Thinking Visually in the Old Babylonian Period?

Javier Alvarez-Mon

In this article I suggest that the images carved on an Old Babylonian cylinder seal - 18th century B.C. - might have been actual visual allusions to symbolic architectural features and to cultic practices present in the contemporary temple of Tell el-Rimah. Furthermore, I relate these images to the function of the seal itself indicating that the antecella of the temple functioned as a space where legal transactions were declared and sealed in front of the gods.

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