Abstract

The rich collection of approximately five hundred third millennium BC cylinder seal impressions discovered in the course of excavations at Tell Arbid represents a full array of styles and iconographic motifs characteristic for that period. The impressions, most of which are fragmentarily preserved, were made on unbaked clay lumps, used for sealing ceramic vessels, baskets, textile or leather bags and other containers, as well as doors and hatches. Several of the sealings bore an unusual depiction made with the same cylinder seal. The two best-preserved fragments show a scene with two capridae, probably antelopes, suckling their young. A human figure, seated in front of one of the animals, holds an unidentified object in one hand. Unfortunately, on none of the recovered fragments is this part of the scene well preserved, which hampers its interpretation. Although in Mesopotamian and Elamite glyptic art of the fourth and third millennium BC scenes featuring grazing animals accompanied by a human figure, a hunter or a shepherd, are quite frequent, the Tell Arbid impression is unique because of the exceptional combination of the suckling animals and the human figure. In my opinion the man is not a hunter or shepherd, but the ‘Lord of the Animals’, protector of herds, including wild game. The sealings were encountered in ashy accumulation layers (in general, most Tell Arbid sealings were found in contexts associated with the disposal of rubbish), in an area adjacent to a temple granary. They could have sealed some sort of a hatch at the entrance to the temple storeroom. A chronological frame for the discussed sealings is provided by this architectural context, combined with pottery evidence from the temple and from the layers in which they were discovered. All these data indicate that the cylinder seal should be dated to the Ninevite 5 culture period, what is in accordance with a stylistic features of the depiction.