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Ancient Near Eastern Seals from my collection
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This tiny seal (agate 1.1 cm) comes from Artemission. It depicts a throning goddess, a hero and animals. It is a Mitannis seal, cut in the so called Elaborate Style. The seals of this group in most cases are small and are made of semi-precious stones. The scene of my example consists of 7 different figures. If you consider the extremely small size of the seal, it seems nearly impossible to work in such a small scale. Below see another seal of this group - unfortunately I have no source for this one.
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Seal impressions
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This biconvex seal (steatite 2.6 cm) is a very scarce seal with a Hittite/Luwian Hieroglyphic inscription. Those lentoid shaped seals are typical for the 13th century B.C. and come from Anatolia. The seal was translated by two German experts for the Luwian language and reads as follows (see translation): ku AVIS la ia, BONUS2 VIR2, AURIGA, "Kukulaya (?), well being man, charioteer" The Hittite charioteers (kartappu) did not only serve as officers but also as diplomats for special missions. For example a kartappu named Zuzzu is known, who was involved in the negotiations preceding the marriage between Ramses II and a Hittite princess.
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Translation by Dr. Lorenzo d'Alfonso, University of Konstanz, Germany, please note the numbers of the Laroche sign list.
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