or winged demon) framed by a terminal tree or inscription (although sometimes the
inscriptions are written horizontally). Second Kassite developed from ‘a Classic
fourteenth century beginning [around 1350 BC], through a vibrant chaos of invention
at the beginning of the thirteenth century, to a formal heraldic phase [ending around
1200 BC]’ (Matthews 1992 : 9 ). A hoard of lapis lazuli cylinder seals, including several
very fine Kassite examples (see Figure 7. 20 ) was excavated at Thebes in Greece (Porada
1981 ).
Third Kassite seals (Figure 7. 21 ) are not attested in the Nippur archives, which
end around 1200 BC; they are probably later, and are also often named after the
Second Dynasty of Isin ( 1157 – 1026 BC) which replaced the Kassite dynasty. The
main design consists of confronted animals flanking a tree within a border of hatched
triangles mimicking the elaborate gold settings that decorated First and Second
Kassite seals, as shown on the impressions from Nippur. The fact that the seals are
made of soft stones and easily cut, artificial materials indicates that this is, indeed,
a decadent phase. What happened to Babylonian glyptic in the following couple of
centuries is not clear because of the dearth of archives and inscribed seals.
NEO-BABYLONIAN SEALSThe seals discussed here cover the first half of the first millennium BC, from about
1000 to 500 BC. Unfortunately, there is even less evidence for the use, and therefore
the dating, of seals than in Kassite times. Furthermore, seals were very rarely inscribed,
— Dominique Collon —Figure 7. 20 Water god, with flowing vases, between mountains and flowers. Inscribed ‘Kidin-
Marduk, son of Sha-ilimma-damqa [see Figure 7. 17 ], sha-reshiofficial of Burnaburiash [ 1359 - 1333
BC], king of the world’. Lapis lazuli. 4. 2 × 1. 5. Excavated at Thebes in Greece (Porada 1981 ,
No. 26 ; Collon 1987 , No. 240 and see No. 239 for another seal of Kidin-Marduk, and No. 241
for the seal of his son; Matthews 1990 , No. 130 ).