SEALING THEORIES AND PRACTICES IN THE ANCIENT abstracts NEAR EAST & & bios MARCH 5–6 2020 THE 16TH ANNUAL UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ORIENTAL INSTITUTE SEMINAR . Bibliotheca , vol. 6. 6. . Bibliotheca Mesopotamia, vol. *Gibson, McGuire, and Robert D. Biggs. Biggs. D. and Robert *Gibson, McGuire, Seals and Sealing in the Ancient Near East 1977. Malibu: Undena Publications,

he seal is to the ancient Near East what what East Near ancient the to is seal he lucky and the security number the social key a societies: modern our to are charm within an one exists proves element that

administrative practices, systems of thought, of thought, systems practices, administrative seals and sealings. and beliefs surrounding brings together scholars from different areas of of areas different from scholars together brings ancient China and from to from study: of Islam. This centuries the first Mesopotamia to a allows and disciplinary breadth temporal, spatial, and methods of the sources picture complete more the socio- in understanding available of analysis administrative, sociological, cultural, and artistic. and artistic. cultural, sociological, administrative, of knowledge, this critical source understand To multi-documentary a multi-disciplinary and the after years Forty is necessary. approach Gibson McGuire by study ground-breaking therefore conference Biggs,* this and Robert varied. The study of both its shared and diverse and diverse of both its shared study The varied. the socio- understanding for aspects is crucial societies. functioning of ancient administrative sealing touches facets, its many Through political, aspects of ancient societies: several T preserved an object preciously administration; and even validity, identity, because it carries practice a common was Sealing magical forces. the associated but Near East, in the ancient societies different across and uses customs abstracts & bios THE 16TH ANNUAL UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ORIENTAL INSTITUTE SEMINAR 3

ALAIN BRESSON Thus, publications of “Byzantine Respondant, University of seals” are in fact publications Chicago, Department of Classics of imprinted objects. Byzantine emperors, aristocrats, and mem- Bio: Alain Bresson is the Robert bers of the different adminis- O. Anderson Distinguished trations had boulloteria—tools Service Professor in the engraved and struck in order to Department of Classics and print text and images on lead, the Department of History at silver, or gold circular blanks. the University of Chicago and a Both Roman and early member at the Oriental Institute. Byzantine material cultures His research focuses on ancient also had stamping material, but economy and is developed in the Byzantinists hesitate as to what framework both of the standard to call them, and most call them categories of economics (capital, bread stamps, which is again PAUL COPP labor, and technological level) somewhat confusing, as they University of Chicago, and of the New Institutional were used on clay as well as on East Asian Languages and Economics paradigm, with a spe- bread. This presentation focus- Civilizations cial interest in the evolution of es on such objects. Roman and SEALS IN CHINESE RELIGIOUS institutions as a major factor of Byzantine stamping material is PRACTICE: METAPHOR AND economic development. He has interesting for more than one MATERIALITY recently published The Making reason: it provides information (Session 3 | Friday, 10:30) of the Economy on onomastics and iconography, (Princeton University Press, and it often follows a religious A b s t r ac t : Seals—that is, 2016) and is preparing a new agenda. The Bibliothèque na- stamps imagined through log- book on coinage as the specific tionale de France owns a col- ics of identity—were small but form of money in the ancient lection of such objects, given in revealing features of religious Greek world. He also publishes part by a German scholar work- thought and practice in pre- regularly on the history, epigra- ing before 1870 at the Louvre modern China. As physical ma- phy, and numismatics of various Museum and in the service of trices carved from various kinds regions of the ancient world, es- Napoleon III. Examples illustrat- of wood or cast in bronze, or pecially Asia Minor. ing the diversity of such objects as the bodily gestures known and their possible use will be to us mainly by the Sanskrit taken from this collection. BÉATRICE CASEAU name mudrā (literally, “seal”), they were potent tools of ritual- Sorbonne Université, Faculté Bio: Béatrice Caseau is pro- des Lettres ists, whether Daoist, Buddhist, fessor of Byzantine history at or otherwise. Arising in good STAMPING MATERIAL AS Sorbonne University and was part from these physical prac- SEALS IN ROMAN AND the director of a research clus- tices (and in turn transforming BYZANTINE MATERIAL ter on religions and society in them), conceptual images fea- CULTURE the Mediterranean (2015–2019). turing seals were just as potent (Session 3 | Friday, 9:30) She is now a member of the in Chinese religious thought. Institut Universitaire de France. This presentation explores the Abstract: What Byzantinists Her research focuses on the his- ways that both forms, taken to- call Byzantine seals are in fact tory of the Byzantine world, and gether—ritual and conceptual— imprinted objects, and there especially on late antique and formed complex assemblages is some confusion in the vo- Byzantine Christianity. She has that reveal much about the na- cabulary used. The word “seal” published on a range of top- ture of religious practice in Tang in most other cultures is used ics, including the history of the and tenth-century China. to indicate the stone or metal senses, religious violence, mate- stamp with which an impres- rial culture, food culture, and the Bio: Paul Copp is associate sion is made, while among history of religious practices. In professor in Chinese religion Byzantinists, the word “seal” is 2015 she published Nourritures and thought in the Department used for the bulla on which text terrestres, nourritures célestes: of East Asian Languages and and images are impressed rath- la culture alimentaire à Byzance Civilizations (University of er than the stamping tool itself. (Paris: ACHCByz). Chicago). His research focuses 4 SEALING THEORIES AND PRACTICES IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST

on the history of religious prac- carrying texts in Aramaic script plier and receiver. 3) Parallel- tice in China and eastern Central and language; and those car- seal, having two seals—the seal Asia during the period stretch- rying no text (what we call on the left edge occurring ad- ing from the eighth to the thir- uninscribed documents), only ditionally on another surface, teenth centuries. He is most in- the impression(s) of seals. All generally indicating shared re- terested in the study of visual Aramaic and uninscribed doc- sponsibility in a transaction. 4) and material sources, especially uments are sealed, while ap- Multiple-seal, having three to in the manuscripts, xylographs, proximately 85 percent of the five seals placed on various sur- and objects of personal reli- Elamite documents are sealed. faces—the exact significance of gious practice, such as amulets This paper briefly surveys this sealing pattern being a sub- and seals, discovered at the “silk the results of research carried ject of some discussion. road” sites of Dunhuang, Turfan, out in 2018 and 2019 on the un- Fortunately, some forty seals and Khara-khoto, as well as in inscribed documents, exploring occur on all three document tombs from across the region. the possible implications of this types. These seals are especial- In 2014 he published The Body research for our understanding ly critical in providing insights Incantatory, a study of the na- of uninscribed documents as a into the functions of both un- ture and history of Buddhist distinct category and the rela- inscribed and Aramaic docu- incantation and amulet prac- tionships between and among ments. Additionally, some 161 tices in Tang China centered in the three document types. This seals that occur on the Elamite archaeological evidence. He is paper thus updates previous documents also occur on the currently writing two books fo- summaries published in 2008 uninscribed documents. In some cused in different ways in the and 2017. instances, two seals that occur study of religious seals in China. To date, almost 2,200 unin- together on Elamite documents The first studies seals in Chinese scribed documents have been also occur together on unin- religious practice both for what fully cataloged (out of a corpus scribed documents, thus virtu- they show about Chinese re- of some 3,500 tablets). All un- ally ensuring that we are dealing ligious history, and as a case inscribed documents have been with the same types of transac- study of the nature of “mate- read in a preliminary manner. Of tions, the one bearing text, the rial religion” more broadly. The course, the principal obstacle to other not. our understanding of this par- second book is a paleographic Lastly, the four most com- ticular document type is the and material-historical study monly occurring seals on the lack of any text written on the of the worlds of anonymous uninscribed documents, PFS 48, tablets. Sealing protocols and ninth and tenth century Chinese PFS 75, PFS 142, and PFS 535*, the seals themselves thus con- Buddhists, evidenced by manu- all also occur on the Elamite stitute the most critical resourc- script handbooks and liturgies tablets. These four seals may es in linking these documents to from Dunhuang. thus be especially critical in de- the archive as a whole. termining the principal adminis- It is now clear that the seal- trative sphere of the uninscribed MARK B. GARRISON ing protocols (i.e., the system documents within the agency Trinity University, Department determining where seals are ap- represented by the Persepolis of Art and History plied to tablets and what seal Fortification Archive as a whole. placement indicates within the SEALS AND DOCUMENT administrative system) are con- TYPES IN THE PERSEPOLIS Bio: Mark B. Garrison holds the sistent across the entire archive. FORTIFICATION ARCHIVE Alice Pratt Brown Distinguished There are four sealing protocols: (Session 2 | Thursday, 2:45) Professorship in art history in 1) Single-seal, generally indicat- the Department of Art and Art A b s t r a c t : The Persepolis ing a high level of administra- History at Trinity University in tive oversight. 2) Counter-seal, Fortification Archive, dating to San Antonio, Texas. His primary having two seals—one placed the years 509–493 bc in the research interests are the glyp- on the left edge and the reign of Darius I, contains, with tic arts of ancient and Iraq other on the reverse, a few rare exceptions, three in the first half of the first mil- upper, and/or types of clay documents: lennium bc. He specializes in the bottom edges, those carrying texts glyptic preserved on two large indicating a in cuneiform script archives from Persepolis: the sup- in Elamite lan- Persepolis Fortification Archive guage; those and the Persepolis Treasury THE 16TH ANNUAL UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ORIENTAL INSTITUTE SEMINAR 5

Archive. With Margaret Cool Root, he is author of Seals on the Persepolis Fortification Tablets, volume I: Images of Heroic Encounter, Oriental Institute Publications 117 (Chicago: The Oriental Institute, 2001). In addition to the docu- mentary work represented in that publication, his research has focused upon social aspects of glyptic production in work- shops in Persepolis, especially the issues surrounding the im- pact of individuals of high sta- tus and/or administrative rank on the development of glyp- tic style and iconography in the early Achaemenid period. His publications have also ad- dressed the emergence and de- velopment of royal ideology in glyptic at Persepolis, religious directed investigations of the WOUTER HENKELMAN imagery in Achaemenid art, early city site of Hamoukar. He Ecole Pratique des Hautes and the relationship of glyp- has authored or edited more Etudes, Section des Sciences tic of the Achaemenid period than twelve books, including Historiques et Philologiques with earlier glyptic traditions in The City and Area of Kish, Seals Assyria, Babylonia, and Elam. and Sealing in the Ancient Near IRDABAMA AND HER His most recent book is The East, and The Organization of SEALS: THE ROOTS OF THE Ritual Landscape at Persepolis: Power: Aspects of Bureaucracy ACHAEMENIDS AND THE Glyptic Imagery from the in the Ancient Near East, and FORTIFICATION ARCHIVE Persepolis Fortification and monographs on excavations at (Session 2 | Thursday, 3:45) Treasury Archives, Studies in Nippur and Uch Tepe. He edited The royal woman Ancient Oriental Civilization 72 and added substantial text to Abstract: Irdabama is the most prominent (Chicago: The Oriental Institute, Muzahim Mahmoud’s Nimrud: member of Darius's household 2017), which won the 2018 The Queens’ Tombs. Articles in the Fortification Archive. Ehsan Yarshater Book Award. include "Violation of Fallow and Engineered Disaster in Both her personal seal and the Mesopotamian Civilization,” nu- seal held by her steward define McGUIRE GIBSON merous preliminary reports on a corpus of texts that document Respondant, University of Nippur and other sites, as well Irdabama’s table, her travels, her Chicago, Oriental Institute as pieces on the destruction of estates, and the many depen- cultural heritage. He served on dent workers in her service. The Bio: McGuire Gibson is profes- fact-finding teams of UNESCO seals, both of which have been sor emeritus of Mesopotamian and the National Geographic identified as heirlooms by Mark archaeology at the Oriental Society in Iraq in May 2003, as- Garrison, also open a view to Institute and in the Department sessing the looting of the Iraq an older past. They potentially of Near Eastern Civilizations Museum and archaeological link Irdabama herself to a local at the University of Chicago. sites. He was the primary found- dynasty at Šullaggi in south- He has conducted archaeo- er of the American Institute eastern Elam, where Irdabama logical research in Iraq since for Yemeni Studies and The herself still had an estate. They 1964, mainly at Nippur, and American Academic Research invite reflections on the ori- has also worked in the Eastern Institute in Iraq, and served as gins of complex administrative Province of Saudi Arabia, the the first chairman of the Council structures in the highland of Dhamar plain of Yemen, and in of Overseas Research Centers in Fārs and, most crucially, on the northeastern Syria, where he Washington, DC. narrative and identity-building 6 SEALING THEORIES AND PRACTICES IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST

a gateway for aspects of visual communication. This paper first summarizes the terminology used in previous scholarship and then focuses on the bullae from Daskyleion (the satrapal center in Hellespontine Phrygia) and Seyitömer Höyük (a recently excavated site in Phrygia). Our findings show that the typology of the bullae could offer clues for the application process of a seal and the function of the “fin- ished product” that is the clay object with seal impression(s). While the majority of bullae from Daskyleion can be clas- sified as letter-bullae, others from both sites suggest differ- ent functions based on the ob- qualities of inherited seals, in- Institute Publications (Chicago: servations about the applica- cluding those of Kuraš of Anzan Oriental Institute). tion process of seals—in some or Aršāma, son of Darius. cases on both sides—and the use of multiple seals on some, B i o : Wouter Henkelman is DENİZ KAPTAN showing close connections to associate professor at the University of Nevada Reno, the practices in the center of Ecole Pratiques des Hautes Department of Anthropology the empire. Overall, the bullae Etudes, section des Sciences SEALING PRACTICES from Daskyleion and Seyitömer Historiques et Philologiques. IN ANATOLIA UNDER Höyük shed light on the pres- He is a specialist in the history ACHAEMENID RULE ence of administrative and eco- and cultures of the Achaemenid (Session 1 | Thursday, 12:00) nomic activity in the region Empire and of the Achaemenid within the imperial network. Elamite language. His research Abstract: Archaeological evi- focuses particularly on the criti- dence of seal use in Anatolia Bio: Deniz Kaptan is adjunct cal study of classical sources on during the Achaemenid pe- faculty in the Department of the Achaemenid Empire and the riod (ca. 550–330 bc) primar- Anthropology, University of Nevada, Reno. She received her analysis of the archive of the ily consists of seal impressions PhD in classical archaeology fortifications of Persepolis and on lumps of clay tradition- at Ankara University, was a re- its implications for Achaemenid ally known as “bullae.” Unlike search associate at the Institut history. He is a member of Mesopotamia and Iran, where record keeping on cuneiform für Ur- und Frühgeschichte, the Persepolis Fortification tablets was continuous, prac- Heidelberg University, a visit- Archive (PFA) Project team tices in Anatolia during the ing scholar at the Department at the Oriental Institute of the Achaemenid period were dif- of the History of Art, University University of Chicago. In 2008 ferent. Correspondence of any of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and he published The Other Gods sort, including bookkeeping, taught at Bilkent University, Who Are: Studies in Elamite- was carried out on lightweight, Ankara. Her publications include Iranian Acculturation Based perishable material that could Daskyleion Bullae, Seal Images on the Persepolis Fortification not survive as cuneiform tab- from the Western Achaemenid Texts. He is currently pub- lets did. That difference makes Empire (Leiden, 2002), and lishing the Elamite tablets of the significance of bullae even numerous articles. Her field- the Persepolis Fortification greater, since they can indicate work experience includes ex- Archive with R. T. Hallock†: The what economic, administrative, cavations at Arycanda and Persepolis Fortification Archive: and bureaucratic activities oc- Phaselis in Lycia, and the sur- Texts, Translations, Commentary curred where they were exca- vey of the Hacımusalar Höyük and Lexicon, 3 vols., Oriental vated. Furthermore, this opens on the Elmalı plain in northern THE 16TH ANNUAL UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ORIENTAL INSTITUTE SEMINAR 7

Lycia. She is currently prepar- textiles and dress. She has cu- Seals and sealings had two ing a publication about seals rated a series of thematic exhi- main functions: seals were used and seal use in Anatolia during bitions on the culture and soci- for identification, to associate the first millennium BC, based ety of ancient Mesopotamia. the bearer of the seal with an on her research project on the institution or office; sealings Achaemenid period seals in the were used for accountability, as- collections of regional museums BRIAN MUHS sociating objects or texts with in Turkey. University of Chicago, offices or individuals in order Oriental Institute to hold them accountable when the objects were opened. AGNETE WISTI LASSEN A DIACHRONIC SURVEY OF Yale University, Near Eastern ANCIENT EGYPTIAN SEALING Bio: Brian Muhs is associ- Languages and Civilizations PRACTICES FROM THE ate professor of Egyptology PREDYNASTIC THROUGH THE at the Oriental Institute, the SEAL COLLECTING AND GRAECO-ROMAN PERIODS Department of Near Eastern REUSE IN THE ANCIENT (Session 1 | Thursday, 11:30) Languages and Civilizations, NEAR EAST and the College at the University Ancient Egyptian (Session 1 | Thursday, 10:00) Abstract: of Chicago. He received his seals and sealing practices PhD from the University of Abstract: Seals were symboli- changed continuously through- cally charged works of minia- Pennsylvania in 1996, and was out Egyptian history. Cylinder lecturer at the Papyrological ture art as well as personal sig- seals appeared in the late fourth natures in the ancient Near East. Institute of Leiden University millennium bce and were re- from 1997 to 2011 before com- In spite of a deeply personal re- placed in the late third millen- lationship between owner and ing to Chicago. He has pub- nium bce by scarab seals. Ring lished two books on taxation in seal—going well beyond the re- seals appeared in the late sec- Ptolemaic Egypt and a third on lationship between patron and ond millennium bce and gradu- the ancient Egyptian economy. other types of artwork—they ally became the dominant form. were also enduring pieces of The earliest cylinder seals pre- material culture with signifi- dated hieroglyphic writing and DELPHINE POINSOT cant object biographies, many were purely figural designs. Organizer, University of of them having multiple owners Hieroglyphic inscriptions first Chicago, Oriental Institute and users and going through appeared in the early third mil- several iterations of recarving SEALING WITH ANIMALS IN lennium, but figural designs per- and modification. This presen- IRANIAN GLYPTIC, FROM sisted. Inscriptions initially only tation addresses antiquarianism THE ACHAEMENID TO THE identified kings, then expanded and the reuse of seals in the an- SASANIAN DYNASTY to include offices and officials, cient Near East and presents ex- (Session 2 | Thursday, 4:15) and finally private individuals. amples of seals whose imagery Seals were impressed on This paper and legends clearly signal that Abstract: lumps of clay or mud to pro- focuses on animal they were of significant age and duce sealings on bags, boxes, imagery on seals pedigree. Through a study of baskets, jars, doors, and papyri, from the Persepolis seal biographies, this presenta- often over cloth or cords tying Fortification Archive tion follows the journey of a se- the objects shut. In the late third and the develop- lection of seals through chang- and early second millennia bce, ment of animal im- ing owners, and the ensuing re- agery on seals from carving of imagery and legends. sealings are sometimes found in deliberate ancient hoards, sepa- the Achaemenid Bio: Agnete Wisti Lassen is the rated in antiquity from the ob- to the Sasanian associate curator of the Yale jects to which they had been at- periods. The Babylonian Collection, Yale tached after they were opened, texts from the University. Her research has perhaps as a form of account- Fortification concentrated on seals and seal ing. From the late second mil- Archive use in the ancient Near East and lennium bce onwards, however, docu- expressions of identity in mate- such hoards are rare, perhaps rial culture, primarily attested because they had been replaced through seal style as well as by written accounts. 8 SEALING THEORIES AND PRACTICES IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST

ment the collection and dis- Achaemenid and Sasanian archi- While handwritten Arabic/ tribution of commodities used val contexts, it may be possible Islamic talismans frequently principally as rations for work- to understand how a distinctive carry arcane symbols, includ- ers in the region of what is ap- theme was transmitted within ing so-called secret languag- proximately today the modern the particular context of sealed es, there is an almost absolute province of Fars. The archive archives in ancient Iran. absence of such characters on dates to the years 509–493 bce block-printed charms. This phe- in the reign of Darius I. There Bio: Delphine Poinsot is an art nomenon appears to be closely are thousands of tablets, many historian specializing in the related to the efforts of medi- of which carry impressions of iconography and sigillography eval Islamic philosophers and seals representing officials and of Iran in late antiquity. Her re- theologians to propagate and offices in the administrative search focuses on the human- administer a form of magic that system. To date, just over four animal relationship as reflected would adhere to Islamic princi- thousand distinct and legible in these corpora, a relationship ples. In this presentation, I dis- seals have been identified. that is considered a testimony cuss the role played by block- Similar archives consisting as to how societies perceive printed talismans in the debate only of sealings exist from the and understand the natural over what constituted a “valid” late Sasanian period at Takht-e environment, whether famil- Islamic talisman. Soleyman and Qasr-i Abu iar or foreign. She is currently Nasr. Sealing protocols in the working on the representation B i o : Karl R. Schaefer, MA Fortification Archive have been of the bestiary in the tablets (1980), PhD (1985) in Near the subject of several studies of Persepolis (in collaboration Eastern Studies from New York (e.g., Root 2008, Garrison 2017, with the Persepolis Fortification University, MLIS (1992) from Garrison and Henkelman in Archive Project) during the the University of Oklahoma. press). Sealing protocols within Achaemenid period. The pur- Reference and instruction li- the various Sasanian corpora pose is to study its links with brarian, professor (emeritus), have only recently been under- the Sasanian glyptic’s bestiary Cowles Library, Drake University, taken; e.g., Yousef Moradi (post- in order to describe the trans- Des Moines, Iowa. Taught at the doctoral fellow, SOAS) is study- mitted iconographic traditions University of Tulsa, Oklahoma ing sealing protocols on the and their mode of diffusion. (1988–1991) and served as a sealed material from Takht-e cataloger of Arabic and Persian Soleyman. manuscripts in the Robert

My own project seeks to pro- KARL R. SCHAEFER Garrett Collection of Near Drake University, Cowles vide a diachronic study of - Eastern manuscripts, Firestone Library Department mal imagery on seals, both art Library, Princeton University historical and archival, in order ADMINISTERING MAGIC IN (1993–1995). Author of sever- to trace the development of MEDIEVAL ISLAM al articles on medieval Arabic both imagery and sealing pro- (Session 3 | Friday, 10:00) block printing and of Enigmatic tocols from the Achaemenid to Charms: Medieval Arabic Block the Sasanian periods. As an ini- Abstract: Under Islam, people Printed Amulets in American tial step, the analysis will focus made use of seals from the very and European Libraries and particularly on animal imagery beginning. Research on sealing Museums (Brill Academic, occurring on stamp seals in the practice in the Islamic realms 2006), the first comprehensive Fortification Archive; rather re- indicates that seals were used study of Arabic block printing. markably, the archive preserves for a variety of personal and ad- Held a Fulbright Fellowship at some six hundred examples of ministrative purposes over the the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, stamp seals carrying animal entire range of Islamic history. Alexandria, Egypt (2009–2010), imagery. Many of these While there seems to have been helping to create collection de- seals, in their form, little question about the propri- velopment protocols for its style, and imagery, ex- ety or legality of the applica- various divisions. Awarded a hibit many parallels to tion of seals for most purposes, Petra Kappert Fellowship at seals of the Sasanian there was much debate about the Center for the Study of period. By careful their acceptable form when Manuscript Cultures, University study of both the it came to creating of Hamburg, Germany (2017) for imagery and seal- seals in the form further research on Arabic block ing practices in of talismans. printing. THE 16TH ANNUAL UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ORIENTAL INSTITUTE SEMINAR 9

TORBEN SCHREIBER material basis with an almost inventories. From 2011 to 2017 University of Münster, Institute inexhaustible iconographic rep- he was a research assistant in for Classical and Early Christian ertoire, but the decontextualiza- the Doliche Project at the Asia Archaeology tion described poses numerous Minor Research Centre at the problems for research concern- University of Münster. During ONLY LUMPS OF CLAY? ing central questions about the 2017–2018, Schreiber was one SEAL IMPRESSIONS AND process of administration, seal- of the curators of the exhibition THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO ing, seal usage, and archiving. Eirene/Pax: Peace in Antiquity THE RECONSTRUCTION OF Information about the finds (Münster). In 2018 and 2019 HELLENISTIC AND ROMAN must be drawn from the finds he was a postdoc fellow at BUREAUCRACY themselves, as there are hardly the German Archaeological (Session 2 | Thursday, 2:15) any external indications for the Institute in Istanbul and initi- classification of these seal im- Abstract: From Hellenistic and ated the project, Hellenistic pression inventories. In the past, Roman times, approximately and Roman Seal Impressions this inevitably led to negligent more than two hundred thou- from Asia Minor and Adjacent handling of the material. sand seal impressions have been Regions. Since the beginning This lecture gives an over- preserved. The way in which of 2020, Schreiber is a research view of the state of the art on these impressions survived is assistant at the Institute of Hellenistic and Roman archives quite paradoxical: in most cases Classical Archaeology at the and their seal impression in- the archives were destroyed by University of Münster and co-di- ventories. As an example, the fire, and while the conflagra- rector of the Armenian-German archive of Doliche, which is Archaeological Project, which tion irrevocably destroyed the located at the transition from documents made of papyrus focuses at the moment on the Mesopotamia and the Levant Hellenistic city of Artaxata in and parchment, the document to Asia Minor and dates from closures made of initially un- the Ararat valley. about 100 bc to the second cen- fired clay were made durable— tury ad, will be discussed. similar to the firing of pottery. OYA TOPÇUOĞLU Completely preserved docu- Bio: Torben Schreiber studied Northwestern University, Middle ments with seal impressions classical archaeology, ancient East and North African Studies prove that the names of the per- history, and prehistory at the sons who sealed the documents University of Münster and at ONE SEAL, TWO SEAL, RED were usually written next to or the Università degli Studi Suor SEAL, BLUE SEAL: MULTIPLE under their seal impressions and Orsola Benincasa in Naples SEAL OWNERSHIP IN that it was sometimes stated in (2004–2011). His master's thesis MESOPOTAMIA IN THE EARLY which function the appearing about Ptolemaic artifacts in the SECOND MILLENNIUM parties sealed the documents. collection of the Archaeological (Session 1 | Thursday, 9:30) For the sealings no longer Museum of the University of attached to documents, all this Münster was followed by a doc- Abstract: Seals have been information is lost. The numer- torate, which was completed in used in administrative practice ous finds from Hellenistic and 2018 with a thesis on Hellenistic as markers of identity and own- Roman times thus form a broad and Roman seal-impression ership for millennia. Although 10 SEALING THEORIES AND PRACTICES IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST

the ancient Greek historian The paper aims to show how much debated since then and Herodotus reports that in the a holistic approach that inte- the various explanations offered Persian period “every man in grates iconography, texts, and still leave many fundamental Babylonia owned a seal,” in archaeological context can shed questions unanswered. This pre- reality not everyone in the an- light on this complex practice, sentation discusses the views cient Near East owned or even and the relationship between expressed thus far and proposes needed a seal. Ownership of a seal owners and their seals. an alternative that sheds an in- seal, often carved in stone and teresting light on a thus far un- Bio: Oya Topçuoğlu is a lec- hence an expensive commod- known aspect of the workings turer in the Middle East and ity, indicated an individual’s so- of the Hittite administration. cial and economic position, and North African Studies program at Northwestern University. She was a sign of prestige. Given Bio: Theo van den Hout (PhD, this, what are we to make of in- holds a PhD in Near Eastern University of Amsterdam, dividuals who owned and used art and archaeology from the 1989) is the Arthur and Joann University of Chicago. Her re- not just one, but multiple seals Rasmussen Professor of search addresses issues of iden- throughout their lifetimes? By Western Civilization and of tity and cultural exchange, and bringing together seal imagery, Hittite and Anatolian Languages the effects of political change textual evidence, and at the Oriental Institute of the archaeological infor- and ideology on the visual cul- University of Chicago, and chief mation, this paper ture of the ancient Near editor of the Chicago Hittite explores the prac- East. She specializes in Dictionary (CHD). He is the au- tice of multiple seal cylinder seals and seal- thor of several books, most re- ownership in north- ing practices, focusing cently The Elements of Hittite ern Mesopotamia in on the role of seal im- the early second millen- agery and inscription in (Cambridge University Press, nium. As recent studies have the construction of politi- 2011), and many articles. His shown, an integrated ap- cal power and ideology. latest book, A History of Hittite proach can provide She also studies political Literacy: Writing and Reading ample information and pedagogical uses of in Late Bronze Age Anatolia, regarding seal own- the ancient past, its role in is due out in 2020. Theo is a ers, their social and professional the formation of national identi- corresponding member of the identities, and different sealing ties in the modern Middle East, Royal Dutch Academy of Arts practices. and the history of museums and and Sciences, a 2016 fellow of Attested both in the ar- archaeology in the region. Her the John Simon Guggenheim chaeological and textual re- recent work also explores the Memorial Foundation, and a se- cord of Mesopotamia since the looting and trafficking of antiq- nior fellow at the Institute for Akkadian period, multiple seal uities from Syria and Iraq, and the Study of the Ancient World ownership was a common phe- Mesopotamian antiquities on at New York University. nomenon observed across mil- the internet market. lennia, especially in official con- texts. Several examples suggest TASHA VORDERSTRASSE that individuals owned and used THEO VAN DEN HOUT Respondant, University of different seals, often simultane- University of Chicago, Chicago, Oriental Institute ously, for different purposes, Oriental Institute such as official vs. personal Bio: Tasha Vorderstrasse is PREVENTING FRAUD AND the University and Continuing business. However, the reasons FORGERY OF SEALS IN THE Education Program coordina- behind this common practice HITTITE KINGDOM tor at the Oriental Institute. appear to more complicated (Session 1 | Thursday, 10:30) and diverse. This paper focuses She received her PhD in Near on a number of cases attested Abstract: A hoard of over Eastern archaeology from the at Tell Bi’a, Tell al-Rimah, Tell 3,400 seal impressions was University of Chicago in 2004. Leilan, and Mari to discuss the found in situ in the Hittite capi- Her work concentrates on the visual, functional, social, and tal Hattusa in 1990–91 (and a material culture of the Middle ideological aspects of multiple few smaller ones that were al- East, , and Central Asia seal ownership, as well as ques- ready known). The function of and the relations between these tions of agency of the owners. these seal impressions has been areas and China.