equally important in the character of these changes is the increased role that the
Semitic-speaking people of northern Mesopotamia (the Akkadians) played in the
production and consumption of cultural expression.
There is very little archaeological evidence for the Akkadian period in southern
Mesopotamia cities. Indeed, even in the Diyala region and northern Mesopotamian
kingdoms of Nagar, Ebla, and Mari, the chronology of the Akkadian period is not
securely established. We know the outlines of the development of glyptic and admini-
stration because of the abundant seals, some carrying inscriptions, and the almost 5 , 000
cuneiform tablets that record historical events, literary compositions, royal proclama-
tions as well as economic matters. Seals continue to play a central role in the economic
administration to judge from the hundreds of impressions on clay containers and
storage room sealings. Although still rare, seals are occasionally impressed on cuneiform
tablets, reviving a practice that completely disappeared after the Jemdet Nasr period.
There is also a type of blank tablet of uncertain function that carries carefully impressed
seals. In addition, there are numerous examples of disk-shaped labels, seal impressed on
both sides and run through with a string for suspension.
The iconography of Akkadian period seals builds on the ED foundations (Boehmer
1965 ). The combat scene continues to be the single most frequently occurring scene,
making up half of the almost 2 , 000 seals known from the Akkadian period. In the early
contest scenes of the Akkadian period, variety dominates. There is the multiple figure
group that has three or more pairs of combatants; and there is the five figure group
where one group of three and one group of two contestants struggle. Late in the
Akkadian period, associated with the radical administrative changes made under King
Naram Sin, the Classic Akkadian contest scene is introduced (Figure 16. 19 ). Now, the
composition always consists of two pairs of contestants, perfectly balanced if not
mirrored, on either side of a framed inscription that carries the personal name, the title,
and the affiliation of the owner. These seals are known as the “arad zu” seals, a rubric
derived from their inscription which designates that the seal owner was the “servant of ”
the court. Previously, Richard Zettler ( 1977 ) convincingly argued that these contest
scenes were official seals whose owners used them not in any personal capacity, but as
a mark of their position in the bureaucracy of the royal court. More recently, Rakic
( 2003 ) has shown that this type of official seal was standardized late in the Akkadian
period, and that most of the examples
belong to the reign of Sharkalisharri, or later.
In addition to the contest scenes, the
imagery carved on Akkadian seals explodes to
depict in images a world of myth and some-
times history. Not since the Uruk period,
and indeed never again in the glyptic art of
Mesopotamia, do we have a visual window
into the cultural imagination (Frankfort 1934 ;
Porada 1980 ; Amiet 1980 b). The actors in
these scenes are not the anonymous workers
of the fields or manufacturing fields of the
Uruk. The scenes apparently contribute
nothing directly to the administrative mes-
sage. Rather these scenes express the emer-
–– Holly Pittman ––Figure 16.19Modern impression of a
cylinder seal having the classic Akkadian
combat scene (CBS 1831. Legrain 1925 : 141.
Courtesy of Richard L. Zettler, Associate
Curator-in-Charge, Near East Section,
University of Pennsylvania Museum of
Archaeology and Anthropology)