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A Hittite Seal of the British Museum
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2013
Extract
The object which we offer here, kindly entrusted to us by the British Museum for publication, is a typical and very interesting product of Hittite glyptic.
We are dealing with a stamp seal of haematite with a circular base and concave lateral surface. The handle, which is faceted, is broken in its upper part, hence there remains no trace of the “grip” which was evidently, when compared with other similar specimens, of a “hammer” or “knob” shape. The surface of the base, which is engraved, is not intact but is damaged at several points around the border. The height of the part preserved, in its highest section, is 28·5 mm., and the diameter is 29 mm.
The carved surface, as we see it, consists of two concentric areas: a central field, enclosed by a line and containing three hieroglyphic signs or characters, two of which are the same, surrounded by a border with figures in which it is possible to distinguish two groups or scenes. In the first group (a) a lion with wide open mouth and a bull with lowered head are facing each other as though about to fight, on either side of a tree with branches adorned with a tripartite motif; a similar ornament is repeated in the field above the back of the bull, alongside a v-shaped motif; another tripartite element is to be found in the empty space above the lion. The tails of the animals are characteristic: the bull has a lowered tail, its tip tripartite (to render the tuft of hair); that of the lion is turned upwards and is curved, as is often the case in Hittite scenes.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1974
References
1 It is preserved in the Department of Western Asiatic Antiquities, no. 134844.
2 Beran, T., Die hethitische Glyptik von Boǧazköy, I. Teil (WVDOG 76). Berlin, 1967Google Scholar.
3 Güterbock, H. G., Siegel aus Boǧazköy, I–II (AfO, Beihefte 5, 7). Berlin, 1940–1942Google Scholar.
4 Louvre AM 411, published by Delaporte, L., Catalogue des cylindres, cachets et pierres gravées de style oriental du musée du Louvre, II (Paris, 1923), A.1049, p. 203, pl. 102Google Scholar.
5 Malatya S 17, published by Meriggi, P., SMEA IX (1969), 25 ff.Google Scholar, fig. 1.
6 Tarsus 36.636, published by Gelb, I. J. in Goldman, H., Excavations at Gözlü Kule, Tarsus, II (Princeton, 1956), no. 10, p. 248, pl. 401, 405Google Scholar.
7 Güterbock denies the existence of a narrative continuity in these scenes; cf. Güterbock, H. G., “Narration in Anatolian, Syrian and Assyrian art”, AJA LXI (1957), 62–71CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
8 Koşay, H. Z., Belleten XXIX (1965), 1–2, fig. 56Google Scholar.
9 Published by Alp, S., Athenaeum n.s. XLVII (1969), p. 1Google Scholar, pl. II, fig. 2.
10 B.M. 17804, published by Hogarth, D. G., Hittite Seals (Oxford, 1920), 75, fig. 78Google Scholar.
11 WAG 42352, published by Gordon, C. H., Iraq VI (1939), 24, pl. VIII, no. 70Google Scholar.
12 Published by von der Osten, H. H., OIP XXII (1936), no. 392, p. 59, pl. XXVIGoogle Scholar.
13 T. Beran, op. cit. (n. 2), group XII, pp. 61 ff.
14 T. Beran, loc. cit.
15 Now in the possession of Mr. Davidson, Fresno, California; cf. Gelb, I. J., Anadolu Araştırmaları II (1965), no. 11, p. 226, pl. XXIXGoogle Scholar.
16 Alalakh AT/8/136 (B.M. 126186); cf. Woolley, C. L., Alalakh (Oxford, 1955), no. 153, p. 266, pl. LXVIIGoogle Scholar.
17 Cf. Laroche, E., Les hiéroglyphes hittites I (Paris, 1960), 83–5Google Scholar, nos. 152–156.
18 Schaeffer, C. F. A., Ugaritica III (Paris, 1956), 33, figs. 48, 49Google Scholar.
19 Alacahöyük e-113; cf. Koşay, H. Z., Belleten V (1941), 16, pl. XIGoogle Scholar.
20 Ward, H., Seal Cylinders of Western Asia (Washington, 1910), no. 804-e, p. 269Google Scholar.
21 C. F. A. Schaeffer, op. cit., 23, figs. 32, 33; 29, figs. 36, 37.
22 von der Osten, H. H., OIP XXII (1934), no. 373, p. 57, pl. XXVGoogle Scholar.
23 Kennedy, D. A., RHA XVII/65 (1959), no. 24 (B)Google Scholar.
24 Tarsus 36.652, published by I. J. Gelb, op. cit. (n. 6), no. 11, p. 248, pl. 401, 405.
25 Hogarth, D.G., JEA VIII (1922), p. 214Google Scholar, no. 14, pl. XXIV, no. 17, and Kennedy, D.A., RHA XVI/63 (1958), 76, no. 31Google Scholar.
26 The seal RŠ 17.314, for example, is a seal of Arma-ziti and as such can be dated to the period of Hattusili III (1280–1250 B.C.). Also of the imperial period are the seals RŠ 17.59 and 17.226. The Ward seal, on the contrary, certainly belongs to the Old Hittite period, on account of its typically archaic external form.
27 It should be noted, however, that the cases where it is represented in schematic form or isolated in the field seem to be more frequent on Syrian products or, more broadly, in the Eastern Anatolian region.
28 Louvre AO 8209, AM 423, AM 422, published by Delaporte, op. cit. (n. 4), nos. A.1030. A.1029, A.1028, p. 201, pl. 101.
29 Delaporte sees two lions appearing in the group on the Louvre seal!
30 Owing to the obvious presence of Hittite elements in the scene they cannot be of an earlier period, in which the elements of the Syrian and Mesopotamian repertory predominate; on the other hand the external form precludes a later date.
31 On account of the presence of Syrian elements like the winged sun with rectilinear wings.