try to penetrate into the internal logic of the details of the scene. Gratifying results have
come from this approach that do not depend on an underlying unified message or on
reflections of texts from much later periods (Fischer 2002 ). As we learn more about
the role of individual actors outside of the control of the imperial court through the
important work of the philologists, we can begin to see that in the Akkadian period
there was room for merchants and traders and independent craftsmen who needed
cylinder seals to participate in the administration of their livelihood. It is likely that
they were free to choose the imagery on their seal to reflect some aspect of their
identity. There is much work to do to reveal the social, political, and cultural messages
contained in these images. Whatever the answer, there is no question that, like the
Uruk period a millennium earlier, the production of visual imagery was pressed by
elites to capture and project the important messages of the day.
In addition to the official contest scenes, and the apparently narrative representations
of myths and stories, other new themes are also carved on Akkadian seals. Some refer
to activities in the human domain. These include most prominently the theme of a
heroic human with bow and arrow hunting wild game in the mountains. On the
remarkable seal owned by Kalki the scribe, mentioned above, this hunter is shown
leading an expedition of the royal prince (Figure 16. 3 b). This seal also illustrates another
innovation of Akkadian glyptic, the representation in image and in text of an individual.
Kalki the scribe can be seen standing with his tablet and stylus directly behind his royal
patron, Ilubani, who wears the royal headdress and a flounced royal garment. Surely this
depicts an actual expedition, probably to the Iranian highland, that was recorded by the
scribe. Another such individual seal is inscribed with the name of its owner Shu ilishu,
interpreter for Meluhhu. The translator is shown on the seal seated on the lap of a
goddess and translating for a man who approaches holding a goat and gesturing to his
mouth. A third such seal shows is an extraordinarily well-carved seal in lapis belonging
to the wetnurse Takunai, of the daughter of Naram Sin, being brought into the presence
of enthroned Ishtar. Another preserved in impression (Boehmer 1965 : no. 657 ) is the seal
of Dada, servant of Tudasharlibsih, wife of Sharkalisharri. As Zettler ( 2007 ) points out,
the inscription is divided so that the name of the wife of the king is close to her while
that of the Dada is close to him, serving as a label. Never before, and rarely after, do we
find what amounts to actual depictions of individuals on seals.
Finally, in the Akkadian period, we have the first appearance of the “presentation
scene” which will come to replace the contest scene as the imagery used for official or
royal seals in the last period of the Sumerian era (Haussperger 1991 ). The presentation
scene, sometimes called the “introduction scene” or the “audience scene, “can occupy
either the mortal or the divine sphere. Indeed, it is in the context of this scene that
humans and divine are shown to interact. The structure of the scene shows a seated figure,
either human or divine, who receives a standing supplicant. In the Akkadian period, the
participants can be either gods or humans approaching an enthroned deity (Figure 16. 20 ).
–– Holly Pittman ––Figure 16.20Modern impression of an Old Akkadian cylinder
seal with a presentation scene of goddess approaching Shamash,
the Sun god (CBS 8982. Legrain 1925 : pl. 12 , 181. Courtesy of
Richard L. Zettler, Associate Curator-in-Charge, Near East
Section, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and
Anthropology)