The Early Glyptic of Tell Brak

Cylinder Seals of Third Millennium Syria

By (author) Donald M. Matthews

Image coming soon

Extent: 330 pages

Publisher: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht

Subjects: Ancient Near East

Series: Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis. Series Archaeologica

Language: English

Hardback (Out of print)

(February 1997)

ISBN: 9783525538968

9.69 x 12.83 inches

Price: $138.00

On back order

This book is the most comprehensive treatment of the art of Syria in the third millennium B.C. It is a catalogue of nearly 600 seals from Tell Brak, combined with a general study of the comparative material. It is both a basic word of reference and a new synthesis of the Syrian Early Bronze Age. The Brak material is published with drawings and photographs and a full discussion of the designs, provenances and functions of the seals. About 900 seals of this date are known from other sources in Syria and nothern Iraq. A comprehensive list arranged by style and date is provided. The chronology depends on a complex interaction of evidence from pottery and from seals which were imported from Babylonia. So the development of Early Bronze Syrian art can be assessed in detail and it becomes evident how art contributed to the rise of civilisation in Syria, and how Babylonian forms were selected and adapted several times in different Syrian contexts.


This book is the most comprehensive treatment of the art of Syria in the third millennium B.C. It is a catalogue of nearly 600 seals from Tell Brak, combined with a general study of the comparative material. It is both a basic word of reference and a new synthesis of the Syrian Early Bronze Age. The Brak material is published with drawings and photographs and a full discussion of the designs, provenances and functions of the seals. About 900 seals of this date are known from other sources in Syria and nothern Iraq. A comprehensive list arranged by style and date is provided. The chronology depends on a complex interaction of evidence from pottery and from seals which were imported from Babylonia. So the development of Early Bronze Syrian art can be assessed in detail and it becomes evident how art contributed to the rise of civilisation in Syria, and how Babylonian forms were selected and adapted several times in different Syrian contexts.

  • By (author) Donald M. Matthews