The Evolution of Ancient Egyptian Seals and Sealing Systems

Sealing technology first appears in Egypt around 3600 BCE during the Naqada II period of the Predynastic. Thereafter, the use of seals undergoes a lengthy evolution, responding to the shifting structure of the country’s political system, as well as changes in cultural, religious, and artistic traditions that spanned some three millennia. This chapter will provide a comprehensive, typological overview of the evolution in seal forms (including cylinders, stamps, scarabs, and other specialized seal forms) and iconography, and discuss continuities and discontinuities that characterize Egyptian sealing traditions. Here we will examine the evolving modes of seal usage, both as administrative tools and as artifacts that expressed a wider suite of religious and cultural aspects of Egyptian society. Particularly valuable in the Egyptian record is the rich textual source material which illuminates the ways seals and sealing systems related to functioning administrative systems. The following discussion will enmesh the physical evidence within a selection of relevant ancient documentary sources. This review of sealing traditions in Egypt will include a case study. In the context of the present discussion the Abydos case study will be used to illustrate methodologies and issues in the recovery, analysis, and interpretation of seals and sealings in the Egyptian archaeological record.