Annotated corpus of cylinder seals from Palestine/Israel
Cylinder seals are a specific art form of the ancient Middle East, which are documented from the 3rd millennium BC up to the time of Persian rule over the Levant (539-330 BC). In the later Persian age, cylinder seals were superseded by coinage as carriers of imagery for economic processes. Within the economic process, seals were primarily used to identify the origin of the sealed goods. Specific seal imprints were recognisable in the ancient world and could therefore be assigned to individuals. At the same time, the seals had an apotropaic function, which was primarily determined by the type of stone from which the seal was made and the subject engraved on it.
Of the approx. 100,000 cylinder seals and cylinder seal scrolls known worldwide, around 470 examples were found in Palestine/Israel. Most of these come from stratified excavations. In relation to the corpus of all cylinder seals, this is a specific characteristic, as cylinder seals are generally dated by style and subject. For the period from the end of the 2nd millennium BC to the end of the Persian age, these forms of identification can be critically scrutinised on the basis of the excavation findings from the collection of cylinder seals from ancient Palestine/Israel.
For Old Testament research, cylinder seals represent an essential carrier of information in reconstructing the religious history of Palestine/Israel. The combination of symbols in the subject makes it possible to determine the specific interpretation of the individual symbol as well as the focus of its mediation. In contrast to text corpora, which developed relatively cumbersomely in lengthy editorial processes, or monumental images, which represent essential snapshots, the large number of cylinder seal motifs opens up the possibility of analysing religious-historical developments in Palestine/Israel, which are based on the adaptation of ideas of the great empires that determined culture and trade and are subject to an Interpretatio Israelitica, in smaller steps and thus more pointedly.
The aim of this project is to create an annotated corpus that enables a comprehensive description of each seal, also in comparison with other seals. The recording of the seals includes the following aspects:
1. standardised recording of size, material and texture
2. mapping of the lines to determine style, quality and production technique
3. description of the subject in standardised semantics
4. categorisation of the stone type in the ancient stone theory
5. freely scalable sequencing
The project team:
Dr. Erik Freier
Rebecca Ludwig
Prof. Dr. Tobias Meisen (https://www.tmdt.uni-wuppertal.de/de/lehrstuhl/mitarbeiterinnen/prof-dr-ing-tobias-meisen/)
Sven Ritzmann (https://www.dmt.uni-wuppertal.de/de/personen/ritzmann-sven/)
Daniel Schmitz (https://www.ev-theologie.uni-wuppertal.de/de/personal/schmitz-daniel/)
Prof. Dr. Peter Urban (https://www.dmt.uni-wuppertal.de/de/personen/urban-peter/)
AOR PD Dr. Thomas Wagner (https://www.ev-theologie.uni-wuppertal.de/de/personal/wagner-thomas/)
