Dynastic Change and Institutional Administration in Southern Mesopotamia in the Later Third Millennium BCE: Evidence from Seals and Sealing Practices

Abstract

This chapter examines the evolution of seal imagery and sealing practices in southern Mesopotamia during the latter half of the third millennium BCE or the late Early Dynastic period and succeeding Dynasty of Agade and Third Dynasty of Ur. It describes changes in glyptic imagery as well as sealing practices and elucidates the timing of those changes. It concludes that seal imagery and sealing practices were not static, but evolved over the course of the late third millennium and that the introduction of new imagery and changing administrative practices were gradual and seemingly lagged decades behind dynastic change.