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Year: 1997

The Early Glyptic of Tell Brak: Cylinder Seals of Third Millennium Syria

Matthews, Donald M.

Abstract: This book is the most comprehensive treatment of the art of Syria in the third millennium BS.
It is also the first book-length publication of material from the British excavations at Tell Brak (1976-
1993). It is a catalogue of nearly 600 seals from Tell Brak (more than ten times as many as are available
from any contemporary Syrian site), combined with a general study of the comparative material. It is
both a basic work of reference and a new synthesis of the Syrian Early Bronze Age. The Brak material is
published with drawings and photographs and a full discussion of the designs, provenances and functions
of the seals. About 900 seals of this date are known from other sources in Syria and northern Iraq.
A comprehensive list arranged by style and date is provided. The chronology depends on a complex
interaction of evidence from pottery and from seals which were imported from Babylonia. The most
thorough recent discussion of this evidence is included, which enables the first detailed assessment of
the development of Early Bronze Syrian art to be made. This shows how art contributed to the rise
of civilization in Syria, and how Babylonian forms were selected and adapted several times in different
Syrian contexts.

Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich

ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-158220
Monograph
Published Version

Originally published at:

Matthews, Donald M. (1997). The Early Glyptic of Tell Brak: Cylinder Seals of Third Millennium Syria.
Fribourg, Switzerland / Göttingen, Germany: University Press / Vandenhoeck Ruprecht.
Digitalisat erstellt durch Florian Lippke, Departement für
Biblische Studien, Universität Freiburg Schweiz