Shepherds of the black-headed people - New York Art Resources ...

for rolling its surface on the clay of the sealing, and for impressionof one its butts into it. In one of the Ur cases, the counter-markingseal sunk so deep into the sealing clay that we may clearly see apart of a cylindrical surface easily compatible with the idea of acylinder-seal butt. 29But why would the Ur seal bearers so meticulously use one seal fortwo different procedures? One of the possible factors at playrepresents a simple solution – to enhance the visibility, and henceidentity, of an individual seal-bearer, the often unclear and blurredseal rolling might have received a supplement in stamping one ofthe seal ends onto the soft clay bearing the maze of the sealpattern. 30 Another possible explanation is that the use of thecylinder’s side and butt enlarges the possible statements in complexadministrations, in the way that the office and the individual arerepresented by the butt and the side respectively (Matthews 1993).By way of conclusions, I wish to make the following observations:1) Though the sealings are mixed in the layers of the pits, theydo constitute a fairly homogenous material group exceptsome intrusive pieces.2) Most of the motifs are derived from Late Uruk glyptic, andfew relations to the ones of the ED II period can beobserved, which may give us a hint for the dating of the SIS8-4 seals.3) The SIS 8-4 art represents a local development of Late Urukcreations, and it may thus constitute a "missing link"between Late Uruk oeuvres and the fully fledged style of EDI-II periods.4) A major change is the ushering in of the man-in-the-kilt(sovereign) figure who kills people and participates atbanquets.5) The CLS, present since Jemdet Nasr times, bear out certainlinks among southern Mesopotamian municipalcommunities.6) The majority of motifs turn up in several (up to ten)variants, which seems to correspond to administrativeand/or economic units. If this interpretation is right, it can29 UE III: 38 and 38a.30 See, for instance, photographs of UE III: 393 and 398.26