Form In Art
The object in question is marked as a
Syrian, Bronze Age, stone label seal (c.
3rd- 2nd millennium). Most of
the seals I have viewed have much more
representational forms on them than
this object has. I have not been able to
find any books which have pictures
of items with this name, which leads me to
believe that it has been marked
wrong. The object resembles a small, oval shaped
bead with indentations in
the centers of the longer sides, making it look like
the number 8. Both sides
have the same, simple decoration of carved lines;(if
the object is viewed
with the hole through its middle going up to down rather
than left to right)
two vertical lines in the center and four horizontal lines
on either side of
these. One side of the object is flat, but the other side is
convex. After
viewing many pictures of seals and cylinder seals, I find it
unusual that
this object should be marked as a seal because the design of its
decoration
is so simple. It seems more likely that this object is what one
definition
calls a token or "a small, stone or clay bead worn on a string
about the
neck. Each token was a different size or shape and stood for
different
business transactions. An impression would be made in clay or wax
signifying
that the transaction took place."(1). These tokens were often only
a shape
that could be recognized as being different from other individual’s
token
shapes, like a person’s signature. The indentations and line decoration
on the
token make it resemble a pair of wings. The shape of the token’s flat
side and
rounded side are like a human chest cavity. This could be a
combination of human
(skeleton) and spirituality (wings). There are many
depictions of winged gods
and goddesses in ancient Near Eastern art. Though
this object is highly
utilitarian and has little representational decoration,
it seems likely that
there would be a connection between its wing-like shape
and the frequency of
wings in other Syrian art. The shape of wings being
repeated on a token used for
business transactions seems to signify that the
concept of wings is important
culturally. This implies that the Syrian
culture fused their religious beliefs
with other aspects of their lives. One
example of a similar shape used in a
religious sculpture is of a North Syrian
goddess with a bird’s face from the
2nd millennium BC. The chest cavity
and wings of this goddess sculpture have a
very similar shape to the token.
The lines on the wings of the sculpture radiate
down to the edges of the
wings like the horizontal lines on the token. The
indented-oval shape is also
repeated here. Shaping a tool (tool, meaning: the
object in its metonymical
sense), to look like a pair of wings, makes the object
metaphorical. The
object was made with simple decorations to only imply the
shape of wings
because it was a tool which identified a person or business with
a quickly
recognizable icon. This is much like a company logo would be today,
though
the significance of wings was probably used here because of its
spiritual
implications. One winged Near Eastern goddess, Inanna, was thought
to be the
bringer of bounty and fertility (2). In this case, using wings for
a business
tool may be thought to bring plentiful success to the user of the
tool. Another
example of wings being depicted in Syrian art is on a cylinder
seal with a
winged sun disk and lion attacking animals (1500-1300 BC). This
example has more
in common with the token metaphorically On this seal the
winged sun represents
male power; the strength of the lion defeating the
other animals. The difference
here is in the figure in the center of the
wings. On the token, there are only
two vertical lines between the wing
shapes; a figurative "blank space".
There is no actual body represented
on the token, only the two lines, as if they
are the space where a body could
be. Any winged creature could be placed between
the lines on the token. The
space between those two lines makes the tool have a
shifting metaphorical
value. It is like a space to be filled whichever deity can
best help with the
business at hand. The lines could also imply that the user
himself is winged,
powerful like a god. The user of the tool can place himself
between the
lines. The minimal decoration on this object is so unlike much of
the art I
have viewed from the Syrian culture during this time period. Though
the
object is metonymical as a tool, its design and shape are highly
metaphorical
in their simplicity.