Introduction

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The act of sealing

The purpose of a seal was to guarantee the authenticity of the object to which the seal was applied, such as a container or a door.

There was no aesthetic aim to show at its best the image of which the negative was engraved on the seal.

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Cylinder seals

We only deal, here, with cylinder seals

more difficult to perceive the image

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Seals, sealings, rollings/impressions

The term “sealing” refers to the material on which the seal was rolled, typically a lump of clay which was applied to the object the authenticity of which was meant be guaranteed by the seal which was impressed on the sealing.

The seal contains the negative of the image. We may well assume that the seal was the primary focus of attention for the ancients. The image was generally rather distorted. There is often more than rolling of the same seal on a single sealing, because the purpose of the act of sealing was

For us, it is the positive rendering, i. e. the rolling of the seal, that is the primary focus of perception.

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The image

Since there was no aesthetic aim when rolling a seal in ancient times, one wonders

Whether we have an ancient impression on a seal, or an ancient seal of which we have made a modern impression, the notion of “image” refers exclusively to the seal rolling as being the intended visual rendering.

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Composition and theme

We need to distinguish between

• the formal aspect of a sealing, which is here subsumed under the notion of composition, and
• the representational aspect, which is here subsumed under the notion of theme.
  
  

We may say that

• “composition” falls within the realm of iconography, while
• “theme” falls within the realm of iconology, as discussed in a separate page.