only a very small number of tablets inscribed with the proto-cuneiform script carried
seal impressions, suggesting that the images carried on the seals were replaced by proto-
cuneiform signs. This separation of cylinder seals and tablets is maintained until the
very end of the third millennium, when, in the Ur III period, cylinders again regularly
mark tablets but now as individual or official signatures.
Sometime just after 3000 BC, the cultural unity of the Late Uruk phase was broken.
At Uruk and other sites in southern Mesopotamia, the figural style showing domestic
animals, the priest-king and ritual activities in front of the temple continues. But
outside of the southern Sumerian heartland, regional styles emerge that are very dis-
tinctive. In Iran, the so-called proto-Elamite style seals, along with a short-lived script
of the same name, carry images showing animals acting as humans and animals carved
in a highly distinctive style (Figure 16. 10 ). In addition, several new styles appear that
show a clear movement away from literal toward more symbolic imagery. They
are concentrated in the region of Central Mesopotamia in the Diyala River Valley
(Frankfort 1955 ). One, called the Brocade style, is very local (Figure 16. 11 ). Carved on
thin tall cylinders of colored limestone, the brocade-style designs are images of horned
animals, often in alternating and reversed patterns. Very few impressions of these seals
suggest that they did not play an important role in the administration. The other,
called the Glazed Steatite or the Piedmont style, are widespread across the piedmont
zone from western Syria across the Jezira to Nineveh, to the Diyala and Hamrin valleys,
to Susiana, and then across the southern route of Iran all the way to the border with
the Indus Civilization (Figure 16. 12 ). This distinctive style, whose designs often consist
of symbols that are closely related to the proto-Elamite script, are impressed
occasionally on proto-Elamite tablets but they were used primarily for clay sealings of
containers and doors (Pittman 1994 ). While the exact significance of this extremely
broad distribution is unknown, it mirrors exactly the most active overland trade route.
Very few examples of this distinctive style are found in southern Mesopotamia sugg-
esting that the Sumerian urban centers were not directly involved in the long distance
overland commerce and interaction.
A new type of seal design does appear at several sites in southern Mesopotamia that
does indicate vibrant regional interaction. This style is named the “City Seal” style
–– Seals and sealings in the Sumerian world ––Figure 16.9Modern impression of a cylinder seal showing the “priest-king” offering vegetation to
sheep with three Inanna gate posts (British Museum WA 116722. Wiseman 1962 : pl. 1 a. Courtesy
of the Trustees of the British Museum)