TWO SEALS BY THE SAME HAND

Abstract

As my contribution to this volume in honor of Professor Edith Porada, I offer com ments on two seals (Figs. 1 and 2). Based on common iconographic elements and specific details of execution, it will be shown that these two Old Syrian seals were carved by the same craftsman. They belong to the realm of Old Syrian popular-style seals carved in the early Middle Bronze Age (c. twentieth-mid-eighteenth century B.C.) in the area of southeastern Turkey and northwestern Syria.1 The term 'Old Syrian was first applied by Porada in 1966 in her discussion of three cylinder seals found at Byblos in the cache of objects known as the Montet jar.2 In her later, 1985, survey of the glyptic art of Syria, Porada divided Old Syrian into two groups: Old Syrian I and II.3 Old Syr ian I includes cylinder seals carved in a lin ear manner, frequently representing a seated figure holding a drinking tube. Old Syrian II refers to Syrian seals best known from ancient impressions on tablets of Kiiltepe Level II (c. 1920-1840 B.C.), ori ginally called Syrian Colony style by Nimet Ozgii?,4 and actual seals of similar style. My own study concentrates on seals that can be classified as Old Syrian I, which I refer to as popular.5 Iconography and style of carving differentiate Old Syrian I from II, as can the type of stone. Old Syr ian I seals are usually made of chlorite and rarely of hematite, the more valuable stone customarily used for Old Syrian II seals with more elaborate designs.6 The two seals under discussion are out standing examples of popular styles. The seal of normal cylindrical shape (Fig. 1) was excavated by Harald Hauptmann in 1987 at Lidar Hoyiik in southeastern Tur key during the Euphrates salvage projects. The cylinder seal, 33.8 mm. high, was found in a building dated by the excavators to Middle Bronze II.7 The second seal is in the collection of Mr. And Mrs. Jonathan P. Rosen in New