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alb3682837 Cylinder seal and modern impression: hunting scene. Culture: Akkadian. Dimensions: H. 1 1/8 in. (2.8 cm). Date: ca. 2250-2150 B.C..In ancient Mesopotamia, a cylinder-shaped seal could be rolled on a variety of objects made of clay. When seals were impressed on tablets or tablet cases the seal impressions served to identify the authority responsible for what was written in the documents, much as a signature does today. When seals were impressed on sealings -- lumps of clay that were used to secure doors and the lids of storage jars-- the seal impressions served to identify their owner and protect against unauthorized opening. Many cylinder seals have survived because they were made of durable materials, particularly stone, but also metal and fired clay. Perforated through the middle like a bead, seals were also believed to have apotropaic, or protective, functions and were worn as jewelry or pinned on garments.The modern impression of a seal is shown here so that the entire design can be seen. The scene is composed of two basic groupings that form an overall continuous design unified by the stylized landscape setting. In one group, two tall trees flank a hunter grasping an ibex. Above the man a cuneiform inscription gives the name of the seal owner, Balu-ili, who was a court official, and his profession, cupbearer. In the other group, ibexes stand on mountains, facing each other and flanking three trees. This seal was made during the Akkadian period, when the iconography used by the seal engraver expanded to include a variety of new mythological, thematic, and narrative subjects. Here, the already ancient motif of the hunt is given a new setting in a clearly defined landscape. If there was a relationship between this imagery and the inscribed text, its meaning is no longer understood.Sacred and secular ideas, fundamental to the beliefs of ancient Mesopotamian peoples, were visualized in the miniature images carved on the seals. The carver used intaglio, a technique in which the forms were cut into the stone, to create the raised impression. The challenge of the seal carver was to create a design that would maintain its balance and clarity when rolled out only half its length on a small surface or twice its length on a larger surface. On the left and right edges of the impression one can see how the rolled out design begins to repeat. Unlike much of the art of the ancient Near East, which survives only in a fragmentary state, cylinder seals are in the unique position of appearing almost exactly as they would have looked to the ancient people who used them.Adapted from: Art of the Ancient Near East: A Resource for Educators (2010). Museum: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA.

alb3681147 Cuneiform tablet: administrative account of barley distribution with cylinder seal impression of a male figure, hunting dogs, and boars. Culture: Sumerian. Dimensions: 2.17 x 2.36 x 1.63 in. (5.5 x 6 x 4.15 cm). Date: ca. 3100-2900 B.C..Of the many legacies left by the ancient civilizations of southern Mesopotamia, the invention of writing is paramount. At the end of the fourth millennium B.C., written language developed in the region, first as pictographs and then evolving into abstract forms called cuneiform. The pictographs, like the ones on this tablet, are called proto-cuneiform and were drawn in the clay with a pointed implement. Circular impressions alongside the pictographs represented numerical symbols. Cuneiform (meaning wedge-shaped) script was written by pressing a reed pen or stylus with a wedge-shaped tip into a clay tablet. Clay, when dried to a somewhat hardened state, made a fine surface for writing, and when fired the records written on it became permanent.Early writing was used primarily as a means of recording and storing economic information. This tablet most likely documents grain distributed by a large temple, although the absence of verbs in early texts makes them difficult to interpret with certainty. In addition to the writing that appears on this tablet, the imagery of the cylinder seal, which was incompletely impressed on both faces and the edges of the tablet before it was inscribed, also records information. This seal apparently has not survived. The seal impression depicts a male figure guiding two dogs on a leash and hunting or herding boars in a reed marsh. He is the so-called priest-king, a male figure who can be identified by his dress and pose. Here he appears in his role as the good shepherd who protects flocks from wild predators.Adapted from, Art of the Ancient Near East: A Resource for Educators (2010). Museum: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA.