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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1991.279
Title
Hammer-Handled Stamp Seal of Running Spiral Enclosing an Ornamental Circle
Classification
Seals
Work Type
seal
Date
17th-16th century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Asia, Anatolia
Period
Bronze Age, Late
Culture
Syro-Hittite
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/304567

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Copper-tin-antimony-arsenic alloy
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
3 x 2.3 cm (1 3/16 x 7/8 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: ICP-MS/AAA data from sample, Copper-Tin-Antimony-Arsenic Alloy:
Cu, 74.66; Sn, 9.43; Pb, 0.33; Zn, 0.03; Fe, 0.7; Ni, 0.04; Ag, 0.14; Sb, 1.44; As, 13.03; Bi, 0.189; Co, 0.02; Au, less than 0.01; Cd, less than 0.001
J. Riederer

Chemical Composition: XRF data from Artax 2 and Tracer
Alloy: Arsenical Copper
Alloying Elements: copper, arsenic
Other Elements: antimony, iron, bismuth, nickel
Comments: Several areas of the object were analyzed by XRF and were consistent with each other but not with the data from sampling.
K. Eremin, January 2014

Chemical Composition:
Lead Isotope Analysis (Pb, 0.33%):

Pb206/Pb204, 18.70604; Pb207/Pb204, 15.63701; Pb208/Pb204, 38.81318; Pb, 207/Pb206, 0.83593; Pb 208/Pb206, 2.07490; Pb208/Pb207, 2.48214



P. Degryse

Technical Observations: The patina is a smooth blackish brown with a few traces of green. The object is intact. The seal was cast solid by the lost-wax process, with modeling done in the wax for the upper portion of the seal. The surface design on the bottom appears to have been created by cold working after casting.


Carol Snow (submitted 2002)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Susan M. Zorn
Accession Year
1991
Object Number
1991.279
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
This solid-cast circular stamp is intact; its surface is incised with a guilloche pattern around nearly half of the periphery, with five separate spiral motifs occupying slightly over half of the field. These enclose an incised oval with six crescent-shaped incisions within it surrounding a larger hook-shaped incision, somewhat like a question mark. The vertical edge of the base (0.7 cm thick) is unadorned. The handle at the base of the seal (1.45 cm wide) consists of a stem divided into six flat facets that rise to a thin convex molding on which the handle rests. The top of the handle consists of two symmetrical, biconical shapes extending outward from a central raised band marked by three parallel incisions and ending with a single pointed form at either end; the top of the handle is perforated by a hole measuring 0.3 cm.

This type of stamp seal, sometimes called a “hammer head” seal, is characteristic of the early part of the Hittite Empire and the phases immediately preceding it, extending back to the Assyrian colony period (1).

NOTES:

1. For close parallels to this stamp, see M. Poetto and S. Salvatori, La collezione anatolica di E. Borowski, Studia Mediterranea 3 (Pavia, 1981) 40 and 137-38, nos. 35 and 39-41, pls. 14 and 35 (the design of no. 35 is very close to the Harvard stamp seal, with spirals and two guilloche knots around a central curvilinear figure). For general parallels for the design, see H. G. Güterbock, Siegel aus Boğazköy 2: Die Königssiegel von 1939 und die übrigen Hieroglyphensiegel (Berlin, 1942) 75, nos. 184-91 and 194-99 (nos. 194-95 are especially close to Harvard’s); and H. H. von der Osten, Altorientalische Siegelsteine der Sammlung Hans Silvius von Aulock (Uppsala, 1957) 44-50 and 139-40. For seals and impressions with spirals enclosing a central motif, see T. Beran, Die hethitische Glyptik von Boğazköy: Die Siegel und Siegelabdrücke der Vor- und althethitischen Perioden und die Siegel der hethitischen Grosskönige, Boğazköy-Hattusa 5.1, (Berlin, 1967) 26-27 (Beran’s Group XXI) and 59-61 (general discussion), nos. 87-102, pl. 2 (drawing). See also numerous examples in S. Alp, Zylinder- und Stempelsiegel aus Karahöyük bei Konya (Ankara, 1968) nos. 113, 137, 146-55, 158-59, 163-77, 195-200, 220-22, 245, 250, 258, 285-88, 292, 302-303, 306, 315, 319-20, 330-34, 350, 360, 364, 368-70, 372, 374-77, 379-86, 416, and 428; pls. 49, 56, 60-61, 63-67, 74-75, 82, 88, 90, 94, 101-102, 106, 108-109, 111-12, 117, 119, 121-27, 135, and 139. For the dating of the Karahöyük seals, see ibid., 269-70. A date of around the eighteenth century BCE, given the parallels of the Karahöyük seal impressions with those of Kültepe I, appears to be accurate. Compare a mold for a similar stamp seal in R. Boehmer, Die Kleinfunde von Boğazköy, Boğazköy-Hattusa 7 (Berlin, 1972) 217-18, no. 2230A, pl. 87.


David G. Mitten

Subjects and Contexts

  • Ancient Bronzes

Related Objects

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu