Date

2015-06-01

Author

Atakuman, Çiğdem

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In the archaeological research concerning the Southwest Asian Late Neolithic Period (ca. 7000-5000 BC), “seals” and similar objects are often interpreted as an indication of property control that is assumed to have developed with the emergence of agriculture and surplus production. However, this interpretation may sometimes be based on an assumption, rather than a detailed spatial and iconographic evaluation. Through a typological, spatial and iconographic examination of evidence from the Late Neolithic-Halaf site of Domuztepe (6500-5200 BC), this article attempts to bring a different perspective to the function of seals and similar objects. During the excavations conducted at Domuztepe between the years 1995-2011, approximately 180 seals and related objects were recovered. When the broken or semi-finished objects are removed from this count, a total of 130 objects have been classified according to the relationship between the image and the image bearing surface geometry; as the overall form, handle type and raw material have been duly noted. In this context, it has been observed that a total of 15 naturalistically shaped objects carry zoomorphic and anthropomorphic themes, while the remaining 115 items are composed of a limited set of abstract image themes that are difficult make sense of, at a first glance. Through the iconographic analyses, the similarities between the anthropomorphic and zoomorphic images of the Early Neolithic Period and the naturalistic seal imagery are immediately noticeable. More importantly, it is also observed that the abstract imagery is interlinked to the zoomorphic and anthropomorphic forms through a semiotic relationship. Based on these observations, this study suggests that seals and similar objects of the Later Neolithic Period may be associated with a historically rooted oral narrative that is familiar to many people since the Early Neolithic Period; however, this narrative would appear to have transformed through time and began to be expressed by small and portable objects in the new social contexts of the Later Neolithic Period. The iconographic analysis also notes the existence of common iconographic elements shared between a number of other small and portable objects of the Later Neolithic Period, namely the decorated pottery, figurines. Such an observation suggests that all of these objects may have functioned with reference to each other in the symbolic construction of social relations, which may be identified at many interlinked scales, such as personhood, household and wider scales of community formation. Ultimately, it is suggested that the seals and similar image bearing objects of the Later Neolithic indicate an adherence to the general codes of a collective belief system at the macro scale, while these objects may have regulated specific cultural codes of gender and household structure, at the micro scale. In this context, the practice of sealing may be more properly identified as an outcome of a need to signify preparation of food or other products according to commonly accepted cultural codes.

Subject Keywords

Neolithic, Halaf, Domuztepe, Stamp Seals

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/86744

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Article