Cylinder seal

Although engraved stones had been used as early as the seventh millennium B.C. to stamp impressions in clay, the invention in the fourth millennium B.C. of carved cylinders that could be rolled over clay allowed the development of more complex seal designs. These cylinder seals, first used in Mesopotamia, served as a mark of ownership or identification. Seals were either impressed on lumps of clay that were used to close jars, doors, and baskets, or they were rolled onto clay tablets that recorded information about commercial or legal transactions. The seals were often made of precious stones. Protective properties may have been ascribed to both the material itself and the carved designs. Seals are important to the study of ancient Near Eastern art because many examples survive from every period and can, therefore, help to define chronological phases. Often preserving imagery no longer extant in any other medium, they serve as a visual chronicle of style and iconography.

The modern impression of the seal is shown so that the entire design can be seen. This hematite cylinder seal is carved with the images of two deities, identifiable by their horned headgear. The seated deity holds a rod with an emblem or recarving at the top and wears a long dress; the standing god is dressed in a shorter tunic and rests one foot on a horned animal. Based on his attributes, the standing figure on the right may be the god Amurru.

Amurru, the eponymous god of the Amorite peoples (Akkadian amurru), began to be represented on cylinder seals in the early second millennium B.C. It is likely that the god was created by the urban elite of southern Mesopotamia as a personification of the semi-nomadic Amorite tribes whose name he shared. The symbols associated with this god – the horned animal, crooked staff, and in some cases distinctive headgear or a stylized mountain – all emphasize his foreignness. On this cylinder, Amurru is shown in an inferior position standing before an enthroned (and traditionally-garbed) deity.

Cylinder seals in the ancient Near East served as both a kind of amulet and as a mark of ownership or identification. The representation of Amurru on this cylinder may have appealed to its owner either as a Mesopotamian symbol of Amorite identity or, perhaps more likely, as a protective device, since the god came to be associated with exorcism and healing.