City Seals
Cylinder Seals A distinctive collection of stone cylinder seals has so far been recovered from the site. These seals bear designs made by simple use of the drill and cutting wheel to engrave circles and lines onto the surface of the cylinders. The designs include stylized scenes of squatting figures, animals and basic geometric compositions.
The city seal impression, made by a large cylinder seal on the surface of 13 proto-cuneiform clay tablets at Jemdet Nasr. The scene is in two registers, only the upper of which is at all intelligible. Names of ancient Mesopotamian cities are represented by groups of symbols.
Matthews, Roger J. “Jemdet Nasr: The Site and the Period.” 1992 : 200. Print.
Matthews, Roger J. “Jemdet Nasr: The Site and the Period.” 1992 : 199–200. Print.
When these cylinder seals were first discovered at Jemdet Nasr in the 1920's, it was believed that they typified the glyptic of the Jemdet Nasr period. Their subsequent discovery across a wide range of the ancient Near East was interpreted as evidence of a widespread expansion of Jemdet Nasr material culture. Subsequently, however, these so-called Jemdet Nasr seals were found at sites that from other evidence, principally pottery, were securely dated to the preceding Late Uruk period. These sites include Habuba Kabira in Syria (Strommenger 1980), Godin Tepe in Iran (Young 1986) and Nippur in southern Mesopotamia (Wilson 1986). It is clear, therefore, that the stylized drilled seals belong primarily, if not exclusively, to the Late Uruk period.
Matthews, Roger J. “Jemdet Nasr: The Site and the Period.” 1992 : 200. Print.
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