You will be redirected to OpenEdition Search. Employing a wide variety of excavated material from Egypt and neighboring regions, this study re-evaluates the sylistic development of seals and sealings during the coalescence of the Egyptian Dynastic state.
This continuum reflects early contact with southern Mesopotamia and her colonies, but also the spreading influence of Upper Egyptian culture, the gradual development of the Egyptian hieroglyphic writing system and the growing ascendancy of an all-powerful monarchy.
This glyptic seriation system was developed by dividing the images of the Abydos Cemetery U cylinder and stamp seal impressions into categories based primarily on dates determined by radiocarbon and archaeological evidence and secondarily on the basis of composition, style and motifs.
These groups are then examined to determine whether different groups indicate different semiotic categories, using a system suggested by Mesopotamian cylinder seal studies. The sealings are then compared and contrasted with other Predynastic Egyptian artworks. The stylistic development of cylinder seals and sealings at Abydos is uses as a basis for discussing other Predynastic seals and sealings from sites with Egyptian-influenced material culture in Lower Nubia, dating to the Naqada IIIb-c period, and southern Palestine, dating from late Dynasty 0 to Dynasty I.
The semiotic categories denoted by the glyptic from these different sites provide indications of the types of interactions taking place between social networks and bases of power within Egypt and between Egypt and her nearest neighbors. Keywords: cylinder seal , glyptic , Egyptian state formation , El-Amra , Mesopotamia-Egypt relationship.
