THE COLLECTION OF ANCIENT OEIENTAL SEALS IN 

 THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



By I. M. Casanowicz 



Assistant Curator, Division of Old World Archeology, United States National 



Museum 



The collection of oriental seals in the United States National 

 Museum consists of about 90 originals with the flat plaster casts 

 made of them, with upwards of 200 casts of seals which were lent to 

 the Museum by their several owners for the purpose of obtaining 

 casts of them, which were made in the laboratories of the Museum, 

 the owners receiving in return a set of the casts. The selection 

 reproduced and described in this paper is fairly representative of 

 the artistic types and the engraved m}i:hological subjects of the seals 

 in the collection. 



INTRODUCTION 



FUNCTION OF THE SEAL IX THE ORIENT 



The use of seals Vv'as of great importance in the everyday life of 

 the ancient world. They served the purpose of our locks and keys to 

 secure property from the attack of thieves.^ There have been found 

 in Babylonia and Egypt pats of clay with the impression of a seal on 

 them and with the mark of the cord around which it was laid, the 

 cord having evidently been tied about some valuable object; also 

 stoppers of jars, made of bitumen, mixed probably with clay, on 

 which seals have been impressed. But more important was the use 

 of seals to authenticate and validate legal documents, such as sales, 

 leases, loans, contracts, and wills. The seal was a guarantee for the 

 validity of a document on the part of the person or persons who 

 yielded certain rights or who took obligations on themselves. 



In addition to this the seal also served as a protection against 

 alterations of or additions to a document. The statement of Hero- 

 dotus (i, 95) that everyone in Babylonia carried a seal is thus con- 

 firmed by the large number of seals found and their impressions on 



1 " Locks and keys are comparatively modern inventions, for the most ancient ones in 

 Egypt are not older than the Roman period." Percy E. Newberry, Egyptian Antiquities, 

 Scarabs, 1906, p. 5. 



No. 2630— Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 69, Art .4 



93386—26 1 1 



