During the Akkadian period in Mesopotamia (ca. 2334–2154 BCE) cylinder seals functioned within the highly developed administration established by the ruling dynasty in order to manage the state. Reconstructions of the economic management and organization of the state provide a useful context in which to examine glyptic art and in particular the relationship between imagery and sealing practice. This chapter explores the idea that different types of sealings may have had different functions within the administrative structure, and therefore would require varied kinds of information, or a different organization of the same information, to be conveyed via the seal impressed on the sealing. Innovations in sealing function at this time are considered in relation to two popular glyptic subjects, the contest and presentation scene, and how this imagery may express power and authority. The study of sealing types and practice in the Akkadian period can expand the discussion of the glyptic of this period beyond a focus on the innovative imagery and fine craftsmanship, allowing for new understandings of the ways in which certain glyptic imagery participated in systems of visual communication.

Previous efforts to understand the relationships between gender and glyptic have focused mainly either on the uses of seals as a form of female jewelry or in regard to women being the subject of iconography. The seal, however, served several functions in economy and society, not least as an administrative tool. It has often been assumed that bureaucratic control was the exclusive domain of males, in spite of frequent physical (funerary) and iconographic associations of women and glyptic. While northern Mesopotamia does not have the quality of mortuary remains seen in southern Mesopotamian “royal cemeteries,” there is a rich glyptic repertoire with ample references to gender and social hierarchy. An explicitly gendered approach to the study of this glyptic assemblage can be used to assess how gender affected bureaucratic roles in northern Mesopotamia, which can have larger implications for the role of gender in society.

This chapter introduces Indus seals, and provides a chronological overview of seals in the various phases of Indus civilization. It then addresses various aspects of Indus seals, including inscriptions, the photographic Corpus of Indus Seals and Inscriptions, seals as badges of authority and amulets, seals as administrative tools, and seal manufacture. As such, the chapter provides a brief but thorough introduction to the more detailed studies that comprise the rest of this section.

Aegean scholars have recently completed fifty years of glyptic codification with the Corpus der minoischen und mykenischen Siegel (CMS), which means that virtually all Aegean seals and sealings are now recorded and classified. Originally, the study of Aegean glyptic focused almost exclusively on seals as art-historical documents, while the Corpus now encourages both systematic studies of glyptic chronology and a more refined analysis of technical developments. Another area of research especially pertinent to the pre- and proto-literate Aegean is the function of seals as “badges” for specific socio-economic groups. There is furthermore a pronounced shift to the study of the use of seals and the role of sealings in palatial economic and administrative systems. The research pendulum is swinging once again with a new emphasis on the amuletic and magical properties of seals, gender-specific seal iconography, and the activities of particular glyptic groups.

Sealing technology first appears in Egypt around 3600 BCE during the Naqada II period of the Predynastic. Thereafter, the use of seals undergoes a lengthy evolution, responding to the shifting structure of the country’s political system, as well as changes in cultural, religious, and artistic traditions that spanned some three millennia. This chapter will provide a comprehensive, typological overview of the evolution in seal forms (including cylinders, stamps, scarabs, and other specialized seal forms) and iconography, and discuss continuities and discontinuities that characterize Egyptian sealing traditions. Here we will examine the evolving modes of seal usage, both as administrative tools and as artifacts that expressed a wider suite of religious and cultural aspects of Egyptian society. Particularly valuable in the Egyptian record is the rich textual source material which illuminates the ways seals and sealing systems related to functioning administrative systems. The following discussion will enmesh the physical evidence within a selection of relevant ancient documentary sources. This review of sealing traditions in Egypt will include a case study. In the context of the present discussion the Abydos case study will be used to illustrate methodologies and issues in the recovery, analysis, and interpretation of seals and sealings in the Egyptian archaeological record.

Seals as administrative tools have their origin in the sixth millennium BCE in the Syro-Mesopotamia heartland of the Tigris and Euphrates valley. Beginning as stamp seals, cylindrically shaped seals were invented at the same time as proto-cuneiform writing, in the middle of the fourth millennium BCE. While the site of their invention is still uncertain, the cylinder seal continued to be closely associated for the next 3,000 years with all of the cultures that adapted cuneiform to represent their spoken language. This introductory overview of seals and sealings in greater Mesopotamia will begin with a brief summary of the history of scholarship. It will present a summary of the iconographic, stylistic, and functional evolution of Mesopotamian glyptic through the middle of the second millennium BCE, placing emphasis on the changing roles of seals within the administrative system. It will end with several case studies of how seal iconography and style served as a medium through which long-distance cultural interaction was manifest across the larger ancient Near East extending from Egypt to the Indus and from the Persian Gulf to Central Asia. Hybrid styles and iconographies served to connect a vast and highly interconnected world, and they serve today to help us reconstruct that interaction.

Inscribed steatite seals are among the most important components of Indus material assemblages. During the Integration Era of the Harappa phase (2600–1900 BCE) these objects were used to serve a variety of purposes, yet many important questions remain regarding how and where they were made, and how production would have varied within and among different settlements. This study presents a novel method for analyzing the organization of Indus seal production. By combining formal stylistic and metric analyses of various elements of inscribed steatite seals, it is possible to fingerprint groups of seals that would have been carved by different producers working throughout the Indus region. Preliminary results suggest that these techniques are useful for providing new insights into the scale and nature of variation in Indus seal-carving traditions. The methods applied in this study can be employed to analyze seals from other world regions to provide new insights into how production was organized and varied in time and space.

The use of seals for both administrative and private purposes to secure rooms, containers, and correspondence reached a high point in the Middle Kingdom, attested by the variety of private and institutional name and pattern seals and the use of complex systems including counterstamping. By comparison, sealing in the New Kingdom seems far simpler, with large assemblages like Malqata the exception, the abandonment of counterstamping and private-name seals, and a shift and apparent simplification in the different seal types used. This chapter compares and contrasts sealing during the two periods, suggesting both taphonomic and administrative reasons for the apparent shift in practices.

The banquet seal of third-millennium southern Mesopotamia is a rich source of information relating to the social, political, and religious practices of Sumerian elites, including women. Applying concepts of materiality to the banquet seal, I will argue that this type of seal came into use as part of broader changes in social order, in which elites used material culture, including seals, to establish and maintain their control over a social hierarchy that was becoming ever more steep. The banquet seal, with its image of elite feasting, helped structure and reinforce that social hierarchy. Made from materials in a limited range of colors, and carved with simple, legible scenes known in other media, the banquet seal was part of a suite of self-referential visual culture whose redundancy increased the power and readability of its message. This chapter demonstrates how viewing seals through the lens of materiality allows us to look beyond imagery and seal function to how seals helped constitute social relations.