Late Neolithic and Early Chalcolithic Glyphs and Stamp Seals in the British Museum

Abstract

• Stamp seals were used in a similar way to modern signet rings: a negative object used to impress a design into another material, often clay. They appeared around 7000 BC and have remained in use in parts of the world continuously until the present day. This volume focuses on the British Museum’s collection of Middle Eastern Late Neolithic and Early Chalcolithic (~7000–5000 BC) seals used in modern-day Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran. In addition to a catalogue that includes all provenanced examples of stamp seals from this period in the British Museum’s collection, the volume presents a new interpretation of these intriguing objects by discussing the role of seals in prehistoric society. It looks at how the seals were used and why they were made, emphasising that whereas previous studies have assessed stamp seals as largely administrative objects, they should be interpreted in their own, Neolithic, context.