Stamp seal

Object Details

• Description

  Ellipsoid shaped stamp seal with engraved bearded male bust in right profile.The male bust is supported by a wing like motif and a laurel leaf frames the male profile.

• Label

  Stamp seals of the Sasanian period, often with abbreviated inscriptions, can particularly help us to understand belief systems, aspects of economy and administration in the Middle East between the third and 7th centuries and later. Seals were owned by officials, priests, wealthy property owners, but sometimes also by people from lower strata of the society. The portrait of a bearded man is a popular motif in Sasanian seals. While plenty of male portrait busts are known from impressions on sealings or bullae excavated at sites like Takht-e Sulaiman and Qasr Abu Nasr in Iran, it is doubtful whether there is any real portrait character intended, even when names are preserved.

• Provenance

  From 1943-45 to 1980

  Private collector, purchased in Iran. [1]

  From 1980

  Freer Gallery of Art, gift of a private collector. [2]

  Notes:

  [1] According to the donor, object was purchased in Iran between 1943 and 1945. See note by the donor dated from November 24, 1980, copy in object folder, Collection Management Office.

  [2] Object was later transferred to the Permanent Collection in April 1993. See Freer Gallery of Art Purchase List after 1920 file, Collections Management Office.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Feast Your Eyes: A Taste for Luxury in Ancient Iran (February 4, 2012 - ongoing)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Anonymous

• Origin

  Iran

• Credit Line

  Anonymous gift

• Type

  Tool and Equipment

• On View

  Sackler Gallery 21: Feast Your Eyes: A Taste for Luxury in Ancient Iran

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

  There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  600s, 200s

• Name

  Upton, Joseph M.

• Topic

  Art, Ancient Near Eastern Art, Men, Sasanian period (ca. 224 - 651), Stamp seal, Ellipsoid-shaped seal, Face, Chalcedony, Laurel wreath

• Culture

  Iranians, Middle Easterners

• Object Type

  Tools and equipment

• On View

  Yes