Iconographic and Stylistic Study: A Method to Analyse the Usage and Chronology of Kassite Cylinder Seals (1600-1200 B.C.)

Kassites were an Iranian ethnic group and lived in the Zagros Mountains. Although the origin of Kassites is not certain, many scholars, according to archaeological, linguistic studies, and ancient written sources, have tended to target the Zagros Mountains (it is probable Luristan province) as their original homeland. They ruled Babylonia almost continuously from 17/16th to c.1155 BC. The Elamites conquered Babylonia in the 12th BC. Individual Kassites occupied important positions in the kingdom of Babylonia and even Karduniash. In accordance with the history, archaeology, and art of the Kassites, significant studies have been conducted outside Iran and the results have been published in books and articles, but no appropriate research has been done in Iran during this period. This paper studies the art of glyptic Kassite (cylinder seals) in the Late Bronze Age to early Iron Age. The research method is descriptive-analytical (content) which is based on library studies. Many questions are addressed in this research, but the two, main questions are consisting of 1- Kassite cylinder seals are divided into how many categories? 2- How were the chronology and the usage of the seals? The art of glyptic Kassite is divided into four different styles. Kassite seals were made under the influence of Paleo-Babylonia and Assyria. The style, iconography, and inscriptions indicate their personal or official use. The chronology was done according to iconography, stylistics, and inscriptions. The first and second styles of Kassites cylinder seals can be dated about 14th-13th century BC. The Pseudo-Kassite cylinder seals were almost made in the same period as the first group, about 14/13 BC. The use of the third style began around the 14th-13th century BC, and continued until the late 12th century BC. The discovery of Kassite seals in Egypt and even Greece probably indicates cultural and political exchanges in the region.
Keywords: Kassite, Glyptic, Iconography, Mesopotamia, Iran.
 
Introduction
The domination of the Iranian people in Mesopotamia had a great influence on Babylonia when the Kassites ruled in Babylonia for about five centuries. Although not many artifacts have survived from this period, many scholars have studied and identified these people concerning the same artifacts, including the metalworking industry, cylinder seals, engravings, and inscriptions on the kudurru. Seals were produced from the first years of their rule and they contain valuable information about the social, religious, and political environment of their society. Although Kassite archaeological finds and evidence are scarce in Mesopotamia (especially Nuzi and Nippur), a significant number of seals have been found outside Mesopotamia, in Malta - via Greece - (Mayer, 2011: 141-153; Ibid , 1983: 65-132), in Lorestan (Sorkh-dom), in Metsamur (Khanzadyan-Piotrovskii, 1984: 59–65) in Armenia, in Hasanlu (Marcus, 1991: 549–551) and in Elam (Chogha Zanbil, see Porada 1970). Accordingly, in this research, firstly the origin of the Kassites, and then the styles of their seals are introduced in this paper. So, the chronology and use of seals will be examined, and then its iconography and stylistics elements. Many scholars have studied the Kassite archaeology, history, and art, but so far, no significant research has been done by Iranian scholars on the Kassite cylinder seals dated from the late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age period. This article aims to examine and to describe this production to understand the use and chronology of these artefacts, trying also to identify the cultural influences of neighbouring regions and to underline its international relations. The following questions are asked: 1- How many categories are the Kassite seals divided into? 2- Which cultures are influenced by? 3- How was the use of these seals? 4- How are they dated? 5- Do the seals indicate cultural and international exchanges in the Kassite period? Research hypotheses indicate that Kassite seals can be divided into four different styles, and there are signs of the influence of Babylonian and Assyrian cultures on seals; these seals also had a personal and official use? Inscriptions, iconography, and styles indicate that the seals were made between the 14th-12th Cent. The discovery of the Kassite seals in some remote areas such as Thebes (Greece) and Egypt indicates international relations in the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age, providing a global Mediterranean-Middle East with exchanges and sharing of cultural and artistic elements. To identify the styles of seals, several historical, iconographic, and stylistic elements are used. The research method used in this research is descriptive-analytical (content) and based on library studies; it includes detailed study and analysis of the seals and their effect on calligraphy, packing envelopes, and bullae. The seals are from some Kassite archaeological excavations and also various collections (Map 1). Various libraries and catalogues of several museums around the world have been used for this research, considering that before this study, no contributions have been conducted in Iran on the style and use of the Kassite seals.
Kassite seals are divided into four styles. The earliest style is influenced by the culture of ancient Babylon. The second style can be considered between the ancient Babylonian style and the Assyrian-Kassite style. The seals of the third style were more similar to those dated to the Middle Assyrian period (14th-13th Cent). On the other hand, in addition to the iconographic similarities with the early style, the pseudo-Kassite style had similarities with the Elamite culture. Elamite seals may also have been made under the influence of the Kassite seals. The style and iconography of the seals indicate their private or official use. The first and second style seals belonged to the wealthy of the Kassite community, and the third style ones were made for the common people. Based on the style, iconography, and inscription, the seals of the first and second groups can be dated to around the 14th-13th Century BC but those following the third style began around the 14th Cent. until the end of the Kassite dynasty. Due to their iconographic similarities, the so-called “pseudo-Kassite” seals are almost synchronous with the first group of seals.
 
Kassite Cylinder Seals
The most ancient cylinder seals (first style, XVI-XV century BC) are placed in the tradition of the late Paleo-Babylonian glyptic of the XVII century. BC, which used the so-called “presentation scenes” showing a human standing figure in front of a seated standing deity, adding new elements: a long prayer inscription on several columns and several smaller secondary motifs (cross, rosette, fly, dog, lozenge) on the empty frieze, in the known manner used by the engravers on the kururru. There is also another corpus of Kassite seals carved according to a style of Elamite influence, already defined as “pseudo-Kassite” because it was first identified in southwestern Iran rather than in Babylon, similar to that of the first style, from which it seems to derive, which shows male figures standing. These seals are engraved in a more schematic style with a lower quality of execution with the use of the drill; also the lower quality of the material (glass paste) well defines the identification of this production. The seals of the second style, partly contemporary to those of the first, began to be used perhaps during the mid of the 14th Cent. and, around 1200 BC, it seems to disappear. It shows new iconographic subjects: scenes of everyday life, naturalistic and mythological scenes, with divinities and fantastic creatures that revive the iconographic repertoire with an elaborated composition of the register. From central Greece, in particular, comes a large interesting seal collection providing data on the use practices and the international movements of luxury objects at the end of the II millennium BC. Several seals were found nearby this treasure, coming from various regions (Mesopotamia, Syria, Hittite Anatolia, Cyprus) and perhaps preserved all together in a wooden box. The meaning of this collection is enforced because of the other precious agate, ivory, and gold objects found with the seals which reveal how this treasure represents the most important finding of Kassite archeology outside the Mesopotamia and its strong impact on the Greek culture, thanks to its attestation in a so rare archaeological context where a strong impact is constituted by the discovery in Greece of a such as an important number of Kassite seals in the same place. The third style is the late-Kassite production which represents the iconographic repertoire with more rigid and linear carving, losing the vivacity of the narrative action. It seems better oriented to the Assyrian contemporary productions because of its stronger influence to it by the Assyrian series of geometric fillers or an animals-parade.
 
Conclusions
At the end of 1350 BC the first Kassite glyptic seem to be attested mainly in northern Mesopotamia where the tradition of the first Kassite style flourishes as a result of a progressive departure from the model of the Paleo-Babylonian “presentation scene”, the starting point of the Kassite glyptic. In the mid-14th century, the second Kassite and pseudo-Kassite styles emerge, while the first Kassite style is enriched by the themes of the tradition attested in southern Mesopotamia. If the second Kassite style was exclusive to wealthy owners for specific uses related to the administration, at the beginning of its flourishing it distanced itself from the first style, having much more in common with the new style that was developing at the same time in Assyria. The “pseudo-Kassite” style was referred probably to as an imitation production derived from the first Kassite one when the seal was carved on low-quality material and it was used by a lower social class than that which uses the seals of the elegant second Kassite style. It was produced in Babylon but also in Elam where it was first found by the excavators. In this same period, the early Kassite style also flourishes in the central area of Mesopotamia as an upper-class product but the glyptic of the third Kassite style, close to the Middle Assyrian glyptic then during the 14th-13th Cent, seems to take place until the definitive decline of the Kassite dynasty over Babylon. The fact that some seals were found outside Mesopotamia and not only of the same level of socio-political development (such as Egypt and Greece) was due to a historical period characterized by intense cultural, political, military, and commercial contacts of the Late Bronze Age which, besides the differences, represents a Mediterranean-Eastern cosmos integrated also on a cultural level and permeated by exchanged and shared artistic elements.