ABSTRACT
Near Eastern glyptic is traditionally subdivided into multiple themes, periods and styles, with many studies focusing on one or the other and sometimes narrowing their scope even further to a single region or site. When investigating the origin and interpretation of a particular theme, we then often prioritize quantity over age and textual analogies over archaeological context. This paper takes an over-arching view and re-evaluates Mesopotamian glyptic in terms of a visual language. Citing continuity in content, context and associated material finds, as well as overlapping subject matter, I suggest that much of the mainstream imagery on Mesopotamian seals relates to the visual expression of ecstatic experience. What begins as a system of symbolic communication during the late Epi-Palaeolithic and Pre-Pottery Neolithic periods then splits into several subthemes that are selected, embellished, abandoned and revived according to local conventions and the agendas of the ruling elite. The so-called banquet, contest and presentation scenes, and the Mature Akkadian, Middle Babylonian and Elaborate Mittanian styles represent different extracts, idiomatic expressions and dialectal variations of the same underlying proto-theme.
