Progress Report: An Online database for the documentation of seals, sealings, and seal impressions in the Ancient Near East

This is a report on the efforts for the creation of a relational database to document Ancient Near Eastern seals, seal­ings and seal impressions. The aim of this paper is to acknowledge the existence of such a project, its background, methods and future perspectives. A brief overview of glyptic art and sealing practices is given before the structure of the database is explained in more detail. The database was initially created at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) in Berlin in cooperation with the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI); it comprised a catalogue (a FileMaker database), images and the transliteration server, used for the epi­graphic seals, all hosted in UCLA, Los Angeles. The web-interface was developed at the MPIWG in Berlin by Robert Casties, and was hosted in both Berlin and Los Angeles. Catalogue data on tablets and seals was entered and edited in the FileMaker databases on the LA server online using a FileMaker client. Transliterations of tablets and seals in ATF format were kept on a separate translit­eration server, while images of sealed tablets and seals were on the LA server, with high-resolution files archived and web-resolu­tion files kept on the web server

Fierce lions, angry mice and fat-tailed sheep: Animal encounters in the ancient Near East

Animals have always been an integral part of human existence. In the ancient Near East, this is evident in the record of excavated assemblages of faunal remains, iconography and – for the later historical periods – texts. Animals have predominantly been examined as part of consumption and economy, and while these are important aspects of society in the ancient Near East, the relationships between humans and animals were extremely varied and complex. Domesticated animals had great impact on social, political and economic structures – for example cattle in agriculture and diet, or donkeys and horses in transport, trade and war. Fantastic mythological beasts such as lion-headed eagles or Anzu-birds in Mesopotamia or Egyptian deities such as the falcon-headed god Horus were part of religious beliefs and myths, while exotic creatures such as lions were part of elite symbolling from the fourth millennium bc onward. In some cases, animals also intruded on human lives in unwanted ways by scavenging or entering the household; this especially applies to small or wild animals. But animals were also attributed agency with the ability to solve problems; the distinction between humans and other animals often blurs in ritual, personal and place names, fables and royal ideology. They were helpers, pets and companions in life and death, peace and war. An association with cult and mortuary practices involves sacrifice and feasting, while some animals held special symbolic significance. This volume is a tribute to the animals of the ancient Near East (including Mesopotamia, Anatolia, the Levant and Egypt), from the fourth through first millennia bc, and their complex relationship with the environment and other human and nonhuman animals. Offering faunal, textual and iconographic studies, the contributions present a fascinating array of the many ways in which animals influence human life and death, and explore new perspectives in the exciting field of human-animal studies as applied to this part of the world

Materiality of Writing in Early Mesopotamia

This volume presents recent research on the relationship between the material format of text-bearing artefacts, the texts they carry, and their genre. The essays cover a vast period, from the counting stones of the late 4th millennium BCE to the time of the Great Hittite Kingdom in the 2nd millennium BCE. The breadth of substantive focus allows new insights of relevance to scholars in both Ancient Middle Eastern studies and the humanities

The Early Dynastic ‘Maison des Fruits’ at Tell K in Tello (Ĝirsu)

Taking as a point of departure a foundation figurine of the Lagashite ruler Ur-Nanše, housed in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, Greece, this article presents a revised understanding of the ‘Maison des Fruits’ and the Tell K at Tello/Ĝirsu. It centers on the objects and their inscriptions unearthed in and associated with the ‘Maison’, includes relevant parallel structures and objects, and concludes with a discussion of the function of the ‘Maison’. It is suggested that this was a sacred building closely related to water and fish, and leaves the discussion open regarding whom this structure was dedicated to