt sometime in the late 1st century B.C. or early 1st century A.D., perhaps when the Parthian capital was moved elsewhere and the city’s elite residents left with it.

The excavations at Shahr-i Qumis by the British Institute of Persian Studies in 1967 were co-sponsored by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. However, this bulla was not discovered until 1971, and it was acquired from the British Institute as a result of the Met’s financial contributions to the Institute’s excavations at Tepe Nush-i Jan, another site in Iran. At the time the Iranian government allowed foreign excavators to keep a portion of the finds, and these excavators in turn would divide their share among the institutions that supported the work.