Image Details

Lands of the Bible Archaeology Foundation

Rolling the half-inch-long orange carnelian seal across soft clay produced this image, a scene of recumbent horned animals flanking three figures standing in different positions. Above the heads of the left and middle figures, we see the sun cradled in a crescent moon.

Often such a seal was hung by the pin eye either on a necklace or on a bracelet (see photo of 3-inch-high shell inlay). The great antiquity of this practice of carrying a seal on a bracelet is suggested by the Sumerian word for wrist, kiûib-laŒ which may mean “seal carrier.”