Strata: Special Collections

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Ancient Near Eastern Seals and Tablets

Pierpont Morgan’s world-renowned collection of Near Eastern seals is the focus of an exhibit at the Morgan Library and Museum. Cylinder seals, which originated in Mesopotamia during the latter half of the fourth millennium B.C., are among the earliest known objects used to communicate ideas through pictorial symbols. Carved into various semiprecious stones, the seals had both practical and magical functions, and they remained in use until the arrival of Alexander the Great in the late fourth century B.C.