Use of Seals

The earliest use of cylinder seals dates to the mid-fourth millennium, the beginning of the Uruk period, when seals were first rolled on hollow clay balls inside which numerical tokens were kept. Tokens representing the number, and possibly the type, of goods being counted were thus protected within the clay, which was then sealed all over its surface with a cylinder seal (Nissen et al 1993: 12-13). After sealing, the balls were sometimes impressed with signs on the outer surface referencing the tokens within. This means of storing and protecting information soon gave way to the earliest tablets, all of them numerical in nature. These tablets were sealed before being inscribed, a practice not so different from that of impressing signs over sealed clay bullae. At the same time, seals were being used to mark the clay stoppers that covered storage containers, or the bulla that hung from strings attached to jars, baskets, bundles, or even store-room doors (Collon 2005: 13).