Journal of Archaeological Studies

The Typology of Rusa II’s Seal Impressions on the Urartian Bullae of Bastam

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Maryam Dara

Assistant Professor, Institute of Linguistics, Texts and Inscriptions, Institute of Cultural Heritage and Tourism, Tehran, Iran.

https://doi.org/10.22059/jarcs.2021.325316.143025
Abstract
Urartiand ruled over the shores of Urmia, Van and Sevan Lakes in from about 9th to 7th centuries B.C.E. Bullae are among the smallest but most significant pieces of information they have left. The Urartian bullae of Iran are only discovered in Bastam and Ziwiye. There are about 1416 damaged Urartian bullae discovered in the excavations of Bastam and are in National Museum of Iran. They are mostly sealed with stamp and cylinder seals. The seals sometimes bear an inscription or a number of inscriptions were directly written on the bulla. Some contributions have been fulfilled regarding the bullae from Bastam but less has taken place on their exact number, different seal impressions, some inscriptions and their difference with the bullae from other sites. They have different stamp and cylinder seal impressions but the cylinder impressions were mainly Rusa II’s or an official called aṣulis.  Rusa’s impressions contain his name, his father’s name and a scene of a servant with the shade, king, lion and trident. The author has recognized the different details in the inscriptions, the size of the depicted elements and the place of the signs comparing to the elements. Therefore, she proposed two categories and three subgroups of this sort of seal impression. The first and the second group of inscriptions differ only in a in the first line and two subgroups of the first group of bullae differ in the size and detail of the elements of the scenes. There also is a challenging group that the author could not recognize their details due to severe damages. She also compered Rusa II’s seal impressions in Bastam with his impressions on the bullae from Ayanais and Ziwiye. Also, a number of possible symbolic interpretations of the elements of the scenes are provided. It is possible that some seal bearers used many similar seals of Rusa for the administrative acts or the seals were even used after Rusa's reign

Keywords

Urartu
Rusa II
Bullae
Seal Impression
Bastam
Subjects
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  • Receive Date 13 June 2021
  • Revise Date 03 August 2021
  • Accept Date 06 September 2021

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