Stamp seal impressions in Mesopotamia during the Macedonian-Seleucid occupation period
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31973/c7sy0123Keywords:
Prints, Stamp seals , Mesopotamia , SeleucidAbstract
Seal impressions have legal, economic, administrative, religious, political and security importance, in addition to historical, geographical and artistic importance, as is the importance of the seals themselves, and perhaps more so. Many different impressions have been found, while the seal itself has not been found. However, what distinguishes seal impressions is their presence on clay tablets or goods that belong to the owners of the seals themselves, which clarifies the activities of the owners of those seals, and sometimes their names, professions, cities and the people with whom they deal.
Many Stamp seal impressions dating back to the Macedonian-Seleucid period have been found in various sites in Mesopotamia. The seal impressions of the Macedonian period were limited to a group of clay tablets that dated to that period, while the seal impressions of the Seleucid period varied between clay tablets and clay blocks (bullas). The term bulla (plural bullae) is an English name given to spherical clay pieces or blocks because their shape resembles a ball or balls and they are perforated lengthwise for the purpose of hanging. Some of them represent delivery and receipt receipts, some of them include the names of people as identification cards and others are sealed with which important messages were sealed. This name also became common in Arabic sources. The term bullae was also interpreted as "double documents".
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