A MESOPOTAMIAN SERPENTINE STAMP SEAL, EARLY DYNASTIC III, CIRCA 2500 B.C.

拍品描述

A MESOPOTAMIAN SERPENTINE STAMP SEAL, EARLY DYNASTIC III, CIRCA 2500 B.C. Of gable form, carved from a dark green serpentine of near-black tone with paler mottling and natural inclusions visible across the polished surface. The body rises from a stepped rectangular base to a rounded shoulder, terminating in a large integral suspension loop pierced by a single circular perforation. One side of the shoulder carries a raised boss or knop, worked in low relief against the smooth body. The stone retains a soft, waxy lustre from long handling, with fine surface scratches and light abrasion consistent with ancient wear. The gabled profile, high pierced loop and stepped foot place the object within the tradition of Early Dynastic stamp seals produced across northern and southern Mesopotamia in the third millennium B.C. Such seals functioned as personal devices, worn suspended from a cord at the neck or wrist and pressed into damp clay to authenticate goods, seal storeroom doors, and mark documents of exchange. The engraved face, not visible in the present view, would have carried the intaglio device, typically a geometric or animal design, that identified its owner. Serpentine was among the most widely used materials for glyptic production in the ancient Near East, valued for its dense, even structure, its capacity to take a fine intaglio cut, and its dark polished appearance, which contrasted sharply against the pale clay of the impression. Sources in the Zagros and in the eastern Iranian highlands supplied the workshops of Sumer and Akkad, and the trade in worked and unworked serpentine formed part of the wider exchange networks that linked Mesopotamia to the Iranian plateau and the Gulf. The choice of the stone was practical and prestige-bearing at once: durable enough to survive daily use, dark enough to be recognisable on the person, and sufficiently costly in its finished form to signify its owner's standing within the administrative order. Although the stamp seal was gradually displaced across southern Mesopotamia by the cylinder seal during the later fourth and third millennia, the form persisted in the north and along the peripheries, and continued to be produced alongside cylinders throughout the Early Dynastic period. Small pierced examples of this gabled type are known from sites across northern Syria and the upper Tigris, where they served both administrative and amuletic ends. This seal exemplifies the compact, hand-held glyptic tradition of the Early Dynastic north, in which the sculptural profile of the seal body was itself an object of care, shaped for suspension and for touch as much as for the impression it produced. Dimensions: Height: 3.2cm Length of Cameo: 2.6cm

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