stamp seal
{{Short description|Common seal die, used to impress an image into soft material}}
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Image:Scarabée - cachet - 1700-1550 av. J.-C. - Jéricho palais - Louvre - AO 17132.jpg art photos).]]
The stamp seal (also impression seal) is a common seal die, frequently carved from stone, known at least since the 6th millennium BC (Halaf culture{{sfn|Brown|Feldman|2013|p=304}}) and probably earlier. The dies were used to impress their picture or inscription into soft, prepared clay and sometimes in sealing wax.
The oldest stamp seals were button-shaped objects with primitive ornamental forms chiseled onto them.{{sfn|Di Palma|2015|p=21}} The stamp seals were replaced in the 4th millennium BC by cylinder seals that had to be rolled over the soft clay to leave an imprint.{{sfn|Brown|Feldman|2013|p=304}} From the 12th century BC the previous designs were largely abandoned in favor of amphora stamps.{{sfn|Di Palma|2015|p=24}} Romans introduced their signaculum around the first century BC;{{sfn|Di Palma|2015|p=24}} Byzantine maintained the tradition in their commercial stamps.{{sfn|Vikan|1991}}
In antiquity the stamp seals were common, largely because they served to authenticate legal documents, such as tax receipts, contracts, wills and decrees.
Indus stamp-seal
The Indus stamp-seals probably had a different function from the stamp seals of the Minoan civilization, as they typically have script characters, with still undeciphered associations.
Gallery
File:WLA brooklynmuseum Stamp Seal of Meru-the Answerer of Horus.jpg|Stamp seal of an Egyptian named:
Meru-the Answerer of Horus
(Brooklyn Museum)
File:Cylinder seals and stamps REM.JPG|Stamp seals (bottom row), cylinder seals (top row)
File:Signaculum PRIMIT (Louvre, Br 4035).jpg|Signaculum PRIMIT ("first")
File:Medieval impression seal matrix (impression) (FindID 497093).jpg|An impression of a cast copper-alloy seal matrix of medieval date (14th century AD)
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
Sources
- Garbini. Landmarks of the World's Art, The Ancient World, by Giovanni Garbini, (McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, Toronto), General Eds, Bernard S. Myers, New York, Trewin Copplestone, London, c 1966. Numerous examples of the Cylinder seal; ( 3 ) separate Discussions (only) of "Stamp sealing". No seals, or impressions thereof.
- {{cite book | last=Yule | first=Paul | title=Early Cretan seals: a study of chronology (Marburger Studien zur Vor- und Frühgeschichte, Bd. 4) | publisher=Mainz: NN | date=1981 | doi=10.11588/diglit.3044 | url=https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/yule1981/}}
- {{cite book |last1=Di Palma |first1=Salvatore |title=The History of Marks from Antiquity to the Middle Ages |date=2015 |publisher=Société des écrivains}}
- {{cite book |last1=Brown |first1=Brian A. |last2=Feldman |first2=Marian H. |author-link2=Marian Feldman|title=Critical Approaches to Ancient Near Eastern Art |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=9781614510352 |date=2013 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F4DoBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA304 |language=en}}
- {{cite book | first = Gary | last = Vikan | title=The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium | publisher=Oxford University Press | date=1991-01-01 | isbn=978-0-19-504652-6 | doi=10.1093/acref/9780195046526.001.0001 | chapter = Stamps, Commercial }}
External links
{{Commons category|Stamp seals of archaeology}}
- [http://mcclungmuseum.utk.edu/research/renotes/fig2.jpg Detail of Stamp seal-Medium Res];
- [http://mcclungmuseum.utk.edu/research/renotes/rn-25txt.htm Article] mcclungmuseum.utk.edu—Jar, and associated Stamp Seal
- [http://oi.uchicago.edu/museum/highlights/meso.html Gazelle Head, Stamp seal] – at the Oriental Institute of Chicago.
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