A cylinder seal is a small round cylinder, typically about one inch in length, engraved with written characters or figurative scenes or both, used in ancient times to roll an impression onto a two-dimensional surface, generally wet clay. According to some sources, cylinder seals were invented around 3500 BC in the Near East, at the contemporary sites of Uruk in southern Mesopotamia and slightly later at Susa in south-western Iran during the Proto-Elamite period, and they follow the development of stamp seals in the Halaf culture or slightly earlier. They are linked to the invention of the latter's cuneiform writing on clay tablets. Other sources, however, date the earliest cylinder seals to a much earlier time, to the Late Neolithic period in Syria, hundreds of years before the invention of writing.
Cylinder-seal of the Uruk period and its impression, c.3100 BC. Louvre Museum.
Cylinder seal of First Dynasty of Ur Queen Puabi, found in her tomb, dated circa 2600 BC, with modern impression. Inscription 𒅤𒀀𒉿 𒊩𒌆Pu-A-Bi-Nin "Queen Puabi".
Old Babylonian cylinder seal, c.1800 BC, hematite. Linescan camera image (reversed to resemble an impression).
Size comparison of seals, with their impression strips (modern/current impressions)
Susa was an ancient city in the lower Zagros Mountains about 250Â km (160Â mi) east of the Tigris, between the Karkheh and Dez Rivers in modern day Iran. One of the most important cities of the Ancient Near East, Susa served as the capital of Elam and the winter capital of Achaemenid Empire, and remained a strategic centre during the Parthian and Sasanian periods.
The Palace of Darius in Susa
Assyria. Ruins of Susa, Brooklyn Museum Archives, Goodyear Archival Collection
Goblet and cup, Iran, Susa I style, 4th millennium BC – Ubaid period; goblet height c. 12 cm; Sèvres – Cité de la céramique, France
Master of animals, Susa I, Louvre Sb 2246.