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Middle Assyrian Seal Impressions from Tell al Rimah

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Barbara Parker
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Extract

The cylinder seals and some impressions from the excavations at Tell al Rimah were published in Iraq 37 (1965). There remained for publication the seal impressions on the business documents dating to the thirteenth century B.C., all of which appear to belong to one archive. They were published by H. W. F. Saggs, D. J. Wiseman and Nicholas Postgate in Iraq 30 (1968), 154 ff. During a month's visit to Baghdad in 1973 I photographed as many impressions as I could find and Carolyn Postgate drew them. After I left Baghdad, she completed the drawings, finding impressions of the same seal on other tablets, and I have not seen the tablets since. She has however collated her drawings in response to my queries and additional photographs have been taken by Peter Dorrell, Jonathan Tubb and Christopher Watkins, working in very difficult conditions; I am grateful for their help. The impressions are extremely difficult to photograph and even in many cases to see, the tablet being sealed before the text is written, while the clearest impressions on the edges give insufficient space for a complete impression. It is ironic that the Middle Assyrians whose intaglio craftsmen produced such superb works of art should have left the worst record because, unlike the Late Assyrians, they left no space on their documents for the seal impression. In these circumstances Carolyn Postgate's work has been arduous, and I am most grateful to her, for her labours have enabled this addition to the corpus of Middle Assyrian seal design to be published.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 39 , Issue 2 , Autumn 1977 , pp. 257 - 268
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1977

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References

1 The impressions on TR. 2059 have already been published in Iraq 36 (1974), 185CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Professor van Dijk has since pointed out to me that the prominent dog is more likely to be the sukkal of dGula and the structure of a kind erected outside the town for the performance of incantation rituals (van Dijk, J. J., Heidelberger Studien zum Alten Orient (Wiesbaden 1967), 240 ffGoogle Scholar.). A late Assyrian seal published by Bruno Meissner (MAOG 8/12, 14 ffGoogle Scholar.) shows the performance of one of these rituals in a reed structure. The detail of the structure is far more specific than the simple double line of the Rimah impression, but the comparison is significant.

2 Published by Moortgat, A., ZA 47 (1943), and 48 (1944)Google Scholar; Beran, T., ZA 52 (1957)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 See note 8 below.

4 Mrs.Buren, E. Douglas Van, Foundation Figurines and Offerings (Berlin, 1931), 43Google Scholar.

5 Hrouda, B., Die Kulturgeschichte des Assyrischen Flachbildes (Bonn, 1965), 27, Pl. 37, 2Google Scholar.

6 I am indebted to Edith Porada for showing me a photograph of this seal.

7 Wiseman, D. J. and Forman, W., Cylinder Seals of Western Asia (Batchworth Press, London, 1959), no. 62Google Scholar.

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11 Parker, Barbara, Iraq 37 (1975) Pl. XV, no. 48CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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15 Salonen, E., Die Waffen der Alten Mesopotamier (Helsinki, 1965), 54Google Scholar. I am indebted to Edith Porada for this reference.

16 Seidl, Ursula, BaM 4 (1968), 176Google Scholar.

17 Özgüç, Nimet, The Anatolian Group of Cylinder Seal Impressions from Kültepe (Ankara, 1965), 57Google Scholar.

18 L. H. Sackett and M. R. Popham, Lefkandi, Euboean town of the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age (2100–700 B.C.) (Archaeology 25/1 (1972), 14–15Google Scholar. I am indebted to Edith Porada for this reference.

19 Wilcke, C., Das Lugalbandaepos (Wiesbaden, 1969), 101Google Scholar.

20 Landsberger, B., WZKM 57 (1961), 1 ffGoogle Scholar.

21 I am indebted to Edith Porada for this reference.

22 Collon, Dominique, The Seal Impressions from Tell Atchana/Alalakh (AOAT 27; Neukirchen-Vluyn 1975). 13. no. 12Google Scholar.

23 Ibid., 15, nos. 14–15.

24 Rev. (17) NA4am-ra-d[a-šur] (18) IGI mam-ra-[d]a-šur DUMU …