2024/07/23 by Jacob L. Dahl · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · #Ancient Near East History #Linguistics and language evolution
paper · pdf · doi:10.33182/aijls.v3i2.2851
openalex publication_date 2024/07/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/16
In this paper I analyse the late 3rd millennium and early 2nd millennium seals in two mid-size collections and reach the conclusion that exceedingly few of them date to the Ur III period (c. 2100 – 2000 BC). I include some observations on other collections. I then ask the basic question: where have all the Ur III seals gone? After briefly exploring other options, I suggest with online visual evidence, that the vast majority of the Ur III seals were re-cut in the Old Babylonian period. At the end of the paper, I suggest that the absence or presence of seals from specific periods can be used to model larger historical trends.