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Near Eastern Seals in the Gulbenkian Museum of Oriental Art, University of Durham

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

W. G. Lambert
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Extract

The Near Eastern seal collection of the Gulbenkian Museum of Oriental Art, University of Durham, had a single immediate origin. It was part of the collection of antiquities belonging to the Dukes of Northumberland, formerly housed in Alnwick Castle. Most of the Egyptian antiquities were acquired by the 4th Duke during the first half of the 19th century, and in 1880, at the expense of the 6th Duke, a printed catalogue of the whole collection as it then existed was issued, compiled by Samuel Birch, Keeper of Egyptian, Assyrian and Oriental Antiquities in the British Museum. This describes four Near Eastern cylinder seals, nos. 2016–2018 and 2020, a very modest start. The greater number of these was collected after this time by the eldest son of the 7th Duke, who first came to public attention as Lord Warkworth, but was later styled Henry Algernon George, Earl Percy. He was born in 1871, travelled extensively in the Near East in 1895, 1897 and 1899, and died prematurely in 1909. As noted in the Dictionary of National Biography, Supplement 1901–1911, 904, “true to the traditions of his family, he began to collect antiques, particularly cylinder seals”, and significantly an Akkadian cylinder seal design adorns the front board of his book Notes from a Diary in Asiatic Turkey (London, 1898). This material joined the family collection, and it appears that he was the last of his line to pursue this interest, so that nothing was added after 1910. The collection remained in Alnwick Castle until the 9th Duke deposited it on loan in the British Museum in 1939. The easier access which this move was intended to create was, however, prevented by the outbreak of war. In 1950, when conditions had returned to normal after the war, thanks to the generosity of the present Duke and the initiative of Professor T. W. Thacker of the University of Durham, the whole Northumberland collection, with a few exceptions, was acquired for that University, where it is now housed in the Gulbenkian Museum of Oriental Art, close to its ancestral home.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 41 , Issue 1 , Spring 1979 , pp. 1 - 45
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1979

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References

The following collections of seals, impressions, etc., are cited by the number of the piece in the collection:

Ashmolean: Briggs Buchanan, Catalogue of Ancient Near Eastern Seals in the Ashmolean Museum I, Cylinder Seals.

1 A collection of papers entitled Seals and Sealing in the Ancient Near East, edited by Gibson, McGuire and Biggs, R. D. (Undena Publications; Malibu, 1977)Google Scholar has just appeared but has not been seen.

2 A zoologically expert colleague of the writer inspected a series of these representations in Old Babylonian and Cappadocian seal impressions and expressed the following opinion: that the Cappadocian ones, with projecting ears, looked like fair representations of calves in a foetal position, but the Old Babylonian ones were much less convincing as anything from the animal kingdom, and while the odd one could conceivably be meant as a mongoose, on the whole they suited some sort of monkey much better. Thus any connection with the deity Ninkilim (Sumerian for “mongoose”) must be considered doubtful. However, for the moment we keep mongoose, but in inverted commas, except where it is clearly something else.

3 Lady Mallowan (Barbara Parker) kindly informs me that this type of composition occasionally occurs on impressions on Ur and Larsa tablets from the Isin-Larsa Period as well as on later tablets from Sippar. The evidence is contained in Studies in the Chronology and Regional Styles of Old Babylonian Cylinder Seals (Ph.D. Thesis, University of London, 06 1977), by al-Gailani, LamiaGoogle Scholar.

4 Mlle D. Parayre, who is studying the forms of the winged solar disc, examined the disc on this seal at the request of Mme M.-Th. Barrelet. She observes that while certain Middle Assyrian and Mitanni forms are comparable, the closest form so far noted is Cypriot: Louvre, A 1177.

* See now the photos in I. Bernhardt, TMH N.F. V, Pls. CXXVII-CXXVIII.

5 See the Second Excursus.

6 Dr. Bivar has worked from photographs, and has not handled the originals.

7 The form Ebarat has been chosen as the norm since it is a form in contemporary documents of both rulers, though only exceptionally of the first. The form Epart used by Hinz may be correct for Middle Elamite, under the influence of the phonetics of that language, but there is no reason to suspect that the name is linguistically Elamite. Beginning with Ia- or E- and having three consonants it could be Semitic, cf. Iamūt-bâl/Emūt-bâl, and note that Iabrat is also, like Iamūt-bâl, a geographical name (Edzard, and Farber, , Répertoire Géographique 2, 82)Google Scholar. Whether the final consonant is d, t or ṭ cannot be established. Of course names other than Semitic may begin Ia-, note the Guti king Iarlagan. It is irrelevant that Iabrat is called “the Su-man”, since Su is a geographical term with no known linguistic association.

8 See Lambert, W. G., Iraq 38 (1976), 85 ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 One is at a loss to understand how König, op. cit., 2 and 3 note 12, is able to cite this group of texts without comment as Old Akkadian, and Hinz (revised CAH II/1, 260) to date them after 1850 B.C.

10 Collated by Sollberger, E., RA 64 (1970), 174Google Scholar.

11 Apart from the sources already cited, Ebarat II occurs in a royal inscription of Atta-ḫ;ušu (MDP 28, 7Google Scholar; cf. JCS 22 (1968), 31)Google Scholar, in an oath formula with Šilḫ;aḫa (de Meyer, L., apud Festschrift de Liagre Böhl, 293)Google Scholar, and in seal inscriptions (MDP 10, 4 = 6 (cf. RA 22 (1925), 159) and 7Google Scholar; Susa, 1680, 1685, 1686).

12 The appearance of Šeplarpak in Mari documents of the time of Zimri-Lim (RA 64 (1970), 97)Google Scholar in no way conflicts with these results, since he was “king of Anšan” and need not have ruled Susa. However, the Šullim-kudur “king of Susa” in unpublished Mari documents (Dossin, G., Syria 20 (1939), 109)Google Scholar does raise problems. In a personal letter dated 14:10:1977, M. Dossin kindly informed that writer that this name is written šu-ul-šI-ku-du-ur, and suggested that perhaps it should be read Šulši-kudur and be identified with Kudusuluš. This would solve the problems. More material for the history of Elam of this period is available: see Farber, W., ZA 64 (1974), 74 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and the seal inscription naming Ḫalki-appak as a ruler (RA 64 (1970), 71)Google Scholar, though not necessarily of Susa. The thesis of Carter, E., Elam in the Second Millennium B.C. (Chicago, 1971)Google Scholar is not accessible to me.

13 See also the seal inscription, Susa, 1677.