Series·Swedish Cyprus Expedition

Objects: seals and gems

187 object photographs

This series holds 187 photographs of seals and engraved gems whose museum record names no find-place; every caption reads "Glyptic". The photographs show scarabs, cylinder and stamp seals, engraved gems and finger-rings, often with their impressions beside them. A few captions add "Nicosia", and two are marked as photographs made for Schaeffer.

Seals are a class in which a missing find-place is common. Writing in the expedition's volume on the Late Bronze Age arts, V. E. G. Kenna noted that many cylinder and stamp seals found in Cyprus have no record of provenience, so their dating rests on style and typology.

Seals with excavation numbers are in the Ayia Irini glyptic series and the Enkomi series. Kenna's chapter is in the volume in the Archive. The explorer's Site filter, "No recorded place", shows every unplaced object photograph.

Sources

Kenna, V. E. G. 1972. 'Glyptic'. In L. Åström, P. Åström et al., The Swedish Cyprus Expedition, vol. IV, part 1D: The Late Cypriote Bronze Age. Other Arts and Crafts. Lund, pp. 623–674.

Photographs: Swedish Cyprus Expedition, Medelhavsmuseet, Stockholm (CC0)

All series of the Swedish Cyprus Expedition