Cylinder seals

Where was I last week? Somehow I missed this article on cylinder seals in the NY Times (thanks to author Suzanne Charlé for steering it my way):

While there is still confusion about just how many objects were stolen from the Iraq Museum in Baghdad during the recent war, there is no doubt that one of its major collections is gone. In London last week, at an annual meeting of experts in archaeology, history and ancient languages of Mesopotamia, the museum's director, Dr. Nawala al-Mutawalli, said that 4,795 cylinder seals were missing. Col. Matthew Bogdanos of the Marines, leader of the American team investigating losses of antiquities in Iraq, confirmed the theft.

"It is a major loss," said McGuire Gibson, professor of Mesopotamian archaeology at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, who worked at Iraqi sites from 1964 to 1990. "This is, or was, one of the world's really superb collections."

The seals are small, typically one and a half to four inches tall and usually less than two inches in diameter. Figures and inscriptions are carved or cut, so that when the cylinders are rolled on clay, miniature scenes scroll out: ceremonies at temples, feasts at palaces, battles between gods and beasts. Impressions were made on clay used to seal goods and official documents, even to secure rooms. Seals were worn and passed from one generation to the next.

They are typically made of stone - lapis lazuli, agate, hematite, white marble, rock crystal - and date from the fifth millennium B.C. to the second century A.D. Revered by scholars for what they tell about life in Mesopotamia, the seals are also prized by collectors for their beauty and for the special skill required to make them. One seal sold at Christie's in New York in 2001 for $424,000.

Such prices are very much the exception, however: ordinary seals typically sell for much, much less. The market was pretty much flooded in the wake of the first Gulf War.

Mr. Russell and Mr. Gibson said they expected the truly remarkable pieces to be withheld from the market until the authorities and the public lost interest. "It's just too hot now," Mr. Russell said. . .

There is some hope of recovering the museum seals. "Luckily, many of the seals that were stolen from the Iraq Museum came from excavations, and there are photos and even casts of them," Mr. Gibson said. "We are on the lookout for things, and occasionally something gets spotted, but under current legislation, there is such a long, arduous road to get any of them back that customs and other authorities can do little."

In June British authorities made it illegal to import, export, sell, own or handle cultural heritage property taken from Iraq since August 1990. Most important, the burden of proof of legal provenance is on the holder of the property.
In the United States, a leading market for antiquities, the government must prove that seals came from Iraq before they can be seized, a huge challenge. Legal experts and the Archaeological Institute of America say the adoption of the Iraq Cultural Heritage Protection Act, pending before the House, would extend indefinitely the temporary import restrictions on undocumented archaeological and cultural materials illegally removed from Iraq since August 1990. (The institute rejects the Senate version, which limits restrictions to a year.)

Posted by David on July 25, 2003 3:47 PM