Cylinder seal

According to some sources, cylinder seals were invented around 3500 BC in the Near East, at the contemporary sites of Uruk in southern Mesopotamia and slightly later at Susa in south-western Iran during the Proto-Elamite period, and they follow the development of stamp seals in the Halaf culture or slightly earlier.

[5][6] Other sources, however, date the earliest cylinder seals to a much earlier time, to the Late Neolithic period (7600-6000 BC) in Syria, hundreds of years before the invention of writing.

They survive in fairly large numbers and are important as art, especially in the Babylonian and earlier Assyrian periods.

Many varieties of material such as hematite, obsidian, steatite, amethyst, lapis lazuli and carnelian were used to make cylinder seals.

[9] Most seals have a hole running through the centre of the body, and they are thought to have typically been worn on a necklace to be always available when needed.

Cylinder-seal of the Uruk period and its impression, c.3100 BC. Louvre Museum .
Cylinder seal of First Dynasty of Ur Queen Puabi , found in her tomb, dated circa 2600 BC, with modern impression. Inscription: 𒅤𒀜 𒎏 - Pu 3 -abi (AD) Nin - Queen Pu-abi . [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ]
Old Babylonian cylinder seal, c.1800 BC, hematite . Linescan camera image (reversed to resemble an impression).
Size comparison of seals, with their impression strips
(modern/current impressions)
This cylinder seal from Cyprus shows two nude female figures. Each holds a flower, a symbol of fertility. [ 13 ] The Walters Art Museum .
This Neo-Assyrian cylinder seal shows a ritual with winged protective deities. Walters Art Museum .
A roll-out of the San Andres ceramic cylinder seal containing what has been proposed as evidence of the earliest writing system in Mesoamerica . This cylinder seal is dated to approximately 650 BC and is unrelated to the Mesopotamian cylinder seals.
Assyria. Seals showing method of mounting; Brooklyn Museum Brooklyn Museum Archives, Goodyear Archival Collection