Capitalist tools
May/June 2005
photograph ©Mark Morosse
The cylindrical seal was a business necessity for merchants and bureaucrats in ancient Mesopotamia, as official as letterhead and signature today. Families commissioned their seals from skilled artists, who carved complex mythological or social scenes into expensive imported stone. Seals passed from one generation to the next. "It was a bad omen if they were lost," says Ulla Kasten, associate curator of Yale's collection of ancient Mesopotamian artifacts. The seals date from as far back as 3800 BCE.
Shown here in one of the three rooms in Sterling Memorial Library that house the collection -- the country's largest -- are several seals and some ancient and modern impressions. At lower left is a clay document and its clay envelope, encircled with the imprints that declare its authenticity.
|
