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Stamp seal

Common seal die, used to impress an image into soft material From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Stamp seal
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The stamp seal (also impression seal) is a common seal die, frequently carved from stone, known at least since the 6th millennium BC (Halaf culture[1]) and probably earlier. The dies were used to impress their picture or inscription into soft, prepared clay and sometimes in sealing wax.

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A stamp seal and its impression. The impression rotated clockwise 90 degrees probably yields a version of the Tree of Life-(see Urartian art photos).

The oldest stamp seals were button-shaped objects with primitive ornamental forms chiseled onto them.[2] The stamp seals were replaced in the 4th millennium BC by cylinder seals that had to be rolled over the soft clay to leave an imprint.[1] From the 12th century BC the previous designs were largely abandoned in favor of amphora stamps.[3] Romans introduced their signaculum around the first century BC;[3] Byzantine maintained the tradition in their commercial stamps.[4]

In antiquity the stamp seals were common, largely because they served to authenticate legal documents, such as tax receipts, contracts, wills and decrees.

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Indus stamp-seal

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Indus seal, (with modern impression); from ca. mid- to late-3rd millennium BC.(?)

The Indus stamp-seals probably had a different function from the stamp seals of the Minoan civilization, as they typically have script characters, with still undeciphered associations.

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