ancient near eastern seals from the kist collection: three millennia of miniature reliefsby joost...

Ancient Near Eastern Seals from the Kist Collection: Three Millennia of Miniature Reliefs byJoost KistReview by: Rudi MayrJournal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 124, No. 2 (Apr. - Jun., 2004), pp. 353-355Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4132228 .

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Reviews of Books 353

archy in general and the military establishment of the crown prince in particular" (p. xv). Indeed, these texts may suggest that army officers were rotated in and out of bodyguard service and (perhaps) between the royal household and the crown prince's household. If true, this would have been a clever way to establish and reinforce loyalty while also allowing the royal authority to "keep an eye" on its officers. This would also account for shifting titles.

The texts collected in this volume reveal a great deal about the business dealings of middle- to high-ranking court officials during the later Assyrian Empire. Some of the men represented here were quite active and must have been comfortably well off, even rich. In her treatment of the crown prince's establishment Mattila goes into some detail about the economic activities of the central figures involved. Over a period of about thirteen years, Kakkullanu, for example, acquired something like thirteen people, four buildings of various sizes, two vineyards, and over forty hectares of land in different locations (nos. 34-52). Mattila confines her discussion to the careers of officials of the crown prince, presumably to complement the study made by Parpola and Kwasman on the subject in the introduction of SAA 6.

However, other groups invite comment as well. Elite women were also able to take part in legal transactions. In twelve texts, ranging in date from 668 to 625* (including two undated and three un- datable), women are principals in a number of purchases and other legal arrangements. The majority of texts concerning ?akintu(s) or "harem manageresses" arrange for the acquisition of people (nos. 8, 9, 12, 13, 14), while only one records the purchase of land (no. 175), one an exchange of silver (no. 159), and one an unidentified purchase (no. 176). Other texts involve the acquisition of people (nos. 10, 11, and 174) by untitled women, and the receipt of barley by an unnamed priestess (no. 68).

Assuming that only a fraction of the total number of legal transactions has survived, it is apparent that business was alive and well among the middle and upper classes of Assyria, and that officials had enough "free time" and enough capital to pursue their own business interests avidly. Although the legal ramifications of some of the Nineveh texts have been studied by Postgate in Fifty Neo-Assyrian Legal Documents and K. Radner in Neuassyrische Privatrechtsurkunden als Quelle fir Mensch und Umwelt (1997) (SAAS 6), there is ample opportunity for further research, which we hope the addition of this exemplary volume will inspire.

Mattila's informative introductory comments, meticulous transliterations and translations, supported by helpful indices, glossaries, and instructive illustrations (chosen by Dominique Collon), offer yet another superlative contribution to the State Archives of Assyria Series.

SARAH C. MELVILLE CLARKSON UNIVERSITY

Ancient Near Eastern Seals from the Kist Collection: Three Millennia of Miniature Reliefs. By JooST KIST. Culture and History of the Ancient Near East, vol. 18. Leiden: BRILL, 2003. Pp. x + 237, illus. $82.

With this volume, Joost Kist, a lawyer and Ph.D. in information science, makes public the seals he has collected since the 1950s. Brill has published it to commemorate Kist's retirement from their board. Kist's active role in publishing his collection demonstrates the quote with which he begins his introduction: "as a rule, showing one's collection is an intrinsic part of a collector's way of self-expression" (W. Muensterberger). Unfortunately, despite the author's enthusiasm, the book's shortcomings are too many to be mentioned here. What follows is merely a selection.

The book begins with a brief introduction by Kist, followed in turn by essays on ancient Near East- ern seals (D. Collon), iconography and religion (E A. M. Wiggermann), and treatment of the inscrip- tions (Wiggermann). The rest of the volume is a catalogue, by Kist, of fifteen stamp seals, 395 cylinder seals (plus thirty fakes), eighteen ancient sealings, and a cuneiform tablet that comprise the collection.



354 Journal of the American Oriental Society 124.2 (2004)

Collon's account is so drastically simplified that it is at times simply erroneous. For example, she identifies the variant of the presentation scene in which the worshiper, with arms folded, stands directly before the king (generally known as the "audience scene"; see Mayr, "Depiction of Ordinary Men and Women on Ur III Seals," CRRAI 47 [Helsinki, 2002], 359-66) as an innovation of the nineteenth century B.C. (p. 8; cf. Collon, First Impressions [Chicago, 1987], 44). But it has long been known that this scene originated in the Ur III period (see W. Ward, Seal Cylinders of Western Asia [Washington, 1910], figs. 51a, 52a, 52b; also L. Legrain, Ur Excavations, vol. 10, Seal Cylinders [Oxford, 1951]; B. Buchanan, Early Near Eastern Seals in the Yale Babylonian Collection [New Haven, 1981], nos. 642-54).

The subject of Wiggermann's first, interpretive, essay is the meaning of seal designs. His thesis is that all seal designs were intended to further one of three aims, namely: good relations with the gods, protection against evil, or support of magic. The thesis' simplicity is alluring, but not satisfying. Ur III seal designs, for example, evidently reflected the seal owner's place in society, but Wiggermann's thesis does not allow for this.

The insights in these essays are strangely absent from the catalogue, though Kist cites the opinions of numerous other scholars, often anonymously. Collon's opinions are mentioned only if she and Kist disagree about a seal's authenticity.

The superficially uniform format of Kist's catalogue does not distinguish pedigree from com- paranda. Were it not for Collon's explicit statement (p. 3) that "only 241 from Ugarit was excavated," one might mistake a reference to a seal found at Tell Halaf (no. 351), with an unnecessary anecdote about its disappearance during the Second World War, for a provenance; one must check the reference (misprinted: it is Hrouda 1962, not 1961) to determine that this is not the seal missing from Tell Halaf. The illustrations are problematic in many ways, beginning with their inconsistent scale, which gives no clue to the seals' size.

For most stamp seals, there are photographs only of impressions (nos. 004, 006, 007, 008, 009, 286, 287), but others (nos. 001, 002, 003, 005, 010) have in addition mostly redundant drawings. A few have photographs only of the actual seals (nos. 011, 012, 229). The cylinders, as is regrettably customary, are shown only in photographs of impressions made on a clay-like medium. Good photographs require better impressions than those reproduced in this volume. Some were impressed too weakly (nos. 057, 075, 110, 127, 259, 417), others have discolorations (nos. 044, 103, 188, 203, 204, 206, 208, 210, 226, etc.) or striations (no. 069) in the medium. The impression of no. 069 is cracked or broken. Aside from this, photographs suffer from poor lighting or even poor focus (no. 273). Fre-

quently the scene is difficult to discern in the photographs, and one longs for interpretive drawings. Similarly, one needs photographs of the actual seals, especially those with unusual shapes or propor- tions, or where authenticity is in doubt.

It is the editor's task to identify the composition of the scene. Cylinder seals rarely have a composition that expands seamlessly on successive impressions; rather, the scene is usually composed around one or two central figures, bordered by some device (a "terminal"). If there are no terminals, the editorial task may be arbitrary. Photographs must be cropped in agreement with the descriptions of the scene to reflect the composition as the editor understands it. Kist has neglected this practice. The photographs show a random number of repetitions, and in many cases there is no single complete impression of the scene. The photograph of no. 068, for example, is centered on a tree that logically serves as a terminal; the design is thus broken into what Kist describes as two separate scenes. Cropped cor- rectly, the design is a single scene with two seated figures facing one another, their attendants, and a

goat between them. It is difficult to follow Kist's catalogue descriptions, since they do not indicate where the scene

begins or ends. The descriptions follow no consistent format. There is a commendable effort to charac- terize scenes as a whole (banquet, contest, presentation, chariot scene, etc.) before undertaking detailed descriptions, but this preliminary characterization is often missing. The descriptions usually follow the scene from left to right, but there is no consistency. The catalogue abounds with ambiguities that suggest inadequate proofreading; no. 226, for example, is described as "Old Babylonian. 'Scribal trial piece' undrilled register of cuneiform and two single registers with same name, practising cuneiform



Reviews of Books 355

in carving." In fact there are four lines, three of them repeating the same name, none of them drilled; it is presumably the cylinder that is not drilled. Nor is any explanation given for dimensions; faced with a number like "22x24" the reader must determine the units (millimeters) and which is the length and which is the width. The catalogue is arranged chronologically, but only crudely; late Old Baby- lonian precedes early Old Babylonian, etc.

Kist knows that many seals are not what they seem, cataloguing nos. 413-42 as "modern" and 25 more as "doubtful." Collon's doubts are noted as well: no. 124, for example, is listed as Akkadian, but also reads: "Collon?: based on Akkadian and Old Babylonian iconography (Periods III and IV)." Kist explains that the seal was sold by Christies as "Akkadian, circa 2300-2200 BC, based on the opinion of another authority." But such anonymous opinions, and there are many, are worthless. In this particular case, Kist mentions a "cuneiform inscription giving the name of the ancient owner." Says who? Wiggermann, significantly, ignores the seal. Such hints that the contributors disagreed about some seals pervade the catalogue, forcing one to doubt Kist's attempt to deal fairly with the question of authenticity.

Any change made to a seal after initial manufacture, whether in ancient or modern times, and re- gardless whether it leaves obvious traces, renders the seal "re-cut." But Kist uses the term mainly for recent (and fraudulent) alterations, rarely elaborating. In the case of no. 142, for example, his mention of "some re-cutting" implies that the carving is mostly ancient. But what part is modern? If any part of this seal is to be believed, Kist must say what is original and what has been re-cut. He has not done so, either here or generally. Considering that Kist describes eighty-three (twenty percent) of his seals as re-cut, and there are doubtless more, this is a serious, systemic problem with the whole catalogue.

The welcome fact that a collector like Kist is so eager to bring these seals to light belies the common accusation that things in private hands disappear. One may argue that Kist has done the field a service by making his collection public. One cannot say, however, that he makes a strong case for collecting. There is nothing here that any major collection would be eager to acquire. Lacking an archaeological context, these seals have hardly any significance at all. In sum, the book comes across as a rather poor catalogue of a rather poor collection.

RUDI MAYR LAWRENCEVILLE, NEW JERSEY

Echnaton: Agyptens falscher Prophet. By NICHOLAS REEVES. Translated by B. Jarol-Deckert. Kulturgeschichte der Antiken Welt, vol. 19. Mainz: PHILIPP VON ZABERN, 2001. Pp. 239, illustrations. 29.

The Amarna Period is certainly one of the most hotly debated periods of Egyptian history, and equally the one most prominently present in the consciousness of a larger public. As is well known, king Akhenaton has come to be viewed in the most extraordinarily different ways, claimed by the most divergent movements. As documented by D. Montserrat, Akhenaten: History, Fantasy and Ancient Egypt (London, 2000), his portrait has wavered between one of praise as the first great monotheist and denigration as a tyrant. Reeves' book, here under review, leans distinctively towards the latter di- rection, asserting that Akhenaton was a false prophet and that Egypt would have been better off if he had never lived.

The original version of this book was published in 2001 (London: Thames and Hudson). The German translation reviewed here runs quite fluently, with only a very few less felicitous choices and one passage ("a puppy," p. 52) where the translator left the English version standing, obviously at a loss as to its meaning in this context. In general, the presentation seems directed mostly towards a lay public, with numerous illustrations and the dispensing with a scholarly apparatus of footnotes. Only a very selected number of publications are given at the end of the book for further readings. For the

