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The early development of the lapidary engraving wheel in Mesopotamia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Margaret Sax ,
Nigel D. Meeks  and
Dominique Collon
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Extract

Traditional views on the development of rotary motion were outlined by Childe (1954). He envisaged a progressive development of a concept that had originated in prehistoric times. Thus, perforated artefacts composed of shell and soft stone from Upper Palaeolithic levels yielded the earliest evidence for hand-held drills (Semenov 1964: 74–8). At least seven thousand years later, during the second half of the fourth millennium, potters in several parts of the Near East, including southern Mesopotamia, made first use of rotary motion (Rice 1987: 12, 132–5). Pictographic signs inscribed on Mesopotamian tablets suggest that the first use of wheeled vehicles was also made at about this time (Piggott 1983: 38) and, for the past twenty five years, it has been thought that the introduction of the lapidary engraving wheel coincided approximately with these two other innovations (for example, see Nissen 1977: 16; Gwinnett and Gorelick 1979: 25–7; Collon 1986: 13–14). However, our recent observations on engraved cylinder seals suggest that the date of the first use of the lapidary wheel should be revised.

The fine intaglios of stone cylinder seals preserve detailed evidence for the lapidary technology of Mesopotamia and the surrounding areas of the Near East. A comparative study by the authors of the engraved features on these seals (Sax and Meeks 1995, see also 1994) and those produced experimentally (Sax et al. 1998) has shown that it is possible to identify the methods used to engrave the seals. The various techniques, tools and abrasive materials can usually be recognized from the characteristic morphology or “tool-marks” of engraved features.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 62 , 2000 , pp. 157 - 176
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 2000

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