Seal Portal

Online resources for the study of Mesopotamian stamp and cylinder seals, often with incised legends naming the owner, his profession or educational standing, his patronymic and, looking up in the Mesopotamian hierarchy, his administrative affiliations, are difficult to come by, even though this unassuming administrative tool has played a very substantial role in the development of writing, and in the smooth functioning of an advanced ancient society. The Seals Portal presents a pathway to the growing documentation of seals in the CDLI, including text annotations, various generations of images, as well as although admittedly limited image annotation files.

The CDLI catalogue currently [6/30/2022] contains entries documenting 56,969 Mesopotamian seals and sealings: 42,070 represent clay tablets, tags or other sealings, most of whose seal impressions included owner legends, and just 8,707 are physical seals; 6,648 CDLI entries represent composites derived from seal impressions, and therefore the negatives of original cylinder seals now lost.

All CDLI Seals

View all seals in the CDLI, both seal impressions, composite seals and physical seals.

Composite Seals

Composites Seals are derived from seal impressions, and therefore the negatives of original cylinder seals now lost.

Physical Seals

View all Physical Seals, both stamp and cylinder shaped, in the CDLI.

Sealings

View all impressions of seals in the CDLI. Whenever possible seal impressions, or sealings, have been linked to a composite seal entry as well.

Well Attested Seals

Highlight Seal of Ayakala, governor of Umma.jpg

Seal of Ayakala, governor of Umma

Seal of Ayakala, governor of Umma during the Third Dynasty of Ur (ca 2100-2000 BC) attested impressed on ca 1180 tablets.

Highlight Seal of Ur-mes, fattener.jpg

Seal of Ur-mes, fattener

Seal of Ur-Mes, fattener, attested impressed on ca. 310 tablets from Puzriš-Dagan during the Ur III period (ca 2100-2000 BC).

Highlight  Seals of Ur-Nungal.jpg

Seals of Ur-Nungal

Two versions of the seal of Ur-Nungal, an accountant for the crown stationed at Umma. Ca. 262 tablets were impressed with the two versions, possibly re-carvings of this seal.

Highlight Seals of Bukušum.jpg

Seals of Bukušum

The seal of Bukušum is known in two versions from ca 35 impressions on Early Old Babylonian (ca. 2000-1900 BC) tablets from Isin.

Highlight Early Dynastic “City Seal”.jpg

Early Dynastic “City Seal”

Early Dynastic “City Seal” found impressed on ca 27 ancient clay objects from Ur dating to the Early Dynastic I-II Period (ca. 2900-2700 BC).

Highlight Seal of Illuratum.jpg

Seal of Illuratum

Seal of Illuratum, the daughter of Abi-maraṣ, and servant of the god Išhara. Illuratum’s seal is attested on ca 50 tablets from Sippar-Yahrurum during the Old Babylonian period (ca. 1900-1600 BC).

Highlight Seal of Nabi-ilīšu.jpg

Seal of Nabi-ilīšu

Seal of Nabi-ilīšu, archivist of Rim-Anum, an Old Babylonian (ca. 2000-1900 BC) king of Uruk, attested on ca. 35 tablets.

Seals and impressed artifacts by period

Period Seals Impressed artifacts
Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC) 1556
ED IIIa (ca. 2600-2500 BC) 387
Neo-Assyrian (ca. 911-612 BC) 1279
Achaemenid (547-331 BC) 258
Hellenistic (323-63 BC) 12
Parthian (247 BC - 224 AD) 10
Neo-Babylonian (ca. 626-539 BC) 343
Sassanian (224-641 AD) 15
Early Old Babylonian (ca. 2000-1900 BC) 669
Middle Babylonian (ca. 1400-1100 BC) 387

Page 1 of 3, showing 10 record(s) out of 30 total

Page 1 of 3, showing 10 record(s) out of 30 total

Resources

COCO converter

Employ the COCO converter to convert annotations from COCO format to W3C.JSON format.

Cite this Artifact
CDLI contributors. 2024. “Seal Portal.” Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. March 19, 2024. https://cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts/seals.
CDLI contributors. (2024, March 19). Seal Portal. Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. https://cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts/seals
CDLI contributors (2024) Seal Portal, Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. Available at: https://cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts/seals (Accessed: March 19, 2024).
@misc{CDLI2024Seal,
	note = {[Online; accessed 2024-03-19]},
	author = {{CDLI contributors}},
	year = {2024},
	month = {mar 19},
	title = {Seal {Portal}},
	howpublished = {https://cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts/seals},
}

TY  - ELEC
AU  - CDLI contributors
DA  - 2024/3/19/
PY  - 2024
ID  - temp_id_911625935195
M1  - 2024/3/19/
TI  - Seal Portal
UR  - https://cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts/seals
ER  - 
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