page_title: Seal (emblem)
section_title: Ancient Near East
hierarchical_section_title: Seal (emblem) / Ancient Near East
caption_attribution_description: English: Cult scene: the worship of the sun-god, Shamash. Limestone cylinder-seal, Mesopotamia. Français&#160;: Culte du dieu-soleil Shamash, sceau-cylindre en calcaire, Mésopotamie.
context_page_description: A seal is a device for making an impression in wax, clay, paper, or some other medium, including an embossment on paper, and is also the impression thus made. The original purpose was to authenticate a document, a wrapper for one such as a modern envelope, or the cover of a container or package holding valuables or other objects.
  The seal-making device is also referred to as the seal matrix or die; the imprint it creates as the seal impression. If the impression is made purely as a relief resulting from the greater pressure on the paper where the high parts of the matrix touch, the seal is known as a dry seal; in other cases ink or another liquid or liquefied medium is used, in another color than the paper.
  In most traditional forms of dry seal the design on the seal matrix is in intaglio and therefore the design on the impressions made is in relief. The design on the impression will reverse that of the matrix, which is especially important when script is included in the design, as it very often is. This will not be the case if paper is embossed from behind, where the matrix and impression read the same way, and both matrix and impression are in relief.
context_section_description: Seals were used in the earliest civilizations and are of considerable importance in archaeology and art history. In ancient Mesopotamia carved or engraved cylinder seals in stone or other materials were used. These could be rolled along to create an impression on clay (which could be repeated indefinitely), and used as labels on consignments of trade goods, or for other purposes. They are normally hollow and it is presumed that they were worn on a string or chain round the neck. Many have only images, often very finely carved, with no writing, while others have both. From ancient Egypt seals in the form of signet-rings (see below), including some with the names of kings, have been found; these tend to show only names in hieroglyphics.
  Recently, seals have come to light in South Arabia datable to the Himyarite age. One example shows a name written in Aramaic (Yitsḥaq bar Ḥanina) engraved in reverse so as to read correctly in the impression.
caption: Mesopotamian limestone cylinder seal and the impression made by it—worship of Shamash
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