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Seals from the Hutchinson Collection
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 August 2014
Extract
The cylinder and stamp seals published here belong to a collection bequeathed to the late R. W. Hutchinson by Olga Petrovna, Baroness da Maydell. She had bought them from various dealers both in the Middle East and in Europe, probably all between the two World Wars. Mr. Hutchinson invited me to publish some of those that came from Mesopotamia during historic times, and planned to publish the prehistoric stamp seals himself. The collection includes also Achaemenid, Sassanian, Egyptian, Cretan and prehistoric stamp seals which have not yet been published. Following his deeply regretted death in April 1970 the collection was bequeathed to Liverpool University, where it is in the care of the School of Archaeology and Oriental Studies, except for nos. 19 and 33 which he had given to me earlier. The Liverpool registration is given in parenthesis after the publication number.
The description “seals” does not exactly apply to nos. 26 and 33, which are “eye-beads” as described by Professor W. G. Lambert in the RA 63 (1969), 65–71. Measurements are given in millimetres, height × diameter of cylinders; the dimensions of stamp seals and eye-stones are stated in full.
1. (RWH 1.) Abstract pattern made with two sizes of drilled hole, in high relief. 17 × 18·5. Light grey baked (?) clay. Jemdet Nasr type.
2. (RWH 3.) Pattern of two doubly-enclosed eye-lozenges; the spaces above and below are rilled with short, deeply-cut lines; in high relief. 15 × 13. Pink felspar. Jemdet Nasr type.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1972
References
1 I am grateful to Dr. P. R. S. Moorey for valuable help and discussions; to C. A. Bateman of the British Museum for making the impressions from which the photographs were taken; to R. Tangye, J. Dick, and A. Culley for the photographs (except for no. 22 which was supplied by A. R. Millard), and to Dr. J. S. Watterson of the Department of Geology, Liverpool University, for identifying the materials. The prints are approximately actual size except for no. 32, which is ×2.
2 Now perhaps dated earlier; see E. Porada apud Ehrlich, R. W., Chronologies in Old World Archaeology, 155 (Chicago, 1965)Google Scholar.
3 Amiet, P., La glyptique mésopotamienne archaique (Paris, 1961)Google Scholar.
4 Read Sur-g̃ar by Sollberger, E., RA 62 (1968), 138Google Scholar.
5 Boehmer, R. M., Die Entwicklung der Glyptik während der Akkad-Zeit (Berlin, 1965)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
6 That seal is included in his category of Tierkampfszenen, although neither animal is engaged in combat.
7 This and the objects associated with it are discussed by Buchanan, Ashmolean Seal no. 342.
8 The sangu ša-a-la-di of the myth? See Kinnier-Wilson, J. V., Iraq 31 (1969), 15–16Google Scholar.
9 The sign may be a false beginning of zu, abandoned for reasons of spacing; or it may be the remains of an earlier inscription, the seal having been partially recut for the name of a new owner.
10 This sign ka has one vertical in excess, perhaps due to recutting. But cf. E. Porada, CANES, no. 277E, in which the name Ka-ka occurs with the two signs written differently.
11 This epithet appears to be unattested elsewhere for Amurru. It may have been his local title in the town of Uršu.
12 See Falkner, M., AfO 18 (1957), 31Google Scholar.
13 See Gurney, O. R., CAH II, 6, p. 15Google Scholar.
14 This seal may not have been included in the Petrovna bequest, since I did not see it when Hutchinson showed me the collection. However, when A. R. Millard catalogued the seals that arrived in Liverpool, he saw that it was not included in my list, and sent a photograph. I have not seen the seal personally.
15 This common figure is usually shown on Old Babylonian seals naked and clearly feminine.
16 Enlil's wife is normally called Nin-líl, but the name Nin-en-líl is also found on the lapis lazuli votary disc, BE 1, no. 28.
17 The final horizontal wedge is not visible. According to Seux, M., Épithètes Royales, 408Google Scholar, this title (formerly read šutug) is only attested of Šu-Sin. Therefore it gives no clue as to which of the kings named Kurigalzu this is.
18 According to K. Tallqvist, Neubabylonisches Namenbuch, s.v. Nadin, this name abbreviation is very common in neo-Babylonian times, whereas it is not found in his collection of Assyrian Personal Names.
19 Mr. Millard has informed me that there is a stamp seal almost identical with this one in the collection. I hope that this one will be republished together with its twin when all the many stamp seals appear in print.