The Aegean and the Orient in the Neolithic and Bronze Age: The Evidence of Stamps and Cylinder Seals

This study of the interrelationship between the Aegean and the Orient as demonstrated in their seals is an attempt to take a corpus of material beyond the narrow confines of internal typological analysis--and to examine shape, material and design in the light of production abroad. Such treatment is justified with seals--objects which combine aesthetic merit with durability and portability, and which played an essential role in the exchange process. The chronological range is from the Neolithic period to the Middle Late Bronze Age, and each chapter includes an introduction, focusing on major issues; a survey of non-glyptic evidence for commercial and cultural exchange; and concluding remarks where material evidence is integrated with historical reconstruction. Chapters on the Neolithic and Early Bronze Ages deal with the origin of the Aegean seal, examining the background which establishes the predilection for a stamping device and providing the Near Eastern prototypes to explain choices of shapes, materials and motifs. With Aegean glyptic firmly established by EBII, actual imports and foreign influence enhance our picture of interconnections with the Orient. In the Middle Bronze Age, a study of glyptic strengthens arguments for Cretan-Central Anatolian relations: with the transmission of the petschaft shape and the sharing of certain motifs and principles of syntax. The number of imported Syrian and Mesopotamian cylinder seals and Egyptian or Levantine scarabs increases, some objects simply exotica but others possible vehicles for transmitting artistic ideas. Chapters on the early and middle Late Bronze Age document the considerable evidence for exchange, not only of good but of artistic ideas. Seals may give witness of interaction when other sources are silent--as in the 17-16th c. transition. They enhance a picture of the vitality of Minoan art and of exchanges with Egypt, Syria and Cyprus even in the final phases of Cretan cultural domination. Throughout this work, the emphasis is on the need to integrate studies of cultures surrounding the Mediterranean basin, to witness the inception of the long history of the cross-fertilization of ideas, which went hand-in-hand with commercial intercourse, and which created the very basis of western civilization.