The Early Glyptic of Tell Brak: Cylinder Seals of Third Millennium Syria.

• Author: ROVA, ELENA
• Position: Review

The Early Glyptic of Tell Brak: Cylinder Seals of Third Millennium Syria. By DONALD M. MATTHEWS. Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis, Series Archaeologica, vol. 15. Fribourg, Switzerland: UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1997. Pp. xiii + 311, 59 p1.

This book is not just a study of third-millennium cylinder seals and impressions from Tell Brak but also represents the first systematic analysis of the glyptic of Early Bronze Age Syria and northern Mesopotamia. It is divided into five main sections. The first one (pp. 11-54), establishes a chronological framework on the basis of the south Mesopotamian glyptic sequence and a synchronization of the pottery horizons of western Syria, eastern Syria, and southern Mesopotamia. It is followed by a review chapter (pp. 55-127) of EBA glyptics in Syria, northern Iraq, and southeastern Anatolia, with occasional references to more distant regions. Three main cylinder-seal traditions are distinguished: one directly derived from the southern Uruk glyptic; a native, western tradition only marginally influenced by Mesopotamian elements; and an Early Dynastic to post-Akkadian southern glyptic tradition, with local derivations. Within these, a definition of different styles is proposed and their distribution is evaluated in terms of possible production centers.

Chapter four (pp. 129-83) deals with the Brak seals and seal impressions, discussed according to their style, stratigraphic provenance, and functions. Data from these sources are compared to establish the most probable dates for both seal styles and relevant levels and to correlate seal styles and different sealing practices. In chapter five (pp. 185-99) Matthews summarizes the results of the study within the wider framework of third-millennium Syrian civilization and discusses relations among glyptic styles, administration, and contemporary political and economic developments.

The catalogue (pp. 217-99) includes 577 different seal designs, almost half of them previously unpublished. These are third-millennium seals and seal impressions from the excavations at Brak by M. E. L. Mallowan and D. and J. Qates, plus a small, rather unsystematic selection of other examples from Brak and from other sites of the Khabur area. All are illustrated through drawings (pls. VIII-XLI; notice that the drawings of nos. 501-3 are jumbled), but a significant number of them through photographs, as well (pls. XLII-XLIX). Short appendices, by M. Sax and J. Eidem, contain a scientific examination of...