The stamp seal (also impression seal) is a common seal die, frequently carved from stone, known at least since the 6th millennium BC (Halaf culture^[1]) and probably earlier. The dies were used to impress their picture or inscription into soft, prepared clay and sometimes in sealing wax.

The oldest stamp seals were button-shaped objects with primitive ornamental forms chiseled onto them.^[2] The stamp seals were replaced in the 4th millennium BC by cylinder seals that had to be rolled over the soft clay to leave an imprint.^[1] From the 12th century BC the previous designs were largely abandoned in favor of amphora stamps.^[3] Romans introduced their signaculum around the first century BC;^[3] Byzantine maintained the tradition in their commercial stamps.^[4]

In antiquity the stamp seals were common, largely because they served to authenticate legal documents, such as tax receipts, contracts, wills and decrees. They are extensively researched because^{[citation needed]} they were usually carved with important "themes" of the society that produced them, rather than with an ordinary signature.^{[citation needed]}

Indus stamp-seal[edit]

Different from the Minoan stamp-seals, the Indus stamp-seals probably have a different function from the stamp seals of the Minoan civilization, as they typically have script characters, with still undeciphered associations.

Gallery[edit]

• 
  Stamp seal of an Egyptian named:
  Meru-the Answerer of Horus
  (Brooklyn Museum)
• 
  Stamp seals (bottom row), cylinder seals (top row)
• 
  Signaculum PRIMIT ("first")
• 
  An impression of a cast copper-alloy seal matrix of medieval date (14th century AD)

See also[edit]

• Ancient Near Eastern seals and sealing practices
• Bulla (seal)
• Indus script
• LMLK seals from Lachish, ca 700 BCE.
• Scaraboid seal

References[edit]

Sources[edit]

• Garbini. Landmarks of the World's Art, The Ancient World, by Giovanni Garbini, (McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, Toronto), General Eds, Bernard S. Myers, New York, Trewin Copplestone, London, c 1966. Numerous examples of the Cylinder seal; ( 3 ) separate Discussions (only) of "Stamp sealing". No seals, or impressions thereof.
• Yule, Paul (1981). Early Cretan seals: a study of chronology (Marburger Studien zur Vor- und Frühgeschichte, Bd. 4). Mainz: NN. doi:10.11588/diglit.3044.
• Di Palma, Salvatore (2015). The History of Marks from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. Société des écrivains.
• Brown, Brian A.; Feldman, Marian H. (2013). Critical Approaches to Ancient Near Eastern Art. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 9781614510352.
• Vikan, Gary (1991-01-01). "Stamps, Commercial". The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195046526.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6.

External links[edit]

• Detail of Stamp seal-Medium Res;
• Article mcclungmuseum.utk.edu—Jar, and associated Stamp Seal
• Gazelle Head, Stamp seal – at the Oriental Institute of Chicago.