A Middle Assyrian Seal Impression

Abstract

Everyone who worked at Nimrud will remember the regular ritual of breadmaking performed by the guard's daughter or wife, often accompanied by a dog bearing a distinct resemblance to the one in the seal impression. This makes only the most tenuous connection with the great discoveries at Nimrud of Sir Max Mallowan, in whose honour this volume is dedicated. The seal impression on Plate XXX, drawn on Fig. i,1 is on a Middle Assyrian tablet from Tell al Rimah, published by Saggs,2 dated by the eponym of Adad-bel-gabbe in the later years of Shalmaneser I or early reign of Tukulti-Ninurta I. The owner of the seal is probably Sin-suma-lisir, a tax collector responsible for taxing a three year old donkey in Qatara, a place in the vicinity of Tell al Rimah 3, which was fairly certainly called Karana in the Old Babylonian period.