Near East Section

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In the ancient Near East, small stamps and cylinders with carved or molded designs were used as emblems of status or author ity. Their impressions on lumps of clay, called sealings, served to indicate ownership or rights over goods, and to control access to containers or storerooms. While seals and sealings have long held an artistic interest because of their designs, more recent studies have also begun to recognize the value of such artifacts as a means of recon structing aspects of economy and society. Most of the seals in museums and private collections today have been purchased and are without an ar chaeological provenience. Isolated from their cultural context, such artifacts are of limited value, even for traditional studies of style. The 9th century Citadel of Hasanlu affords an unusual opportunity to study a corpus of seals and sealings with controlled stratigraphic con texts, which provide them with a precise archaeological and cultural setting.

Drawing on literature on social group identity, this article explores the possible meaning of the so-called lion pins from Hasanlu, Iran (c. 800 BC). The discussion raises the possibility that the Hasanlu pins served as highly visible emblems of within-group cohesion with respect to outsiders, while at the same time reinforcing hierarchies within Hasanlu society. The lion pins are examined in the light of other unusual types of pins from elsewhere in western Iran, and in the context of the specific historical conditions facing the region in the early first millennium BC. The analysis also explores the possible role of women and children in marking and reinforcing social boundaries; and the potential use of personal ornaments in attempts to clarify social roles and relations in archaeology.