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Cylinder Seals from Tell al Rimah

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Barbara Parker
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Extract

This is a catalogue of the cylinder seals and jar sealings from the excavations at Tell al Rimah during the years 1964–1971. Theresa Carter is publishing a complete catalogue of the small finds, in which the few early stamp seals will be included. The seal impressions on the Middle Assyrian business economic archive published by H. W. F. Saggs and D. J. Wiseman in Iraq 30 (1968) will be published later in one group, as there are too many for this article.

The majority of the cylinder seals in the catalogue are representative of the main historical levels which were excavated; these are: (1) Old Babylonian from about the time of Šamši-Adad, Phase 3 in the Temple (Area A) and Level 6 in the Palace mound (Area C); (2) Mitannian, Phase 2 in the Temple, and Level 5 in the Palace mound, (house levels overlying the O.B. Palace); (3) Middle Assyrian, Phase 1 in the Temple and Levels 2–4 in the house levels of the Palace mound. There is a meagre Late Assyrian occupation on the Temple mound, on the Palace mound below, and Area D, but the only considerable structure was the shrine built on to the north side of the Ziggurat, from which most of the Late Assyrian seals came. The only seals from Area D came from a tomb of the Mitannian period.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 37 , Issue 1 , Spring 1975 , pp. 21 - 38
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1975

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References

1 The inscribed Old Babylonian sealings are published by J. D. Hawkins in S. M. Dalley, J. D. Hawkins and C. B. F. Walker, Old Babylonian Texts from Tell al Rimah (forthcoming).

2 See the summary by Oates, D., Iraq 29 (1967), 71CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 For the palace see Oates, D., Iraq 34 (1972), 78 ffGoogle Scholar.

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11 This information has been given by Mr. Henry Hodges of the Laboratory of the Institute of Archaeology, who examined the faience seals in the Rimah collection.

12 Porada, E., Tchoga Zanbil IV (Memoires de la Délégation archaéologique en Iran XLII, 1970), 5 ffGoogle Scholar. (hereafter abbreviated Porada, , Tchoga Zanbil IV)Google Scholar.

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23 In the Assyrian royal ritual, the sukkallu rabû and sukkallu šanû lay down their staffs (GIŠ.PA.MEŠ = haṭṭāti) before the king, MVAG 41/3 (1937), 15, 8–9Google Scholar, (CAD, Ḫ, 155). The staff here depicted is exactly like that held by Ur-ša6-ga, the sukkallu of Ibbi-Suen, on his seal impression (Legrain, L., Ur Excavations, X, no. 438)Google Scholar.

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36 R. Boehmer, op. cit., Abb. 392.

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39 Sollberger, E., Iraq 36 (1974), 238CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The sceptre cannot be seen but the ring is being grasped.

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41 Thureau-Dangin, F., Rit. Ace, 144Google Scholar. See also CAD, s.v. kippatu 398, c., where it is translated loop-shaped symbol, but the ring depicted in the hands of the god on the Bavian relief must be made of metal or ivory, although for the latter material it would be rather too big. Meissner, B., Babylonien und Assyrien II (Heidelberg, 1925), Tf.-Abb. 14Google Scholar.

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47 Ibid., Plate V, 14; Plate VI, 17.

48 Ibid., Plate XVII, 50.

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51 Ibid., 32.

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54 E.g. V R, 352; and L. Delaporte, op. cit., II, A. 304.

55 I am indebted to Olga Tufnell for this information.

56 H. Frankfort, Cylinder Seals, Plate XXVIII, m; XXIX, m.

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65 An Ur workshop text, UET III, no. 1612, is a receipt for ha-um cloth for the front of the throne and 4 royal ha-um cloths for the whole of the throne; probably shaggy cloth, ibid., 365.

66 Porada, E., AASOR 24 (1944–1945), Plate XXVIII, no. 554, p. 39Google Scholar.

67 H. Frankfort, Cylinder Seals, Plate XL m (BM 89518) and n (De Clercq, 284).

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70 Ibid., 101; and Özgüç, N., Anatolian Group of Cylinder Seal Impressions from Kültepe, 66Google Scholar.

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72 Ibid., Plate X, 163, 164.

73 AASOR 24 (1944–1945), Plate XXIII, 459Google Scholar.

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75 Ibid., Plate V, 71.

76 Oates, D., Iraq 29 (1967), 86CrossRefGoogle Scholar, Plate XXXVII.

77 AASOR 24 (1944–1945), Plate II, 27Google Scholar.

78 Ibid., Plate V, 79.

79 AASOR 24 (1944–1945), Plate XIII, 220 and 221, p. 23Google Scholar.

80 Ibid., Plate XLII; Porada, Corpus, no. 1061.

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85 Ibid., no. 566.

86 Ibid., no. 710.

87 Porada, , Tchoga Zanbil IV, 36, nos. 27 and 37Google Scholar.

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