Details

Subject(s)

• Civilization, Assyro-Babylonian [Browse]
• Seals (Numismatics)—Iraq [Browse]
• Seals (Numismatics)—Middle East [Browse]
• Iraq—Sources—History—To 634 [Browse]

Getty AAT genre

• Seals (Numismatics). [Browse]

Compiled/​Created

3000 BCE - 500 AD

Restrictions note

The collection is open for research.

Summary note

• Consists of 244 stones used in Mesopotamia and adjacent areas of the ancient Near East from prehistoric times to make impressions in clay, particularly seals on clay tablets and their envelopes.
• The Manuscripts Division holds a total of 244 stone seals from Mesopotamia, Syria, and other areas of the ancient Near East. The seals are in three collections, respectively assembled and donated by Moses Taylor Pyne (1855-1921), Class of 1877; Robert Garrett (1875-1961), Class of 1897; and Edward D. Balken (1874-1960), Class of 1897. The seals range in age from Sumerian and Akkadian examples of the 2nd and 3rd millennia BCE to Persian examples of the pre-Islamic Sassanian period. The stone seals are primarily cylinder seals and stamp seals carved from hematite, serpentine, steatite, chalcedony, chlorite, lapis lazuli, quartz, and other varieties of stone. Superscripts are displayed in curly braces.

Language note

Multiple languages are represented in this collection, including Samaritan Aramaic, among others.

Finding aid

The finding aid is comprised of two unpublished preliminary listings: (1) Rudolf H. Mayr, "Preliminary Checklist of Stone Seals in the Princeton University Library"; and (2) Albrecht Goetze, "Mesopotamian Seals in the Collection of Robert Garrett." Cyrus H. Gordon wrote several brief articles relating in whole or part to the Princeton collections: "Seals from Ancient Western Asia," Princeton University Library Chronicle, vol. 12, no. 2 (1951), pp. 49-54; "Near Eastern Saeals and Cuneiform Tablets," Princeton University Library Chronicle, vol. 14, no. 1 (1952), pp. 45-46; "Near Eastern Seals in Princeton and Philadelphia," Orientalia, new series, vol. 22, fasc. 3 (1953), pp. 242-50, plates 57-70. There is also one stone seal in the Scheide Library and a substantial collection of stone seals in the Princeton University Art Museum.

Statement on language in description

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