Archaeological and social contexts of Late Bronze Age cylinder seals from Transcaucasia
Archaeological and social contexts of Late Bronze Age cylinder seals from Transcaucasia

Author(s): Mateusz Iskra
Subject(s): Archaeology, Ancient World
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: cylinder seals; Transcaucasia; Late Bronze Age; kurgan; necklace
Summary/Abstract: Cylinder seals in ancient Transcaucasia appear mostly in mortuarycontexts of the later phases of the Late Bronze Age. They are classifiedas southern imports, manufactured in Mitannian centers locatedin northern Syria. Most of the cylinder seals from Transcaucasiabelong to the Mitannian “common style” and are made of paste.The high demand for this kind of objects can be connected with thedevelopment of long distance trade between the southern Caucasusand northern Mesopotamia in the 15th and 14th century BC.Since no system of writing was in use in Transcaucasia before thebeginning of the 1st millennium BC, it is not entirely clear whetherthe seals served any actual purpose as seals or were treated simply as“decorative beads”, as is generally proposed today, forming necklacesfor the affluent.

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