Seals and Status: Power of Objects

Abstract

• For 7,000 years, seals have functioned as signs of authority. This publication deals specifically with aspects of status in the history of seals, exploring this theme across a diverse range of cultural contexts – from the 9th century through the Early Modern period and across the world, looking at Byzantine, European, Islamic and Chinese examples. These objects are united by the significant roles they played in social status hierarchies, in the status of institutions, as indications of power and finally in notions of relative status among objects themselves. In addition to their chronological and geographical diversity, these studies concentrate on many different phases of seal use. Therefore, together they highlight the importance of studying the full life cycle of seals, from the ways in which they were made and used through to their afterlives and sometimes destruction.