THE AEGEAN AND THE ORIENT: THE EVIDENCE OF STAMP AND CYLINDER SEALS*

Seals provide us with a corpus of material having unique advantages for the study of intercultural exchange. Seals were designed to be small, pierced, and easily portable. For reasons of security, identity, status and adornment, they traveled with their owners or users, their impressions marking containers and documents related to the exchange of goods. Seals come in distinctive shapes, styles, and materials that can be associated with specific cultural areas and preserve for us an enormous corpus of images, giving insights into local and foreigninf luenced styles and iconographic themes. Many were made of semi-precious gemstones, the carving of which increased in the Near East and was accomplished in the Aegean in the second millennium BC.1 The magical properties attributed to seal materials as well as the cultural messages embedded in their imagery enhancing their prestige value may have been understood, at least in part, in foreign contexts. Indeed, many imports were considered worthy of burial with their new possessors. Seals and sealings ref lect intercultural exchange in various political, social, and economic circumstances and had a combination of practical, artistic, and social values invested in them. They brought into the Aegean not only technological advances but possibly status symbols representing foreign value systems and a host of new images which in some cases may have provided new ways of visualizing the supernatural and possibly introduced new religious concepts. Mary Helms has written about the significance of acquired goods and ideas and the role of the trader/traveler in traditional societies: Acquisitional acts...become dynamic expressions of the quality of the acquirers association with the powerful (foreign) domain and long distance traveler/traders...obtaining intangible or tangible expressions of this power, also attain honor and prestige. For the ruler, as accumulator of societys prosperity,the act of acquisition in itself becomes a mark of exceptionality, exclusivity, ability to control, and allows the cultivation of a kingly image.2 Such ideas seem relevant to the deeper understanding of seals and interconnections in the ancient world, but in this short paper, I will only review some of the data providing evidence for imports, inf luences, and shared sealing practices, and allude to some clues for understanding their significance and impact such as context, distribution, physical appearance, and condition. Imports While Aegean seals are rare in foreign contexts, there are some notable examples. There is the rather undistinguished Mycenaean seal found in the Uluburun shipwreck, that may have belonged to a merchant onboard.3 One other seal, known only from a painted representation,

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* 1 2 3 The contents of this paper are a distillation of my doctoral dissertation of the same name, written in 1986, which has been revised for a publication now in preparation. See L. GORELICK and J. GWINNETT, Minoan versus Mesopotamian Seals: Comparative Methods of Manufacture, Iraq 54 (1992) 57-64, for a discussion of the introduction of hard stone seal technology. M. HELMS, Craft and the Kingly Ideal. Art, Trade, and Power (1993) 101, 130, 165; 151, for a discussion of the role of gemstones in this process. G. BASS, A Bronze Age Shipwreck at Ulu Burun (Kas): 1984 Campaign, AJA 90 (1986) 284-85, ill. 20; unengraved agate lentoids, on the other hand, may have been workshop materials: G. BASS. C. PULAK, D. COLLON, and J. WEINSTEIN, The Bronze Age Shipwreck at Ulu Burun: 1986 Campaign, AJA 93 (1989) 6-8, fig. 11.

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is a blue cushion-shaped stamp of early Late Minoan type4 worn on the wrist of a bull leaper on a Tell el-Dabca fresco fragment (Pl. XXXIa). This acrobat, like other professionals such as specialized craftsmen, musicians, smiths, physicians and diviners, may have traveled the Mediterranean in association with or as a dependent of a royal court.5 The number of foreign seals found in the Aegean is considerable. These seals travelled in a variety of circumstances not always easy to decipher from the archaeological record, found either alone, with other imports, or even in seal hoards, and in varying conditions from pristine to f lawed or unfinished. Some of these imports may have had profound inf luence, particularly on the forms of early Aegean seals. The rim sherd of an Early Helladic pithos from Euboea (Pl. XXXIb) bears two impressions of what I believe is an Anatolian metal stalk-handled seal (Pl. XXXIc); this seal may have come to the Aegean in connection with Anatolian settlements in Euboea at the end of EH II. Long-stemmed seals from Lerna and Lenda on Crete may in fact imitate the foreign form.6 The more usual imports to the Aegean consist of scarabs and cylinder seals from Egypt and the Near East, occurring in isolated examples throughout the Bronze Age but also in some clusters during specific periods and at certain sites. Two Syrian-style cylinder seals were found in burials at Mochlos. One of them is an Early Bronze Age cylinder that may have been valued particularly because it was made of silver;7 the second is a north Syrian style hematite cylinder of late 19th-early 18th century BC date, found in a disturbed tomb with EM-MM IB pottery.8 Other small clusters of foreign seals were found in southern and central Cretan burials at sites such as Lenda, Archanes, and Platanos. In Tholos IB at Platanos, three scarabs and one Old Babylonian cylinder seal (Pl. XXXId) were found along with numerous Minoan seals.9 During the Late Bronze Age, a number of scarabs of Amenhotep III and Queen Tiyi entered the Aegean and were found in 14th to 13th century BC contexts on both Crete and the Greek mainland. The one most closely datable to the reign of this pharaoh, with a nontraditional inscription, was part of a necklace from a LM IIIA(1) chamber tomb burial at Sellopoulo near Knossos.10 Other examples were also discovered in Anatolia, the Levant, and Cyprus where at Enkomi a scarab of Tiyi was found along with a silver ring of her son and a Minoan seal.11 The range of find circumstances for Amenhotep III-related material makes it possible to consider alternatives to the attractive theory of Eric Cline that a single diplomatic visit brought these objects directly from Egypt to Greece.12 One other cluster of foreign glyptic material consists of mass-produced common style Syro-Mitannian cylinder seals that had a wide distribution in the Near East. They were found in Late Aegean tombs on Crete and the Greek mainland. Made of vitreous paste with

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4 5 6 7 8 9 10 See, for example, J. BOARDMAN, Greek Gems and Finger Rings (1970) pl. 58-63, no. 60 depicting acrobats, made of blue chalcedony. See discussions in HELMS (supra n. 2) 34ff; C. ZACCAGNINI, Patterns of Mobility among Ancient Near Eastern Craftsmen, JNES 42 (1983) 245-64. CMS V no. 37; CMS II1 no. 221. J. ARUZ, The Silver Cylinder Seal from Mochlos, Kadmos 23 (1984) 86-88. CMS VS 1B no. 332. Minoan seals: CMS II1 255, 257-62, 265, 268-82, 284-89, 292-303, 305, 307-312, 314-21, 325-31, 335-43, 34547. For references, see CLINE, SWDS, 147, no. 128; Idem, Amenhotep III and the Aegean: A Reassessment of Egypto-Aegean Relations in the 14th Century B.C., Orientalia 56 (1987) 12 n. 53, where he compares this example with the ones from Mycenae and Ayia Triada, and notes other Egyptian parallels. A. MURRAY, A.H. SMITH, and H.B. WALTERS, Excavations in Cyprus (1900) 54, pl. iv; B. JAEGER and R. KRAUSS, Zwei Skaraben aus der mykenischen Fundstelle Panaztepe, MDOG 122 (1990) 154 ff.; for the continued use of Tiyi rings and scarabs in the Amarna period, see W.M.F. PETRIE, Scarabs and Cylinders with Names (1917) 164, pl. 35: ring of Tiyi at Amarna, where she may have taken up residence after the death of her husband or during a possible period of co-regency; J. ARUZ, The Aegean and the Orient in the Second Millennium B.C.: The Evidence of Stamp and Cylinder Seals (Ph.D. 1986) 641 ff. SWDS, 39 ff.

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schematic designs, these imports may have had some specific significance for their Aegean owners, somehow connecting them to the long-distance acquisition of goods.13 A large number of seals, representing a variety of cultures, travelled together on the Uluburun ship. Some are in common styles, ref lecting a level of production similar that of the Syro-Mitannian group. They include the Mycenaean seal and one scarab that is probably Cypriot14 perhaps belonging to merchants on board rather than being collected goods. Other seals, however, are made of precious materials, such as a gold Egyptian stamp with the name of Nefertiti and a rock crystal Kassite cylinder with gold caps.15 Seals then may have been the focus of long-distance trade, acquired for their material value. Two famous treasures that contain a wealth of lapis lazuli cylinder seals and other precious objects, either in fine condition or as workshop materials, come from Middle Bronze Age Td and Late Bronze Age Boeotian Thebes.16 The seals in both cases represent a wide span of cultures and styles, and range from pristine to poor condition, some examples reworked and some Theban cylinders uncarved. A number of pieces in the Td Treasure look like Mesopotamian or Syrian temple inventory.17 The Treasure probably came to the Nile Valley over time and by various routes as consignments for the Egyptian crown representing, according to a dedicatory inscription, what foreigners and explorers... had delivered.18 The Theban hoard has been associated with mechanisms of transfer such as booty, gift exchange, and commerce. Most impressive are the Kassite seals, one inscribed with the name of a high official of the ruler Burnaburiash. To Edith Porada they represented booty from Babylon that the Assyrian king Tukulti-Ninurta I subsequently sent as a gift to Thebes.19 However, the diversity of the material, including a number of seals that were made or recut on Cyprus, probably indicate that both the route and the means of exchange were more complex. In addition to lapis lazuli, the Theban hoard was rich in agate, in the form of Mycenaean seals and beads.20 In the Near Eastern world, recutting was a widespread phenomenon that helps us to track the travels of seals in space and time.21 Particularly in the case of lapis lazuli, seals were reused rather than discarded, and personalized by removing old inscriptions and adding new designs testimony to the high value of this material which in one ancient text is said to bestow power and divine favor on its owner.22 A number of Theban lapis lazuli seals were recut in Cypriot style.23 Similarly, an Ur III lapis lazuli cylinder from Ashur was recut with an Anatolian bull god worship scene which somehow made this seal more appropriate for use by an Old Assyrian merchant in karum trading activities.24

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13 I. PINI, Mitanni-Rollsiegel des Common Style, Prhistorische Zeitschrift (1983) 114 ff.; B. SALJE, Sceauxcylindres proche-orientaux du Bronze rcent trouvs dans laire genne, in A. CAUBET (ed.), De Chypre la Bactriane. Les sceaux du Proche-Orient ancien (1997) 252ff has suggested controversially that some of these seals were actually made in the Aegean in imitation of Levantine originals. I thank George Bass, Cemal Pulak and James Weinstein for the possibility to examine this piece; in a text prepared for its eventual publication, I have compared it to images on stamp seals from Cyprus and tablet impressions from Ras Shamra. BASS, PULAK, COLLON, and WEINSTEIN (supra n. 3) 13, 17 ff., figs. 24-25, 29, 30; in his paper for this conference, George Bass referred to the Nefertiti seal as gold scrap. N. PLATON and E. TOULOUPA, Oriental Seals from the Palace of Cadmus: Unique Discoveries in Boeotian Thebes, Illustrated London News (November 28, 1964) 859-61; E. PORADA, Cylinder Seals Found at Thebes in Boeotia, Archiv fr Orientforschung 28 (1981/82) 1-70. E. PORADA, Remarks on the Td Treasure in Egypt, in M. DANDAMEYEV et al.(eds.), Societies and Languages of the Ancient Near East. Studies in honour of I.M. Diakonoff (1982) 290-91. G. POSENER, Syria and Palestine c. 2160-1780 B.C., in CAH I/2A (1971) 543-44. PORADA (supra n. 16) 68-70: the Kassite cylinders alone (including unworked lapis lazuli of the appropriate size) weighed one mina, suggesting this possibility. PLATON and TOULOUPA (supra n. 16); CMS V nos. 672, 674-76. See D. COLLON, First Impressions. Cylinder Seals in the Ancient Near East (1987) 120 ff. See H. PITTMAN in collaboration with J. ARUZ, Ancient Art in Miniature (1987) 11. PORADA (supra n. 16) 14-15 no. 3, for example. J. ARUZ in P.O. HARPER, E. KLENGEL-BRANDT, J. ARUZ and K. BENZEL (eds.), Discoveries at Ashur on the Tigris: Assyrian Origins (1995) 60 no. 41.

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17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

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Some seals imported to the Aegean also appear to have been customized for use by their new owners. A gold inlaid glazed steatite Egyptian scarab has a linked scroll pattern on the base, surrounding a garbled inscription with a mixture of Aegean and Egyptian-type signs. This added inscription was probably the work of a Minoan carver.25 Another reworked foreign seal is a lapis lazuli cylinder with gold caps, discovered at Knossos (Pl. XXXIe-f). The original third millennium seal of Ebla type was probably reworked in Syria or Anatolia in the early second millennium BC, with faint traces of the earlier design still visible. One bull crossing behind a lion, however, is not fully explainable in Near Eastern terms. Its large frontal head may have been recut on Crete over one of a Near Eastern human-headed bearded bull the beard transformed into the elongated Minoan muzzle placed directly above the foreleg with no neck transition. The seal was further beautified with a rather unique set of granulated gold caps, probably made in Crete, restoring it as an impressive piece of jewelry.26 The lavish attention paid to this seal marks it as a prestige item, and the appreciation of its rare blue material may represent the transmission of Near Eastern values to Crete. It is one of a number of foreign seals like the Sellopoulo scarab that were worn as jewelry in the Aegean.27 While such evidence in no way represents any systematic use of foreign seals, it is interesting to consider that in the Near Eastern sphere, as we learn from the work of Michelle Marcus, imported Assyrian seals may have been worn by an elite class at the site of Hasanlu in Iran, as emblems of authority bestowing prestige and social group affiliation on the seal owner.28 Some imported seals that arrived in a f lawed or unfinished state may still have conveyed prestige or status linking their owners with long-distance activities. In some cases, as with the cylinders found in burials at Platanos (see Pl. XXXId) and Herakleion Poros,29 these seals bear significant images of Near Eastern royal and divine figures. The Platanos seal was made in eastern Syria or Mesopotamia in the 19-18th c. BC. The Poros seal was probably produced in the early 17th century BC and comes from a well known Levantine workshop that may have been situated at Byblos. Influences Inf luences30 which can be detected in seal shape, imagery and style provide a rich source for the study of cultural interaction. Inf luences represent the active role of Aegean patrons and craftsmen in making artistic choices from a range of foreign forms and have the potential to provide further insights into the more elusive aspects of Aegean society. Perhaps the most profound foreign inf luence on the Aegean seal occurred at its very inception with the selection of the stamp seal (see Pl. XXXIg-h for Aegean examples with Near Eastern parallels). This is the seal type that persisted in Anatolia but was supplanted by the cylinder seal in the more Mesopotamian-inf luenced parts of the Near Eastern world. Whereas the exact circumstances surrounding the introduction of Aegean seals remain unclear, similar innovations elsewhere are easier to document.

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25 CMS VIII no. 151; ARUZ (supra n. 11) 504-505; J. PHILLIPS, Reworked and reused Egyptian jewellery, VI Congresso Internazionale di Eggitologia. Atti I (1992) 498, who seems to suggest that the gold inlay was also an Aegean addition. For a fuller discussion of this piece, see J. ARUZ, Syrian Seals and the Evidence for Cultural Interaction between the Levant and Crete, in I. PINI and J-C. POURSAT (eds.), CMS Beiheft 5. Sceaux minoens et mycniens (1995) 6 ff. See PHILLIPS (supra n. 25) 497-500. M. MARCUS, Emblems of Identity and Prestige: The Seals and Sealings from Hasanlu, Iran (1996) 2. D. COLLON, The Green Jasper Cylinder Seal Workshop, in M. KELLY-BUCCELLATI (ed.), Insight through Images. Studies in Honor of Edith Porada (1986) 58 no. 5, 62, 63; ARUZ (supra n. 26) 3-4. G. HERMERN, Influence in Art and Literature (1975) defines this term: when the work of one culture that has the opportunity for contact with another culture is significantly changed by the presence of artistic markers that can be attributed to the second area, this should constitute a case of inf luence.

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Two historical moments illustrate the inf luence of Near Eastern seal shapes abroad the Uruk expansion of the late 4th millennium BC and the Assyrian mercantile expansion into central Anatolia in the early 2nd millennium. Among the Near Eastern finds in the elite burials of predynastic Egypt are imported seals not only introducing this phenomenon to the Nile Valley but stimulating local cylinder seal production at the time that it was first adopted in Mesopotamia.31 In central Anatolia, cylinder seals came into use from about 19201740 BC as part of the apparatus of doing business among the foreign merchants who dominated commercial life of the karum districts. The native predilection for the stamp seal, however, soon reappeared.32 In the Aegean, we find that forms used in the Aegean early and middle Neolithic periods, particularly in Macedonia and Thessaly, such as the foot-shaped and conoid stamping devices, also came into widespread use in Anatolia the only Near Eastern area west of Mesopotamia in which the (non-scarab) stamp seal tradition remained strong. Anatolia then may provide the immediate source for the transmission of these types into Greece in the Early Bronze Age. Some conoids were made of metal. A lead example found at Tsoungiza near Nemea (Pl. XXXIIa) is nearly identical in form and design with a copper conoid from Thermi on Lesbos (Pl. XXXIIa). The east Aegean (or Anatolia itself) is a likely place of origin for the Tsoungiza seal.33 On Crete, Syrian inf luences are stronger, but cylindrical seals were used for stamping rather than rolling, with designs only on their bases. In a few rare instances, however, the Near Eastern stamp cylinder seal form, with designs on cylinder and base, was adopted. Two extraordinary Aegean examples come from Archanes. One shows the integration of the Near Eastern seal form with an Aegean motif executed in Minoan style to achieve spatial depth (Pl. XXXIIb). On the other we see the conversion of the loop-handled cylinder into a multiplicity of stamp seal faces (Pl. XXXIIc). In certain regions particularly in south central Crete we have a conf luence not only of imported scarabs but of Cretan scarab and scaraboid seals made of a soft white material and bearing Egyptianizing imagery.34 Animal-shaped seals from the burials of the Mesara such as the series of baboons (as well as frogs, f lies, and lions) allude to the zoomorphic seals of the Nile Valley and the Levant (see Pl. XXXIId from Crete and Byblos). Seals themselves may have been transmitters of foreign imagery. A well known loophandled cylindrical stamp seal, reported to come from Amorgos, resembles Syrian seals with dot-circle designs, as well as Anatolian metalwork and pottery impressions from Tarsus, Palestine and the Greek mainland with circle and chevron patterns.35 While its find context is uncertain, this seal is made of Cycladic island green stone (Pl. XXXIIe) and, as first noted by Frankfort, the tangent lines that connect the circles create a quasi-spiraliform pattern.36 An Egyptian scarab from Platanos (see Pl. XXXId) bears an engraving of the goddess Taweret, who was transformed into the Minoan Genius. This is one of the numerous foreign fantastic creatures that enriched the corpus of Aegean images. Others include the griffin,

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31 32 33 See J. ARUZ, Siegel als Zeugnis des kulturellen Austausches, in Mit Sieben Siegel versehen. Das Siegel in Wirtschaft und Kunst des Alten Orients (1997) 139. See ARUZ (supra n. 31) 141-42. K. BRANIGAN, Early Aegean Metal Seals and Signets, SMEA 17 (1976) 157-66; D. PULLEN, A Lead Seal from Tsoungiza, Ancient Nemea, and Early Bronze Age Sealing Systems, AJA 98 (1994) 36 ff. (the only other early lead seal presently known in the Aegean is from Naxos); for metal analyses of Thermi material but not including the copper alloy seal, see Z. STOS-GALE, The Origin of Metal Objects from the Early Bronze Age site of Thermi on the Island of Lesbos, OJA 11 (1992) 155-75; F. BEGEMANN, E. PERNICKA, and S. SCHMITT-STRECKER, Thermi on Lesbos: A Case Study of Changing Trade Patterns, OJA 14 (1995) 123-35, with comments by N. GALE in OJA 15 (1996) 113-20. I. PINI, Ein Beitrag zur Chronologischen Ordnung der Frhkretischen Siegel, Pepragmena tou D Diethnous Kretologikou Proedriou A:2 (1981) 421-33; Idem, Zehn frhkretische Skaraben, Pact (1988) 23-II.1 99 ff. For references to this piece, see J. ARUZ, The Aegean Pottery Impression from Troy II B, Kadmos 25 (1986) 166 n. 7. H. FRANKFORT, Cylinder Seals (1939) 301, pl. XLVI v.

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which derived from early second millennium Syria or Syrian-style representations in Anatolia as seen on an incised plaque in the Metropolitan Museum (Pl. XXXIIf). This is one of the Pratt ivories associated with the site of Acemhyk.37 In scenes of males and females approaching a seated goddess, on the gold rings produced in the Aegean world, we may have a distant ref lection of the Near Eastern presentation scene. On rings from Mycenae and Tiryns (Pl. XXXIIg-h), cosmic symbols may further allude to the Near Eastern scene, in which a sun disk in a moon crescent generally appears. The Tiryns ring shows a procession of Minoan genii carrying ewers to a seated goddess their function as libation bearers controversially attributed by Machteld Mellink to Anatolian inf luence.38 Seal imagery may represent layers of interaction that, at least by the late Middle Minoan period, f lowed in both directions across the Mediterranean. On a well-known scene of procession to a seated deity on a Syrian-style hematite cylinder seal (Pl. XXXIIIa) we see two broad-shouldered young warriors with Minoan-looking long hair, wasp-waists, and garments. They approach an enthroned and armed deity whose feet rest on a lion and behind whom is a rampant griffin. I have elsewhere compared this scene with a painting from Thera and with images on Minoan seals,39 while the style of the bodies and hair recalls Egyptian representations of the men of Keftiu. The youths also resemble figures of hunters, warriors and athletic performers on Syrian seals, in which a looser, possibly Aegean-inspired style contrasts with the static imposing figures of deities and royalty that usually dominate the field on Syrian seals of the time.40 The fuller integration of Aegean and oriental features into new intercultural styles, however, comes later during the 14th century BC. Images on seals such as an agate lentoid (Pl. XXXIIIb), suggest that many new stylistic and iconographic elements appearing on Cypro-Aegean seals were created by Late Minoan artists.41 This seal, placed by John Younger in his Rhodian Hunt group, may provide key evidence for the transmission of Minoan motifs to Cyprus through Rhodes perhaps in the wake of the fall of Knossos, when Cretan artists may have sought work abroad and Cyprus enjoyed growing contacts with the eastern Mediterranean world. A hematite cylinder seal (Pl. XXXIIIc) in the Yale Babylonian collection was allegedly found near Ugarit. The compositional schemes are oriental and the postures of the animals are dramatic but less dynamic and vital than in Aegean scenes one only has to look at the suckling lioness aloof from her cub.42 The craftsman, however, exhibits a sensitivity to the Minoan treatment of organic form; the closest stylistic parallels for the elegant animals with dramatic body curves are in the Rhodian Hunt Group. For another comparison of Aegean and intercultural style glyptic, one can juxtapose two seals from Thebes with related themes, one (Pl. XXXIIId) a native work in agate and the other (Pl. XXXIIIe) an intercultural style seal by the Yale master who probably worked on Cyprus. One wonders if the former was inspired by the latter and generally about the impetus to create seals of intercultural style.43

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37 See also J. ARUZ, Crete and Anatolia in the Middle Bronze Age: Sealings from Phaistos and Karahyk, in M.J. MELLINK, E. PORADA, and T. ZG (eds.), Aspects of Art and Iconography: Anatolia and its Neighbors. Studies in Honor of Nimet zg (1993) 38-39. M. MELLINK, Anatolian Libation Pourers and the Minoan Genius, in A.E. FARKAS, P.O. HARPER, and E.B. HARRISON, Monsters and Demons in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds (1987) 68-71; for an alternate view, see J. WEINGARTEN, The Transformation of Egyptian Taweret into the Minoan Genius: A Study in Cultural Transmission in the Middle Bronze Age (1991) 9 n. 36. ARUZ (supra n. 26) 14-15; Eadem, Imagery and Interconnections, in Hyksos Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean World, 41-42. ARUZ (supra n. 39) 36-39. J. ARUZ, Cypriot and Cypro-Aegean Seals, in A. CAUBET (ed.), De Chypre la Bactriane. Les sceaux du Proche-Orient ancien (1997) 271-88. ARUZ (supra n. 41). See discussion in ARUZ (supra n. 41).

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The problematic relationship between art, cultural identity, and ethnicity and the roles of craftsman, patron and program or message are relevant to the subject and have been explored in the work of Margaret Cool Root in connection with so-called Graeco-Persian intercultural styles that developed nearly one thousand years later.44 One impression of a seal used by an inf luential man in the court of Darius the Great has been used to demonstrate links to older Iranian traditions, but the scene seems also to exhibit features that we would associate with images on Aegean seals and the Greek gems that they inspired.45 Sealing Practices Turning to the subject of the foreign inf luences on Aegean sealing practices, one notes that the few impressions of foreign seals in the Aegean most likely represent imported cylinders used on Crete. In the case of a sealing from Ayia Triada, a cylinder probably from Anatolia was stamped not rolled on the reverse of a sealing with a Minoan impression.46 On the other hand, the Cycladic-type impression on the neck of a jar from Troy IIb judged by Blegen to be of Aegean fabric probably indicates trade, perhaps the export of an Aegean commodity in a specially marked container to the Troad.47 This is one of many pots stamped or rolled with seals directly on their rims, handles and bodies, and sometimes also incised with numerical-type marks representing shared practices in the Aegean and the Orient. Much work has focused on similar Aegean, Egyptian, and Near Eastern clay locking devices for doors and various types of containers indicating that sealing as an administrative tool was introduced to the Aegean in the Early Bronze Age, and continued to develop in succeeding phases.48 Our knowledge of these types is greatly enhanced by the Egyptian evidence, where sealed doors, wood boxes with pegs and knobs, papyrus documents, and pottery jars survive intact.49 One can also point to shared sealing processes, such as co- or counter-sealing50 (Pl. XXXIIIf, an example from Lerna), and the possible use of seal imagery to convey information. Patterns of repeated elements on some Near Eastern sealings have been interpreted as meaningful marks.51 Repeated motifs with varied elements some signlike as in Pl. XXXIIIf are also characteristic of sealings from Phaistos and central Anatolia.52 Both in the Aegean and Anatolia there are impressions of seals (some of petaloid form) with signlike elements surrounded by spiraliform motifs (Pl. XXXIIIg) recalling inscribed stamp seals used later, during the Hittite Empire period. As both distinctive seal shapes and

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44 M.C. ROOT, Circles of Artistic Programming: Strategies for Studying Creative Process at Persepolis, in A. GUNTER (ed.), Investigating Artistic Environments (1990) 115-39; see also C. NYLANDER, Ionians in Pasargardae. Studies in Old Persian Architecture (1970) 16 ff. ROOT (supra n. 44) 115, 130; Eadem, From the Heart: Powerful Persianisms in the Art of the Western Empire, Achaemenid History VI (1991) 19-22; see also ARUZ (supra n. 31). ARUZ (supra n. 26) 11, fig. 8a. See ARUZ (supra n. 35) 164-67. See J. ARUZ, Seal Imagery and Sealing Practices in the Early Aegean World, in P. FERIOLI et al. (eds.), Archives before Writing (1994) 211 ff.; J. WEINGARTEN, Three Upheavals in Minoan Sealing Administration: Evidence for Radical Change, in T.G. PALAIMA (ed.), Aegean Seals, Sealings and Administration. Aegaeum 5 (1990) 105 ff. W. BOOCHS, Siegel und Siegeln im Alten Aegyptens. Kolner Forschungen zu Kunst und Altertum 4 (1982); see also J. ARUZ, The Sealings of the Middle Bronze Age: A Preliminary Look at Lisht in Egypt, (in press). For Multiple Sealing systems, see J. WEINGARTEN, The Sealing Structure of Karahyk and Some Administrative Links with Phaistos on Crete, Oriens Antiquus 29 (1990) 18; Eadem, The Multiple Sealing System of Minoan Crete and its possible antecedents in Anatolia, OJA 11 (1992) 25-37. F. HOLE, Symbols of Religion and Social Organization at Susa, in T.C. YOUNG, P.E.L. SMITH and P. MORTENSEN (eds.), The Hilly Flanks and Beyond: Essays on the prehistory of southwestern Asia presented to Robert J. Braidwood (1983) 318 ff.; H. PITTMAN, The Glazed Steatite Style: The Structure and Function of an Image System, Ph.D. Dissertation, Columbia University (1990) 392-402. ARUZ (supra n. 48) 222 ff.; Eadem (supra n. 37) 41 ff.

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49 50

51

52

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designs were used to indicate governmental, official and personal seals (for instance, the shield-shaped stamps of government departments in Egypt),53 one should also look for similar differentiations within the Aegean corpus. To conclude any understanding of seals and interconnections must first rest on a corpus of carefully defined Aegean and oriental seal styles that allows for the correct identification of imports and inf luences. The challenge of grasping the complexities and significance of the interaction that they ref lect must firmly rest on the foundations of such an analysis. Joan ARUZ

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53 See S. SMITH, Administration at the Egyptian Middle Kingdom Frontier: Sealings from Uronarti and Askut, in T.G. PALAIMA (ed.), Aegean Seals, Sealings and Administration. Aegaeum 5 (1990) 199 ff.

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Pl. XXXIa Pl. XXXIb Pl. XXXIc Pl. XXXId Pl. XXXIe-f Pl. XXXIg

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Pl. XXXIh Pl. XXXIIa Pl. XXXIIb Pl. XXXIIc Pl. XXXIId Pl. XXXIIe Pl. XXXIIf Pl. XXXIIg Pl. XXXIIh Pl. XXXIIIa Pl. XXXIIIb Pl. XXXIIIc Pl. XXXIIId Pl. XXXIIIe Pl. XXXIIIf Pl. XXXIIIg

Wall painting (drawing) from Tell el-Dabca: M. BIETAK, Avaris. The Capital of the Hyksos. Recent Excavations at Tell el-Dabca (1996) pl. v. Pithos sherd from Euboea with seal impression: CMS V1 no. 202. Stalk-handled seal from Alishar Hyk: H. VON DER OSTEN, The Alishar Hyk Seasons of 19301932. OIP XXXIX, Volume II (1937) 417 fig. 478 c1824. Foreign seals (modern impressions) from Platanos Tholos B: CMS II1 nos. 267, 283, 306, 332. Lapis lazuli cylinder seal and modern impression from Knossos: CMS II2 no. 29. Ridge-handled stamp seals from Epidauros (and modern impression), Lerna, and Ras Shamra (drawing); cylinder seal (modern impression) from Telloh with eagle motif: CMS VIA no. 366; CMS V no. 35; H. DE CONTENSON, Le niveau Halafien de Ras Shamra. Rapport prliminaire sur les campagnes 1968-1972 dans le sondage prhistorique, Syria 50 (1973) 28, fig. 12; A. PARROT, Glyptique msopotamienne (1954) pl. 1, 8-10. Gable seals from Crete (and drawing) and Kltepe: CMS II2 no. 215; N. ZG, Seals and Seal Impressions of Level IB from Karum Kanish (1968) pl. 34:3. Metal conoids from Tsoungiza (and modern impression) and Thermi (drawing): CMS V 1B no. 128; BRANIGAN (supra n. 33) 158, fig. 1. Ivory stamp-cylinder seal from Archanes: J. SAKELLARAKIS, Praktika (1976) fig. 218. Ivory stamp-cylinder seal variation from Archanes: CMS II1 no. 391. Zoomorphic seals from Crete and Byblos (drawing): J. BOARDMAN, Greek Gems and Finger Rings (1970) pl. 4; O. TUFNELL and W. WARD, Relations between Byblos and Mesopotamia at the end of the Third Millennium B.C., SYRIA 43 (1966) fig. 104. Green stone stamp cylinder seal and modern impression from Amorgos: O. HCKMANN, Appendix 3: Grave D at Kapros on Amorgos, in THIMME (ed.), Art and Culture of the Cyclades (1977) pl. 453. Incised ivory plaque: Metropolitan Museum, Gift of Mrs. George D. Pratt, in memory of George D. Pratt, 1936, 36.152.7: photo courtesy of Metropolitan Museum. Gold ring (modern impression) from Mycenae: CMS I no. 17. Gold ring (modern impression) from Tiryns: CMS I no. 179. Syrian cylinder seal (modern impression) in the Vienna Museum: ARUZ (supra n. 26) fig. 11 (Aruz photo). Aegean agate lentoid (modern impression): CMS IX no. 20D. Cypro-Aegean cylinder seal (modern impression) in Yale Babylonian Collection: ARUZ (supra n. 42). Aegean agate cylinder seal and modern impression from Thebes: CMS V no. 675. Cypro-Aegean cylinder seal (modern impression) from Thebes: PORADA (supra n. 16) 21 no. 6. Lerna sealing: photo courtesy of Ingo Pini (CMS V no. 109). Minoan stamp seal (modern impression) and Karahyk sealing (drawing): CMS X no. 53; S. ALP, Zylinder und Stempelsiegel aus Karahyk bei Konya (1968) 179 fig. 79.

310 Discussion following J. Aruzs paper:

Joan ARUZ

J.L. Crowley: I very much enjoyed your talk. Thank you, Joan. Id just like to go to the griffin for the moment. So you happily locate its origin somewhere in Mitanni or Anatolia? J. Aruz: In the early second millennium, I would say Syria. But in this period of time in central Anatolia, we have Syrian traders who used Syrian-style seals on tablets. We thus have many images of Syrian-style griffins in Anatolia, as well as in Syria, so one cannot be certain of the direct route by which this motif traveled to the Aegean. Such is the case with the Acemhyk ivory; that incised griffin image comes from central Anatolia, although it is in Syrian style. A.B. Knapp: You raised an issue, or at least mentioned the work of Margaret Cool Root, of the relationship between culture and ethnicity. I wonder if you would just elaborate a little bit on either what she thinks the relationship between ethnicity is or, better, what you think ethnicity is. J. Aruz: Well, this was one of the subjects for future research. (Laughter). However, she has written and perhaps you know her work as well a number of articles on the problem of the overlyHellenocentric view of Persian art. In attempting to redress the balance, she has tried to distinguish what is essentially Persian and what is Greek. Its a very difficult proposition when one has regions in between, such as Anatolia, and western Persian styles, and eastern Aegean styles, and so on to contend with. There is one case that is often brought up in the discussion of the Persian period, and that is the tomb of Petosiris in Egypt, in which Achaemenid-type rhyta are represented as being produced by Egyptian craftsmen. This has been used to prove that ancient craftsmen could make anything. Possibly at that period of time, and maybe earlier, it was true. However, we do not know what those rhyta actually looked like. We do not know whether, if one actually saw the original manufactured product, something in the style would tell us that this was made by a foreigner an Egyptian using a Persian shape. So I think its a complicated issue. A.B. Knapp: Could I just then ask, so, in other words, what we define as Minoan or Canaanite may not really be Minoan or Canaanite. Would you agree with that statement? J. Aruz: No. A.B. Knapp: Oh, you wouldnt? Well, then, can you please answer my question and give me your definition of ethnicity? J. Aruz: I cannot go into definitions of ethnicity here, but in my work I try to define as clearly as I can the stylistic traits that may be associated with ethnic or rather cultural or regional groups. What I recognize as being Minoan is an object made in Minoan style. In the attempt to determine such stylistic traits, I have been inspired by the work of Carl Nylander, again working in the first millennium. In his analysis of Achaemenid sculpture, he talks about a general underlying structure in the style of a work of a specific cultural area an underlying structure that may identify the tradition in which the craftsman worked. On some Syrian seals that I have studied, one may have more than one stylistic variation on a single seal where there is a combination of imagery familiar from Mesopotamian art with a looser style and compositional scheme that seems to have Mediterranean f lavor. However, on such works (generally dating around the 18th17th centuries BC), the underlying stylistic structure or approach is still Syrian and therefore such seals can be attributed to Syrian workmanship. When one comes to the Intercultural Style of the 14th century BC, I really think that in this case we have craftsmen who are working in (combining) more than one tradition. Such subtleties that perhaps can give us clues regarding questions such as cultural identity or ethnicity can only be gleaned, however, from a careful analysis of the work of art a point that I would like to stress.