Ptolemaic Seal Impressions

Abstract

The seal impressions here described were obtained in 1906 by Mr. C. T. Currelly for the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, from a native dealer in Egypt, who stated that they had been found in a large pot at Edfu. This account of their finding is possibly correct. The impressions are on lumps of clay, which have evidently been used for sealing rolls of papyrus: in most cases the back of the clay shows the traces of the papyrus fibres, and nearly all the lumps have longitudinal holes through them, in which calcined remains of papyrus binding can sometimes be discerned. Presumably these impressions are the remains of a collection of rolls similar to those found at Elephantine, which were bound round and secured by lumps of clay placed on the binding and sealed with signets: the rolls have been burnt, and thereby the clay was baked and the sealings preserved. As regards the find spot being Edfu, this is to some extent corroborated by the internal evidence of the types, more especially those of the Egyptian class, as will be seen below.

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