Stamp-seal & animal amulets
Meaning
Carved stone animals (lions, bulls, rams, frogs, birds, hedgehogs) carried the strength or fertility of the creature shown, and their drilled underside worked as a seal, marking ownership. In early Mesopotamia a seal was part of a person's identity.
Intent
They were worn as pendants for protection and prosperity and used to seal goods and doors. The animal chosen probably mattered: lions for power, rams and bulls for herds and fertility, frogs for water and new life. Some were placed in temple foundations and graves.
Significance
Stamp-seal amulets are among the first objects where protection, property and identity join. They come from the same early urban world that invented writing, and the seal tradition led directly to cylinder seals.
History
They appear in the Halaf and Ubaid cultures (6th–5th millennium BCE) and are characteristic of the Uruk and Jemdet Nasr periods (c. 3500–2900 BCE), when cylinder seals largely replaced them in Mesopotamia. Stamp seals continued in Iran, Anatolia and the Levant.
Making yours
2–5 cm. Carve agate, limestone or dickite, drill cross-holes and cut the seal face with shallow drill-holes.Ancient Near East & Levant: the tradition
Mesopotamian protection grew out of a world crowded with named demons, each with a job: Lamashtu killed infants, the utukku haunted, fever demons struck. Exorcists (ashipu) wrote incantation series such as Maqlû and the Lamashtu texts, and amulets put those texts and images to work. Carved stone animal seals of the Uruk period (c. 3500 BCE) are among the oldest amulet-seals anywhere. In the first millennium BCE, Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian households hung Pazuzu heads and Lamashtu plaques. Phoenician traders spread Egyptianising amulets and glass faces across the Mediterranean, and in Sasanian Mesopotamia Jews, Christians and Mandaeans buried inscribed incantation bowls under their floors.
Seal AmuletEgypt, Old Kingdom (2647–2124 BCE), Dynasties 5–6 · 2300–2124 BCE
Seal AmuletEgypt, First Intermediate period (2123–2040 BCE) · 2123–2040 BCE
Recumbent Calf AmuletEgypt, New Kingdom (1540–1069 BCE), Dynasty 18 · 1540–1296 BCE
Stamp-Seal AmuletEgypt, Late period (715–332 BCE), Dynasty 26 or later · 664–525 BCE
Seal amulet in the form of a reclining cowcirca 3300 date QS:P571,+3300-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902 –2900 B.C.
Seal AmuletEgypt, Old Kingdom (2647–2124 BCE), Dynasty 6 · 2311–2140 BCE
Seal AmuletEgypt, First Intermediate period (2123–2040 BCE), Dynasty 8 · 2134–2124 BCE
Stamp seal Jamdat Nasr Period (3200-3000 BCE), Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge
Seal AmuletEgypt, Old Kingdom (2647–2124 BCE), Dynasties 5–6 · 2300–2124 BCE
Amulet Seal4th-3rd millenium B.C.
Seal AmuletEgypt, Old Kingdom (2647–2124 BCE), Dynasties 6–8 · 2311–2124 BCE
Amulet in the form of a lion with legs extendedcirca 3300 date QS:P571,+3300-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902 –2900 B.C.
Seal AmuletEgypt, Old Kingdom (2647–2124 BCE), Dynasties 6–8 · 2311–2140 BCE
Drilled recumbent bovid amulet sealcirca 3500 date QS:P571,+3500-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902 –2900 B.C.
Seal amulet in the form of a reclining cowcirca 3300 date QS:P571,+3300-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902 –2900 B.C.
Seal amulet in the form of recumbent bovidcirca 3300 date QS:P571,+3300-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902 –2900 B.C.
Amulet Seal (image 2 of 2)4th-3rd millenium B.C.
Amulet Seal4th-3rd millenium B.C.
Amulet in the form of a couchant lioncirca 2900 date QS:P571,+2900-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902 –2700 B.C.
Drilled recumbent bovid amulet sealcirca 3500 date QS:P571,+3500-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902 –2900 B.C.
Drilled recumbent fox amulet sealcirca 3500 date QS:P571,+3500-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902 –2900 B.C.
Seal Amuletlate 8th-7th century B.C.
Seal amulet in the form of a lion's headcirca 3300 date QS:P571,+3300-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902 –2900 B.C.
Seal amulet in the form of a reclining cowcirca 3300 date QS:P571,+3300-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902 –2900 B.C.
Seal amulet in the form of a recumbent bovidcirca 3500 date QS:P571,+3500-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902 –2900 B.C.
Standing animal amuletcirca 2600 date QS:P571,+2600-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902 –2500 B.C.
Amulet Seal4th-3rd millenium B.C.
Amulet Seal4th-3rd millenium B.C.
Drilled recumbent fox amulet sealcirca 3500 date QS:P571,+3500-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902 –2900 B.C.
Pendant amulet in the form of a birdcirca 2900 date QS:P571,+2900-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902 –2350 B.C.
Seal amulet in the form of a lion's headcirca 3300 date QS:P571,+3300-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902 –2900 B.C.
Seal amulet in the form of a reclining cowcirca 3300 date QS:P571,+3300-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902 –2900 B.C.
Seal amulet in the form of a seated female and modern impressioncirca 3300 date QS:P571,+3300-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902 –2900 B.C.
Amulet Seal (image 1 of 2)4th-3rd millenium B.C.
Amulet SealB.C.
Drilled caprid amulet sealcirca 3500 date QS:P571,+3500-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902 –2900 B.C.
Drilled recumbent fox amulet sealcirca 3500 date QS:P571,+3500-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902 –2900 B.C.
Seal-shaped inscribed amuletca. 16th–12th century BC
Seal amulet in the form of a bird of preycirca 3300 date QS:P571,+3300-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902 –2900 B.C.
Seal amulet in the form of a reclining cowcirca 3300 date QS:P571,+3300-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902 –2900 B.C.
Seal amulet in the form of recumbent bovidcirca 3300 date QS:P571,+3300-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902 –2900 B.C.
Stamp seal scaraboid and modern impression: roaring lion; winged beetle above, falcons and shn sign belowca. 9th–8th century B.C.
Stamp seal, Jamdat Nasr Period (3200-3000 BCE), Fitzwilliam Museum CambridgeMore from Ancient Near East & Levant: Aramaic incantation bowls
Every type in the gallery
Anything in the gallery can be made, by hand, in the prescribed metal or yours and, where the tradition names an hour, at that hour or with a plain note that it was not. Numbered. Price on commission, quoted first. I reply within one business day.