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A Seal From Brak: Expression of Consecutive Movements in Late Minoan Glyptic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Ruth B. K. Amiran
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Extract

The stamp seal under consideration comes from Professor M. E. L. Mallowan's excavations at Brak. It was found in the debris on the Agade floor of Court 3 in the Palace of Naram Sin, and dated to that King's time. The excavator has listed it with the important objects which deserve special attention.

This strange seal (Pl. XIII. 1) deserves indeed a study of its subject, its style and especially the idea underlying its composition. The scene depicted on the seal is not unusual as far as subject is concerned, quite singular, however, in its composition. Fortunately, the interpretation of this complicated composition is self-evident. Not only a single “phase in a cow's career” to quote Sir Arthur Evans, is recorded in this idyllic scene, but three of them, reflecting the cow's whole career. The three drawings of Fig. 1 are the result of dismembering the complicated picture into three distincdy different postures of the cow: (a) Grazing, with her head bent down; (b) giving birth to a calf; (c) suckling and licking her youngster. It is clear that not three animals are depicted, but only one single cow at three successive stages in time. This summary expression of a story which comprises a series of consecutive movements is indeed ingenious. It becomes a photographic story rather than a mere picture.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , Spring 1956 , pp. 57 - 59
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1956

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References

1 Mallowan, M. E. L., Excavations at Brak and Chagar Bazar, Iraq, IX, Pt. 1, pp. 63–8, 117–8, Pl. XVI, 8–9Google Scholar. The seal is now in the British Museum (No. 126273). The author's gratitude is extended to the Trustees of the British Museum for the permission to publish this seal and for the new photograph taken of it.

2 ibid., p. 89.

3 Palace of Minos, hereafter abbreviated P. of M., Vol. IV, 2, p. 554Google Scholar.

4 The idea cherished by Groenewegen-Frankfort, H. A. (Arrest and Movement, p. 197)Google Scholar of “absolute mobility” in Cretan art could serve as a general framework embracing the special trait advanced here.

5 Thureau-Dangin, F.et al., Arslan Tash, 1931. pp. 119–129Google Scholar.

6 P. of M., IV, 2, pp. 552–558Google Scholar.

7 supra n. 1, pl. XXIII, 9, p. 146.

8 Brown, T. Button, Excavations in Azerbaijan 1948, 1951, pl. VIII, 1646Google Scholar.

9 Professor Mallowan refers to a group of seals (supra n. 1, pp. 117–118) published by Hogarth (Hogarth, D. G., Hittite Seals, 1920, pl. IV, Nos. 95 and 101Google Scholar) which could be interpreted in this way. The applicability, however, of this interpretation on related phenomena beyond Cretan art has intentionally been left outside the scope of this paper. I am also grateful to Dr. Nimet Özgüç for drawing my attention to the same series.

10 Evans discusses the problem of the bull-ring without conclusive results (P. of M., III, pp. 209–232; IV, 2, pp. 506–7)Google Scholar.

11 supra n. 1, pp. 49–50.

12 supra n. 1, pp. 77–78.

13 supra n. 1, pl. LIX, for plan of Palace and location of tunnels.