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sealing
Object Type
sealing
Museum number
21109
Description
Clay sealing; bearing the impression of three seals; one seal bearing Pahlavi inscriptions with a border of circles around; two busts to right, the lower edge in each case trimmed with a pair of wings, around are traces of a second Pahlavi inscription; impression of a small ring-bezel, bearing a 'device' of uncertain form.
Cultures/periods
Late Sasanian
Production date
5thC-7thC
Production place
Made in:
Asia
Findspot
Found/Acquired:
Iraq, South
Materials
clay
Technique
impressed
Dimensions
Diameter:
0.87 inches
(inscription)
Diameter:
0.63 inches
(profiles)
Diameter:
0.25 inches
(symbols)
Diameter:
2 inches
$Inscriptions
Curator's comments
One of the inscriptions may refer to Arrajan which is a Sasanian city near Behbahan in Khuzistan province of south-west Iran. The object was acquired in the late nineteenth century along with a group of cuneiform tablets from southern Iraq and thus within the same general region of the Sasanian empire.
Bibliographic references
Bivar A D H 1969a / Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum. Stamp Seals II: The Sassanian Dynasty
(ZR 1, pl.31)
Bivar 1968a / Kushan and Kushano-Sasanian Seals and Kushano-Sasanian Coins: Sasanian Seals in the British Museum
(pl XVII, 3)
Maricq 1959 / Vologesias, l'emporium de Ctesiphon
(p.268)
(inscription on first seal)
Gignoux P 1976a / Cachets Sassanides du British Museum
(pp.145-146)
(inscription)
Location
On display
(G52/dc7)
Exhibition history
Exhibited: G52/IRAN/19, from official opening 17/11/95-5/12/2005. G49/IRAN, 1994.
Condition
HCL treatment OCT 1961; fired 23rd Feb 1959; TWT 15th May 1959; completed 4th September 1959.
Acquisition name
Purchased from:
Kirkor Minassian
Acquisition date
1895
Department
Middle East
BM/Big number
21109
Registration number
1895,1018.99
Conservation
Treatment
: 04 Sep 1959