Product Description
Carved from a small ovoid pebble and modeled in the shape of a hand with four fingers or with paws (the nails are indicated by a horizontal line), this seal is pierced in the upper part: it was therefore intended to be used as a pendant (suspended from the neck or the wrist, for example) and accompanied its owner, who would have been involved in the economic field (merchant, breeder of large herds, farmer, etc.), on his travels.
The lower part is flat and supports the decorative patterns that compose the seal matrix, which creates the seal impression: slightly incised lines represent in a highly stylized way a bearded human figure, a sort of animal master, placed at the center of many quadrupeds (deer, sheep), of others that cannot be identified and of plant elements.
The invention of seals is a fundamental step that contributed to shape human history: it refers to a series of events as complex as the development of city planning, the birth of private ownership (largely attested by seals) or writing, a revolutionary means of communication, used primarily in administrative and commercial areas.