EARLY DYNASTIC PERIOD, CIRCA 2900 B.C.

Details

AN EGYPTIAN WOOD CYLINDER SEAL
EARLY DYNASTIC PERIOD, CIRCA 2900 B.C.
Depicting a seated figure in front of an offering table, with hieroglyphs for 'scribe' and 'ka' visible in front, pierced for attachment, mounted
1 5/8 in. (4.2 cm.) high

Provenance

Formerly in the collection of the French Director-General of excavations and antiquities in Egypt, Gaston Maspero (1846-1916).

Special notice

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Lot Essay

For similar, cf. P. Kaplony, 'Die Inschriften der Ägyptischen Frühzeit', Ägyptologishe Abhandlungen, 8, vols. 1-3, 1963, nos 659-688.

The majority of cylinder seals from Dynasty I-II bear the name and titles of private individuals, priests or officials. They were still in use up until the end of the Middle Kingdom, and then were rapidly replaced by a beetle (scarab)-shaped seal, cf. W. C. Hayes, The Scepter of Egypt, I, New York, 1990, pp. 38-39, fig. 28. For similar in serpentine, cf. exhibition catalogue, Naissance de l'écriture, Paris, 1982, p. 70, no. 26.

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