Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-r6qrq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T08:37:15.171Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

TRACING THE ACQUISITION HISTORY OF SOME OLD SYRIAN POPULAR STYLE CYLINDER SEALS*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2016

Barbara A. Porter
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Examples of Middle Bronze Age cylinder seals, categorized today as “Old Syrian popular style” have been documented since the mid-nineteenth century, albeit usually without any dating or provenance information. This particular subset of the vast array of ancient Near Eastern glyptic has recently been studied by the author and an acquisition history identified for many of them. Here the disparate paths that brought some of these seals into museums and private collections are explored to demonstrate, not only the vagaries of where these eminently portable objects end up, but to highlight the importance for modern scholarship of documenting such histories.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 77 , December 2015 , pp. 143 - 157
Copyright
© The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

As many of Dominique Collon's recent articles have been included in volumes in honor of her colleagues, it is a pleasure to offer here some insights into the acquisition history of a selection of the seals included in my doctoral thesis, which owes so very much to her. The details presented here derive from research for a Columbia University dissertation entitled Old Syrian Popular Style Cylinder Seals (Porter 2001). The basis for the investigation of this seal type evolved out of a seminar conducted by Edith Porada and John M. Russell in spring 1989 at Columbia University. My research started under the aegis of Edith Porada (see, for example, Porada 1993: 575, n. 40), with whom I conferred closely while forming the corpus, and she was able to attend my first lecture on this subject in April 1990 as part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's colloquium for fellows. In the end, this doctoral study was completed under the guidance of Dominique, who had studied with Dr. Porada in the late 1960s and defended her Columbia dissertation in 1971 (Collon 1975), thus she returned to New York thirty years later for the other side of the table. A few of the seals discussed here and in the dissertation were included in Dominique's book First Impressions: Cylinder Seals in the Ancient Near East (Collon 1987; 2005).

References

Amiet, P. 1963. La glyptique syrienne archaïque: notes sur la diffusion de la civilization mésopotamien en Syrie du Nord. Syria 40: 57–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Amiet, P. 1972. Glyptique susienne. Mémoires de la delegation archéologique en Iran 43. Paris: Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner.Google Scholar
Amiet, P. 1973. Bas-reliefs imaginaires de l'ancient orient d'après les cachets et les sceaux-cylindres. Exhibition catalogue. Paris: Hôtel de la Monnaie.Google Scholar
Amiet, P. 1992. Corpus des cylindres de Ras Shamra-Ougarit. Vol. 2. Sceaux-cylindres en hématite et pierres diverses. Ras Shamra-Ougarit IX. Paris: Éditions Recherche sur les Civilsations.Google Scholar
Amiet, P. (ed.) 1983. Au pays de Baal et d'Astarté: 10 000 ans d'art en Syrie. Musée du Petit Palais. Association Française d'Action Artistique. Imprimerie Alençonnaise.Google Scholar
Aruz, J. 1995. Syrian Seals and the Evidence for Cultural Interaction between the Levant and Crete. Pp.1–21 in Sceaux Minoens et Mycéniens (Corpus der minoischen und mykenischen Siegel Beiheft 5). Edited by Pini, Ingo and Poursat, Jean-Claude. Mainz: Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur.Google Scholar
Battini, L. 2014. Can the Definition ‘Popular versus Official’ be Applied to Ancient Near-Eastern Production? Pp.453–66 in Proceedings of the 8th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, Vol. 1, 30 April–4 May 2012. Edited by Bieliński, P., Gawlikowski, M., Koliński, R., Ławecka, D., Sołtysiak, A. and Wygnańska, Z.. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Berges, D. 1999. Hidden Treasures from the Vault: Engraved Gems from the Maxwell Sommerville Collection. Translated from the German by Kelly McCullough. Expedition 41 (1): 17–30.Google Scholar
Bonhams, . 1999a. Antiquities Auction: Thursday 22nd April 1999. London.Google Scholar
Bonhams, . 1999b. Antiquities Auction: Thursday 21st October 1999. London.Google Scholar
Bonhams, . 1999c. Antiquities Auction: Wednesday 1st December 1999. London.Google Scholar
Bordreuil, P. 1997. Virolleaud, Charles. P. 304 in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East, Vol. 5. Edited by Meyers, E.M.. New York/Oxford.Google Scholar
Buchanan, B. 1966. Catalogue of Ancient Near Eastern Seals in the Ashmolean Museum, Vol. I, Cylinder Seals. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Buchanan, B. 1981. Early Near Eastern Seals in the Yale Babylonian Collection. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Chabouillet, A. 1848. Catalogue générale et raisonné des camées et des pierres gravées de la Bibliothèque Impériale. Google Scholar
Cherry, J.F. 2014. Publishing Undocumented Texts: Editorial Perspectives. Pp. 227–44 in Rutz, M.T. and Kersel, M.M., ed. Archaeologies of Text: Archaeology, Technology, and Ethics. Joukowsky Institute Publication 6. Oxford: Oxbow Books.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christie's London 1984. Fine Antiquities (December 12, 1984).Google Scholar
Christie's New York 1993. Antiquities … the McLendon Collection of Ancient Cylinder and Stamp Seals (June 14, 1993).Google Scholar
Collon, D. 1975. The Seal Impressions from Tell Atchana/Alalakh. Alter Orient und Altes Testament 27. Neukirchen-Vluyn.Google Scholar
Collon, D. 1982. The Alalakh Cylinder Seals: A new catalogue of the actual seals excavated by Sir Leonard Woolley at Tell Atchana, and from neighbouring sites on the Syrian-Turkish border. BAR International Series 132. Reprint with additional material, 1988. Oxford.Google Scholar
Collon, D. 1987. First Impressions: Cylinder Seals in the Ancient Near East. London: British Museum Publications.Google Scholar
Collon, D. 2005. First Impressions: Cylinder Seals in the Ancient Near East. Revised. London: British Museum Publications.Google Scholar
Collon, D. 2005/2006. Review of H. Keel-Leu and B. Teissier. 2004. Die vorderasiatischen Rollsiegel der Sammlung “Bibel + Orient” der Universität Freiburg Schweiz—The Ancient Near Eastern Cylinder Seals of the Collections “Bibel + Orient” of the University of Fribourg. Archiv für Orientforschung 51: 387–90.Google Scholar
Cullimore, A. 1842 and 1843. Oriental Cylinder Seals (in 4 parts). London: C.W. Nickisson.Google Scholar
David, J.-Cl. and Degeorge, G.. 2002. Alep. Paris: Flammarion.Google Scholar
Delaporte, L. 1909. Catalogue du Musée Guimet—Cylindres orientaux. Annales du Musée Guimet 33. Paris: Ernst Leroux.Google Scholar
Delaporte, L. 1910. Catalogue des cylindres orientaux et des cachets assyro-babyloniens, perses et syro-cappadociens de la Bibliothèque nationale. Paris: l'académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres.Google Scholar
Delaporte, L. 1923. Musée du Louvre, Catalogues des cylinders orientaux. Vol. 2, Acquisitions. Paris: Librairie Hachette.Google Scholar
Di Paolo, S. 2014. Concepts of ‘High’ and ‘Low’ in Ancient Near Eastern Art Theory and Methodology. Pp. 443–51 in Proceedings of the 8th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, Vol. 1, 30 April–4 May 2012. Edited by Bieliński, P., Gawlikowski, M., Koliński, R., Ławecka, D., Sołtysiak, A. and Wygnańska, Z.. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
du Mesnil du Buisson, R. 1928. L'Ancienne Qatna ou les ruines d'el Mishrifé au N.-E. de Homs (Émese). Deuxième campagne de fouilles, 1927, III. Syria 9: 81–85.Google Scholar
Eisen, G.A. 1940. Ancient Oriental and other Seals with a description of the Collection of Mrs. William H. Moore (Oriental Institute Publications 47) . Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Emberling, G. 2010. Museum. The Oriental Institute 2009–2010 Annual Report: 163–66.Google Scholar
Erlenmeyer, M.-L. and Erlenmeyer, H.. 1961. Über Philister und Kreter, III. Orientalia 30: 269–93.Google Scholar
Erlenmeyer, M. -L. and Erlenmeyer, H.. 1966. Einige Syrische Siegel mit ägäischen Bildelementen. Archiv für Orientforschung 21: 32–34.Google Scholar
Fol, Walther. 1875. Le Musée Fol, Vol. 2, Études d'Art et d'Archéologie sur l'Antiquité et la Renaissance. Choix d'intailles et de camées antiques. Geneva, Basel and Lyon: Librairie H. Georg.Google Scholar
Frankfort, H. 1939. Cylinder Seals: A Documentary Essay on the Art and Religion of the Ancient Near East. London: Macmillan and Co. Reprint: Westmead, Farnborough: Gregg Press Limited, 1965.Google Scholar
Girginer, K.S. and Collon, D.. 2014. Late Bronze Age Stamp Seals and Cylinder Seals from Tatarlı Höyük. Anatolian Studies 64: 59–72.Google Scholar
Gordon, C. 1953. Near East Seals in Princeton and Philadelphia. Orientalia 22: 242–50.Google Scholar
Hammade., H. 1994. Cylinder Seals from the Collections of the Aleppo Museum, Syrian Arab Republic, Vol. 2, Seals of known provenance. Indexed by Stehle, D.. BAR International Series 597. Oxford.Google Scholar
Harper, P. 1986. Ancient Near Eastern Art. Pp. 15–16 in One Hundred Sixteenth Annual Report of the Trustees: The Metropolitan Museum of Art for the Fiscal Year July 1, 1985 through June 30, 1986. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.Google Scholar
Hogarth, D.G. 1920. Hittite Seals with particular reference to the Ashmolean Collection. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Ingholt, H. 1940. Rapport préliminaire sur sept campagnes de fouilles à Hama en Syrie: 1932–1938 (Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab. Archaeologisk-kunsthistoriske Meddelelser III:1). Copenhagen: Ejnar Munksgaard.Google Scholar
Kenna, V.E.G. 1971. Corpus of Cypriote Antiquities, Vol. 3, Catalogue of the Cypriote Seals of the Bronze Age in the British Museum. Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology 20.3. Göterborg: Paul `Åstrom Verlag.Google Scholar
Keel-Leu, H. and Teissier, B. 2004. Die vorderasiatischen Rollsiegel der Sammlung “Bibel + Orient” der Universität Freiburg Schweiz—The Ancient Near Eastern Cylinder Seals of the Collections “Bibel + Orient” of the University of Fribourg. (Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 200). Fribourg: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Kersel, M.M. 2004. Review of O.W. Muscarella. 2000. The Lie Became Great: The Forgery of Ancient Near Eastern Cultures. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 335: 101–103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kersel, M. M. 2012. The Value of a Looted Object: Stakeholder Perceptions in the Antiquities Trade. Pp. 253–72 in The Oxford Handbook of Public Archaeology. Edited by Skeates, R., McDavid, C. and Carman, J.. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lajard, F. 1847. Introduction à l’étude du culte public et des mystères de Mithra en Orient et en Occident. Paris: L'Imprimerie Royale.Google Scholar
Legrain, L. 1925. The Culture of the Babylonians from their Seals in The Collections of the Museum. Publication of the Babylonian Section 14. Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Liebowitz, H. 1972. Regionalism in the Art of Syria and Palestine in the Middle Bronze Age. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Pennsylvania. Ann Arbor: University Microfilm No. 72-25,616.Google Scholar
Macalister, R.A.S. 1912. The Excavations of Gezer, 1902–1905 and 1907—1909, Vols. 1–3. London: John Murray.Google Scholar
Matthiae, P., Pinnock, F. and Matthiae, G. Scandone (eds.). 1995. Ebla: Alle origini della civiltà urbana—Trent'anni di scavi in Siria dell'Università di Roma “La Sapienza”. Milan: Electa.Google Scholar
Mazzoni, S. 1975. Tell Mardikh e una classe glittica siro-anatolica del periodo di Larsa. Annali dell'Istituto Orientale di Napoli 35 (N.S. 25): 21–43.Google Scholar
Mazzoni, S. 1998. The Syro-Anatolian Common Glyptic Styles: Some Remarks.Pp. 513–22 in XXXIVème Rencontre assyriologique internationale. XXXIV. Uluslararasi Assiriyoloji Kongresi - XXXIV International Assyriology Congress: 6-10 VII (see next page). Istanbul. Edited by Erkanal, H., Donbaz, V. and Uguroglu, A.. Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi.Google Scholar
Meijer, D. J. W. 1989. Hammam al Turkman on the Balikh: First Results of the Fifth Campaign, 1988. Akkadica 64/65: 1–11.Google Scholar
Meijer, D. J. W. 1995 A Cylinder Seal and Some Ramifications. Pp. 195–209 in Studio Historiae Ardens: Ancient Near Eastern Studies Presented to Philo H. J. Houwink ten Cate on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday. Edited by van der Hout, T. P. J. and de Roos, J.. Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten.Google Scholar
Ménant, J. 1878. Catalogue des cylindres orientaux du Cabinet royale des Médailles à la Haye. Hague: Imprimerie de l'Etat.Google Scholar
Montet, P. 1923. Les Fouilles de Byblos en 1922. Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Inscriptions & Belles-Lettres (March 9, 1923): 84–96.Google Scholar
Moortgat, A. 1940. Vorderasiatische Rollsiegel: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Steinschneide Kunst. 3rd ed. 1988. Berlin: Verlag Gebr. Mann.Google Scholar
Muscarella, O.W. 1984. On Publishing Unexcavated Artifacts. Review of G. Markoe, (ed.). 1981. Ancient Bronzes, Ceramics and Seals: The Nasli M. Heeramaneck Collection of Ancient Near Eastern, Central Asiatic, and European Art. Journal of Field Archaeology 11: 61–66.Google Scholar
Muscarella, O.W. 2000. The Lie Became Great: The Forgery of Ancient Near Eastern Cultures. Groningen: Styx Publications.Google Scholar
Otto, A. 2000. Die Entstehung und Entwicklung der Klassisch-Syrischen Glyptik. Untersuchungen zur Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie 8. Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Otto, A. 2004. Siegel und Siegelabrollungen—Tall Bi‘a/Tuttul–IV. Saarbrücken: Saarbrücker Druckerei.Google Scholar
Özgüç, N. 1968. Seals and Seal Impressions of Level Ib from Karum Kanish (Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınlarından V, Seri, No. 25). Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi.Google Scholar
Parker, B. 1949. Cylinder Seals from Palestine. Iraq 11: 1–43.Google Scholar
Pearce, S.B. 1995. On Collecting: An Investigation into Collecting in the European Tradition. Abingdon & New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Porada, E. 1948. Corpus of Ancient Near Eastern Seals in North American Collections, Vol. 1, The Collection of the Pierpont Morgan Library, in collaboration with B. Buchanan. Bollingen Series 14. Washington, D.C.: Bollingen Foundation.Google Scholar
Porada, E. 1966. Les cylindres de la jarre Montet. Syria 43: 243–58.Google Scholar
Porada, E. 1985. Syrian Seals from the Late Fourth to the Late Second Millennium. Pp. 90–104 in Ebla to Damascus: Art and Archaeology of Ancient Syria—An Exhibition from the Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums Syrian Arab Republic. Edited by Weiss, H.. SITES: Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service.Google Scholar
Porada, E. 1993. Why Cylinder Seals?—Engraved Cylindrical Seal Stones of the Ancient Near East, Fourth to First Millennium B. C.. Art Bulletin 75/4: 563–82.Google Scholar
Porter, B.A. 2001. Old Syrian Popular Style Cylinder Seals. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University. UMI Number 3005777.Google Scholar
Porter, B.A. 2001a. The Ball Staff Revisited: Insights from Old Syrian Popular Style Cylinder Seals. Archaeology & History in Lebanon 13: 25–34.Google Scholar
Safadi, H. 1966. Die Entstehung der syrischen Glyptik und ihre Entwicklung in der Zeit von Zimrilim bis Ammitaqumma. Inaugural Dissertation. Berlin.Google Scholar
Safadi, H. 1974 Die Entstehung der syrischen Glyptik und ihre Entwicklung in der Zeit von Zimrilim bis Ammitaqumma. Ugarit-Forschungen 6: 313–52.Google Scholar
Samman, A. 1997. Ancient Syrian Society in the Age of Iamhad (ca. 2000–1500 B.C.): Archaeological and Glyptic Studies. Ph.D. Dissertation. University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Sax, M., Collon, D. and Leese, M.N.. 1993. The Availability of Raw Materials for Near Eastern Seals during the Akkadian, Post Akkadian and Ur III Periods. Iraq 55: 77–90.Google Scholar
Schmidt, A. c.1930. Die Sammlung des Herrn Baron Guillaume Poche, Consul von der Czechoslovakai in Aleppo. Privately printed (plates only).Google Scholar
Seeden, H. 1997. Seyrig, Henri. P. 11 in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East, Vol. 5. Edited by Meyers, E. M.. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Seyrig, H. 1955. Antiquités syriennes, 60, Quelques cylindres orientaux. Syria 32: 29–41.Google Scholar
Sommerville, M. 1889. Engraved Gems: Their History and an Elaborate View of their Place in Art. Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Sotheby's London. 1992. Western Asiatic Cylinder Seals and Antiquities from the Erlenmeyer Collection (Part 1) . Auction July 9, 1992, London.Google Scholar
Sotheby's, New York. 1991. The Ada Small Moore Collection of Ancient Near Eastern Seals. Auction December 12, 1991, New York.Google Scholar
Smith, J.S. 2008. Review of D. Collon. 2005. First Impressions: Cylinder Seals in the Ancient Near East (Rev.). American Journal of Archaeology 112: 185–87.Google Scholar
Speleers, L. Catalogue des intailles et empreintes orientales des Musées royaux du Cinquantenaire. Brussels: Vromant & Co. Google Scholar
Strommenger, E. 1994. “Die Ausgrabunge in Tall Bi‘a 1993”. Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 126: 11–31.Google Scholar
Teissier, B. 1984. Ancient Near Eastern Cylinder Seals from the Marcopoli Collection. Oakland: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Teissier, B. 1987. Une collection de sceaux cylinders. Archeologia 225: 68–66.Google Scholar
Thorn, B. and Collon, D.. 2013. Dr. Lee's Collection of Cylinder Seals. Iraq 75: 119–42.Google Scholar
Vollenweider, M.-L. 1967. Musée d'Art et d'Histoire de Genève—Catalogue raisonné des sceaux cylinders et intailles, Vol. 1. Geneva: Musée d'Art et d'Histoire.Google Scholar
von der Osten, H.H. 1934. Ancient Oriental Seals in the Collection of Mr. Edward T. Newell. Oriental Institute Publications 22. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
von der Osten, H.H. and Schmidt, E.F.. 1932. The Alishar Hüyük Season of 1927. Part 2 (Researches in Anatolia 3, Oriental Institute Publication 7). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
von Luschan, F. and Andrae, W.. 1943. Die Kleinfunde von Sendschirli. Ausgrabungen in Sendschirli 5 (Mitteilungen aus den orientalische Sammlungen 15). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co.Google Scholar
Ward, W.H. 1909. Cylinders and other Ancient Oriental Seals in the Library of J. Pierpont Morgan. New York.Google Scholar
Ward, W.H. 1910. The Seal Cylinders of Western Asia. Publication No. 100 of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Weber, O. 1920. Altorientalistische Siegelbilder. Der Alte Orient 17–18. Leipzig.Google Scholar
Williams Forte, E. 1976. Ancient Near Eastern Seals: A Selection of Stamp and Cylinder Seals from the Collection of Mrs. William H. Moore. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.Google Scholar
Williams Forte, E. 1982. Mythic Cycles: The Iconography of the Gods of Water and Weather in Syria and Anatolia in the Middle Bronze Age c. 2000–1600 B.C. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, New York.Google Scholar
Wilson, D.M. 2002. The British Museum: A History. London: British Museum Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, J. 1990. Lawrence of Arabia: The Authorized Biography of T. E. Lawrence. New York: Atheneum.Google Scholar
Woolley, L. 1955. Alalakh, an Account of the Excavations at Tell Atchana in the Hatay, 1937–1949 (Report on the Research Committee of the Society of Antiquaries of London No. 18). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Zadoks-Josephus, J. 1952. Catalogue sommaire des cylinders orientaux au Cabinet Royal des Médailles à La Haye. Hague.Google Scholar
Zettler, R. 1993. Review of D. Collon. 1987. First Impressions: Cylinder Seals in the Ancient Near East. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 52: 227–32.Google Scholar