(Deutsches Archaologisches Institut. Abteilung Baghdad. Bd 19)

Glyptic art is the only form of Mesopotamian art, numerous examples of which have survived to this day. Tens of thousands of prints stored in various museums around the world and in private collections allow us not only to trace the main stages of the development of this visual genre, but also to fill up information about other genres that are worse known to modern science. However, the seals of the Hellenistic period of the history of the Two Rivers are much less preserved than the glyptic monuments of previous eras. Therefore, the publication of the catalog of seal impressions on tablets from Hellenistic Uruk, compiled by R. Wallenfels, which is in the collection of the Yale University Museum, is very important.

Uruk, along with Babylon, became the last stronghold of traditional Babylonian culture, where cuneiform writing remained in use throughout the Seleucid and early Parthian periods. Most of the surviving cuneiform texts from Hellenistic Uruk are private contracts, one of the contractors of which and numerous witnesses put their seals on the edges of the clay tablet. The seal most often represented a metal oval ring, which finally replaced the traditional cylinder for Mesopotamia at that time.

Cone-shaped carved seals made of semiprecious stones were an innovation of the Hellenistic period, but in Uruk, unlike Seleucia-on-the-Tigris, this category of monuments was not numerous (p. 145). The fact that the name of its owner was written next to the seal print gives modern researchers unique opportunities to combine glyptic data with evidence from cuneiform texts, since the circle of contract characters from Hellenistic Uruk is quite narrow, and their family ties, the role of individual families in the life of the city, and the degree of their Hellenization are well known.

Wallenfels ' work consists of an introduction, which is a brief but very informative review of the literature devoted to the analysis of private cuneiform contracts and glyptic monuments from Hellenistic Uruk, the catalog itself, a conclusion containing the author's main conclusions, and a reference device. Images on seals are given in drawings and photos.

The object of Wallenfels ' research is 1,100 seal impressions on 154 tablets, and the author also draws information about 423 seal impressions from Hellenistic Uruk, which are stored in other collections. All monuments are prints of the seals of private individuals, the only very interesting exception is the official seal of a Seleucid official (No. 1). As a rule, the seals of officials (along with the private seals, probably of witnesses and participants in the transaction) were placed on so-called bulls, which sealed documents written on parchment or papyrus and therefore did not survive to this ^day1 ; on cuneiform tablets, however, only impressions of private seals can be seen. L. Doty convincingly showed that the cuneiform script most likely recorded only those transactions that were not taxed by the state and, therefore, did not require the presence of a royal official ^.2 Wallenfels ' research confirms Doty's conclusions, as a comparison of seal impressions on clay tablets and bulls from Yale University

¹ Impressions of such seals were considered by M. I. Rostovtsev in the work: Rostovtseff M. Seleucid Babilonia. Bullae and Seals of Clay with Greek Inscriptions // YCS. 1932. P. 3-114.

² Doty L.T. Cuneiform Archives from Hellenistic Uruk. New Haven, 1977.

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this suggests that the participants in both transactions were in some cases the same people (p. 150).

Monuments in the Wallenfels catalog are organized according to the subjects presented on them. The researcher identified more than sixty classified headings, which in many cases include subsections. Judging by the material under consideration, images of male and female heads and figures of so-called heroes became very popular topics in this era. Although similar plots were found in the Glyptic and earlier periods of Babylonian history, they probably appeared in the Seleucid period under Greek influence (p. 11). Such seals were not imported; according to the author, they were carved by local craftsmen who clumsily tried to reproduce Greek forms (p. 16). On some monuments, you can see Greek gods, in particular Athena. Interestingly, the owners of these seals bear Akkadian names, and sometimes even belong to one of the largest and most influential Uruk families - the Akhut. However, the more common subjects of glyptics were the characters of Babylonian mythology, sometimes gods, but much more often - fantastic creatures that combine elements of different animals or animals and humans. For example, sphinxes and winged bulls. Such images were very characteristic of art, including stone-cutting, New Assyrian, New Babylonian and Achaemenid eras.

The author, basing the catalog on the subject diversity of glyptic monuments, in conclusion considers the material in other aspects, in particular, from the point of view of what subjects and samples of glyptic were preferred by members of the most famous Uruk families, men, women, and carriers of Greek names. Analysis of the material led the author, in particular, to the interesting conclusion that the owners of seals depicting the mythological sages apkallu were almost exclusively members of the ancient Uruk clans, whose representatives performed the position of fortune-tellers in temples (p.146). The researcher pays special attention to the Greek influence on the Uruk glyptic and the comparison of the most common forms and plots of seals from Uruk and Seleucia-on-Tigris. The appendix to the publication contains a list of zodiac signs found on the seals of the collection in question.

Wallenfels ' work is a very conscientious and detailed study, rich in facts and equipped with a rich reference apparatus, which will largely fill in the gap in the study of a little-known period in the history of the Babylonian glyptic. Due to the fact that in most cases the names, family ties, and sometimes the temple positions, professions, and social and even ethnic origin of the seal holders are known, the significance of this work goes beyond the history of Babylonian art and provides a good basis for further study and classification of the material.

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