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As long as the clay tablet continued to be the sole writing material, the Majority of seals were made cylindrical in form,(¹⁶) for by the very nature of its size and the depth of its cutting the archaic stamp seal had been unsuitable for tablets. The deep engraving required too heavy a pressure on the soft clay tablet in order to force the air out of the furthermost pockets. On the other hand the rolling motion of the cylinder allowed the air to escape as the clay moved up to take its place and thus a good impression could be secured with a minimum of pressure. The cylinder was not suitable for use on round or oval bullae which are increasingly common from this time onwards and the stamp seal came into prominence because of an effort to meet the Dew conditions. The rounded surface of the clay bullae allowed the air to escape as the clay worked up into the engraving, hence seals which were principally used on bullae could be cut much deeper. Achaemenid stamp seals which would have served for use, on both tablets and bullae were generally quite shallow in cutting. Those seals with Greek influence were usually more deeply engraved since they would most frequently be employed on the bullae of parchments or papyri which oriental conservatism reluctantly adopted.' As the clay tablet was gradually discarded, so the bulky and heavier cylinder seal simultaneously went out of use and the lighter stamp seal, more suitable in shape for the work it had to perform, was adopted.(¹⁷)

In the Seleucid period (330 B.C.- 248 B.C. in Persia, until 143 B.C. in Mesopotamia and still later in Syria) the globular form of seal with a highly elongated base became the most popular shape (fig. 5- 7).(¹⁸) Clay tablets were now rapidly being replaced by more modern writing materials but seals still had to be designed to cope with either tablets or bullae. Consquently we find that the cylinder has nearly if not completely disappeared, and that engraving on the majority of oriental stamp seals is quite shallow.(¹⁹) Finger rings with a long oval base were frequently utilized (fig. 4).

Faced with a scarcity of dated or excavated examples, we must grasp whatever evidence is available for the identification of the engraved designs. Our one other source of positive information at the present time lies in the impressions made upon dated clay tablets, but this unfortunately gives only a post quem date. In the Seleucid and more especially the Parthian periods old seals were highly prized and probably a considerable number were in use.(²⁰) Unfortunately while many texts have been published few writers have thought it worth while to include seal impressions.(²¹) Of the remaining types of evidence, the numismatic is probably

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