What does an ancient Mesopotamian signature look like?
Last time I talked about an impression made by a seal. Today I'm talking about a seal itself. The impressions stood for an authority, profession, or person (though they could also stand for a product or a destination). The seal that made it was carried by the authority who marked the clay locks, sealing off packages and rooms and thus securing private property. It was typically worn on the person and rolled or stamped on wet clay to identify an authority, so it was like a signature. Once again I cover this object with Holly Pittman, professor at the University of Pennsylvania, specialist in ancient seals and sealings, and director of the Lagash Archaeological Project.
Check out the Lagash Archaeological Project website:
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I spent March and April 2022 in southern Iraq excavating at the ancient city of Lagash with a Penn Museum project (along with the University of Pisa and the University of Cambridge). While there, I made a series of short films about various finds we uncovered. Thus begins my series of Ancient Artifacts for Artifactually Speaking...
