Sealings

Prehistoric sealings

stamps on private property

Sealings are small pieces of clay that were used to seal a basket, bag or pot. A stamp seal would be pressed into the damp clay, so that an impression remained visible. In this way one could see if the sealed product had been opened since the owner of the seal had left his mark.

Sealings provide information on the organization of the inspection of goods, for example on the kind of goods that were inspected and who was in charge of the inspection. Therefore they are an important source of information for the research into the organization of society and economy

At present Tell Sabi Abyad has provided the earliest large collection of clay sealings from the Near East. From the Burnt Village and the occupational layers immediately preceding it we have more than 300 fragments with seal impressions. The impressions on the reverse of the sealings show us what objects were sealed. These were mainly reed baskets, but also pottery jars, bags made of cloth and a stone bowl.

We do not know what was in these baskets and jars, but we do know that the quantities were small, as many of the baskets and jars are very small. Perhaps it was mainly the luxury goods that were secured in this way.

Another possibility is that they contained so-called tokens, counting devices. These tokens signify numbers and sorts of larger quantities of animals and objects that could not be stored in a jar or basket. We have found many of these counters, together with the sealings.

The seals were all made of local clay. This is shown by the chemical analyses of the clay. Consequently the sealed baskets and jars did not come to Tell Sabi Abyad from distant places by means of trade, but were sealed on the spot. This was probably done to make sure that the contents were not interfered with during their storage in the large rectangular buildings in the village. It is possible that groups of herdsmen from the population used these warehouses for the storage of their property during their move with their herds of sheep and goats to good pasture land.

The finds at Tell Sabi Abyad show us that quite early on in the history of the ancient Near East people had ideas about private property. Around 6300 BC, several thousands of years before the invention of writing, there was an elaborate system for the inspection and administration of goods.