Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-g4j75 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-13T13:20:00.909Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sealing and seals: seal-impressions from the reign of Hammurabi on tablets from Sippar in the British Museum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Beatrice Teissier
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

This article is a pilot study investigating sealing and seals on the published tablets in the British Museum that come from Sippar and are dated to the reign of Hammurabi. The limitations of such a sample are self-evident: the present published corpus consists of carefully selected or randomly copied or transliterated texts, which are only a minute portion of the whole of Hammurabi period texts, and are without archival context (see n. 4). While this approach cannot hope to give a complete picture of the role of seals in the Sippar of Hammurabi, it has raised points of interest in scribal and sealing practice and may generate less conventional methods in the study of Old Babylonian sealing.

The c. 177 texts referred to in this article (see n. 2) range through most of Hammurabi's reign (1792–1750 BC) and span the majority of text types: lawsuits, inheritances, bequests, nursing and adoption contracts, marriages, sales, property exchanges, rentals, leases, loans, receipts and miscellania (e.g. memoranda, hire of person, gift of millstone). By far the most common of these texts are field leases. For the sake of convenience the tablets discussed below will be referred to as long-term (e.g. sales, adoptions, estate settlements) or short-term (e.g. leases, receipts). The relevance of this to sealing will become apparent.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 60 , 1998 , pp. 109 - 186
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ballerini, F. 1908. “Antichità assirio-babilonesi nel Museo civico di Como”, Rivista degli Studi Orientali 2, 535–71.Google Scholar
Barrelet, M.-T. 1959. “Glyptique”, 146–250 in Parrot, A., Mission archéologique de Mari 2. Le Palais (Documents et Monuments), Paris.Google Scholar
Behrens, H. ed. (with Loding, D. and Roth, M.) 1989. DUMU-E2-DUB-BA-A, Studies in Honor of Åke W. Sjöberg, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Blocher, F. 1992. Siegelabrollungen auf frühaltbabylonischen Tontafeln im British Museum, München/Wien.Google Scholar
Braun-Holzinger, E. 1996. “Altbabylonische Götter und ihre Symbole”, Baghdader Mitteilungen 27, 236–359.Google Scholar
Budge, E. A. W. 1925. The Rise and Progress of Assyriology, London.Google Scholar
Charpin, D. 1982. “Le geste, la parole et l'écrit dans la vie juridique en Babylonie ancienne”, 65–73 in Actes du colloque international de l'université Paris VII, organisé par A. M. Christin, Paris.Google Scholar
Charpin, D. 1986. “Transmission des titres de proprieté et constitution des archives privées en Babylonie ancienne”, 121–40 in Cuneiform Archives and Libraries (RAI 30), Leiden.Google Scholar
Charpin, D. 1988. “Les représentants de Mari à Babylone (1)”, 139–57, Chapter 3 in Archives Épistolaires de Mari 1.2, Paris.Google Scholar
Charpin, D. 1992. “Immigrés, refugiés et deportés en Babylonie sous Hammurabi et ses successeurs, 207–18 in La circulation des biens, des personnes et des idées dans le Proche-Orient ancien (RAI 38), Paris.Google Scholar
Cohen, M. E. 1993. The Cultic Calendars of the Ancient Near East, Bethesda, Maryland.Google Scholar
Collon, D. 1975. The Seal Impressions from Tell Atchana/Alalakh (AOAT 27), Neukirchen-Vluyn.Google Scholar
Collon, D. 1982a. Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum, Cylinder Seals 2. Post-Akkadian- Ur III Periods, London.Google Scholar
Collon, D. 1982b. “The Aleppo Workshop — a seal cutter's workshop in Syria in the second half of the 18th century B.C.”, Ugarit-Forschungen 13, 33–43.Google Scholar
Collon, D. 1986. Catalogue of Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum, Cylinder Seals 3. Isin/Larsa and Old Babylonian Periods, London.Google Scholar
Collon, D. 1987. First Impressions, Cylinder Seals in the Ancient Near East, London.Google Scholar
Dalley, S., Walker, C. B. F., Hawkins, J. D. 1976. The Old Babylonian Tablets from Tell al Rimah, London.Google Scholar
Dekiere, L. 1994. Old Babylonian Real Estate Documents from Sippar in the British Museum 2. Documents from the Reign of Hammurabi (MHET 2/2), Ghent.Google Scholar
Delaporte, L. 1923. Catalogues des cylindres, cachets et pierres gravées de style oriental 2. Acquisitions, Paris.Google Scholar
van Driel, G. 1989. “The British Museum ‘Sippar’ Collection: Babylonia 1882–1893”, Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 79, 102–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finkelstein, J. J. 1976. “šilip rēmim and related matters”, 187–96 in Kramer Anniversary Volume, Cuneiform Studies in Honor of S. N. Kramer (AOAT 25), ed. Eichler, B. L.et al., Neukirchen-Vluyn.Google Scholar
Frankfort, H. 1955. Stratified Cylinder Seals from the Diyala Region, Chicago.Google Scholar
Gailani-Werr, L. 1981. “Seal impressions from Sippar”, Sumer 37, 129–36.Google Scholar
Gailani-Werr, L. 1988. Studies in the Chronology and Regional Styles of Old Babylonian Cylinder Seals (BibMes 23), Malibu.Google Scholar
Goetze, A. 1957. “Old Babylonian documents from Sippar in the collection of the Catholic University of America”, Journal of Cuneiform Studies 11, 15–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greengus, S. 1987. “The Akkadian calendar at Sippar”, Journal of the American Oriental Society 107, 209–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, R. 1962. “Biographical notes on the nadītu women of Sippar”, Journal of Cuneiform Studies 16, 1–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, R. 1963. “The organization and administration of the cloister in ancient Babylonia”, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 6, 121–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, R. 1969. “Notes on the Babylonian cloister and hearth”, Orientalia NS 38, 133–45 (review of CT 47).Google Scholar
Harris, R. 1975. Ancient Sippar. A Demographic Study of an Old Babylonian City (1894–1595 B.C.), Leiden.Google Scholar
Harris, R. 1976. “On foreigners in Old Babylonian Sippar”, Iraq 38, 129–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klengel-Brandt, E. 1989. “Altbabylonische Siegelabrollungen”, Altorientalische Forschungen 16/2, 253–356.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Lerberghe, K. 1986. “Un ‘Élamite’ à Sippar-Amnānum”, 151–6 in Fragmentae Historiae Elamicae, Mélanges offerts à M.-J. Steve, Paris.Google Scholar
van Lerberghe, K. 1986a. Old Babylonian Legal and Administrative Texts from Philadelphia, in collaboration with Stol, M. and Voet, G., Leuven.Google Scholar
van Lerberghe, K. and Voet, G. 1991. Sippar-Amnānum. The Ur-Utu Archive (MHET 1), Ghent.Google Scholar
van Lerberghe, K. and Voet, G. 1994. “An Old Babylonian clone”, 159–68 in Cinquante-deux réflexions sur le Proche-Orient ancient offertes en hommage à Léon De Meyer (MHEO 2), ed. Gasche, H.et al., Ghent.Google Scholar
Meissner, F. 1893. Beiträge zum altbabylonische Privatrecht, Leipzig.Google Scholar
Møller, E. 1985. “Shamuhtum and her family”, Akkadica 43, 16–20.Google Scholar
Özgüç, N. 1980. “Seal impressions from Acemhüyük”, 61–100 in Ancient Art in Seals, ed. Porada, E., Princeton, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Parayre, D. 1987–1988. “Tell Leilan 1987. Sceaux et empreintes de sceaux”, Annales archéologiques arabes syriennes 37–8, 128–41.Google Scholar
Porada, E. 1948. Corpus of Ancient Near Eastern Seals in North American Collections 1. The Pierpont Morgan Library Collection, Bollingen Series 14, Washington.Google Scholar
Reade, J. 1986. Pp. xiii–xxxvi in Leichty, E., Catalogue of the Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum 6. Tablets from Sippar 1, London.Google Scholar
Riftin, A. P. 1937. Starovavilonskie juridiceskie i administrativnie dokumenti v sobranijach SSR, Moscow and Leningrad.Google Scholar
Sanati-Müller, S. 1989. “Texte aus dem Sinkāšid-Palast, Zweiter Teil”, Baghdader Mitteilungen 20, 225–313.Google Scholar
Sauvage, M. 1995. “Le contexte archéologique et la fin des archives à Khirbet-ed-Diniyé-Harâdum”, Revue d'assyriologie 89/1, 41–55.Google Scholar
Scheil, V. 1905. Une saison de fouilles à Sippar, Cairo.Google Scholar
Schorr, M. 1913. Urkunden des altbabylonischen Zivil und Prozessrechts, Leipzig.Google Scholar
van Soldt, W. H. 1994. Letters in the British Museum 2 (AbB 13), Leiden.Google Scholar
Teissier, B. 1994a. Review of Blocher 1992, Bibliotheca Orientalis 51, 3/4, 429–42.Google Scholar
Teissier, B. 1994b. Sealing and Seals on Texts from Kültepe kārum Level 2, Nederlands Historisch- Archaeologisch Instituut te Istanbul.Google Scholar
Veenhof, K. 1991. “Assyrian commercial activities in Old Babylonian Sippar. Some new evidence”, 287–304 in Mélanges Garelli, Paris.Google Scholar
Veenhof, K. 1995. “Cuneiform tablets of the Schöneveld Collection”, JEOL 33, 133–6.Google Scholar
Veenhof, K. and Teissier, B. 1994. “Two šilip rēmim adoptions from Sippar”, 143–57 in Cinquante-deux réflexions sur le Proche-Orient ancien offertes en hommage à Léon De Meyer (MHEO 2), ed. Gasche, H.et al., Ghent.Google Scholar
Walker, C. B. F. 1980. Pp. xi–xxv in Leichty, E.et al., Catalogue of the Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum 8. Tablets from Sippar 3, London.Google Scholar
Walker, C. B. F. and Collon, D. 1980. “Hormuzd Rassam's excavations for the British Museum at Sippar in 1881–1882”, pp. 93–114 in Meyer, L. De, ed., Tell ed-Dēr. Sounding at Abū Ḥabbah (Sippar), Leuven.Google Scholar
Waterman, L. 1916. Business Documents of the Ḫammurabi Period from the British Museum, London.Google Scholar
Westbrook, R. 1988. Old Babylonian Marriage Law (AfO Beiheft 23), Horn.Google Scholar
Wilcke, C. 1983. “Nachlese zu A. Poebels Babylonian Legal and Business Documents from the Time of the First Dynasty of Babylon Chiefly from Nippur”, Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 73, 48–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woestenberg, E. 1993. Review of K. van Lerberghe, Old Babylonian Legal and Administrative Texts from Philadelphia, Bibliotheca Orientalis 50, 3/4, 425–33.Google Scholar