gems, antique gems, early lapidary, glyptic, cylinder seals, species, treatment nomenclature, garnet, grossular

Where the Egyptians have wall paintings, the ancient Near East has cylinder seals as the main source of illustrative material, covering a range of subject matter and periods not addressed by relief sculptures; these seals are particularly attractive, and their inscriptions provide rare examples of personal prayer from the ancient world. This volume continues the account of cylinder seal styles of the second millennium BC beyond Babylonia in the British Museum’s internationally recognized series documenting its seal collection. While the Isin/Larsa and Old Babylonian Periods of the early second millennium BC warranted their own dedicated volume (Volume III), as did the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian periods of the first millennium BC (Volume V), and the Pre-Achaemenid and Achaemenid periods in Iran (Volume VI), the interval between 2000 and 1000 BC saw the emergence of a wide array of regional glyptic styles in various autonomous kingdoms and city-states. Each of these regions is addressed in a dedicated chapter or section in this volume, accompanied by individual selections of photographs and catalogue entries. Since the seals featured here originate from a number of different archaeological sites, they exhibit a much greater diversity of styles than those presented in previous volumes focused on single periods or sources. The seals also demonstrate a wider exchange of glyptic expertise among the kingdoms, allowing scholars to tentatively suggest instances where multiple seals may have been the work of the same artisan.