Tepe Keydan Cylinder Seal? A Mesopotamian Contest Scene in the East Central Zagros

Seals and sealings are important artifacts which are used to mark personal property and to limit access to main commodities in administrative institutions from their first appearance in the Late Neolithic period, therefore, they are significant resources for socio-economic history of ancient societies. However, these artifacts, especially those with no clear and well-stratified context, are usually studied in an art historical approach. Keydan cylinder seal (KCS) is one of these artifacts which was discovered in the 1996 archaeological survey in the Silakhor Plain in Borujerd region. One of the villagers gave it to the director of the survey and claimed that it has been found on the surface of Tepe Keydan. The seal shows a Mesopotamian contest scene. Previously, 10 contest scene have been found in the Central Zagros. KCS is the easternmost contest seal found in the region. This paper tries to study style and iconography of KCS as well as relevant archaeological evidence and textual hints in order to answer some questions about the dating of KCS and origins, contexts, reasons of appearance, and functions of such seals in the Central Zagros region. Thus, KCS has been dated to ED III. Considering archaeological and textual data, it could probably be dated to ED III b. It has been suggested that the Zagros contest seals have been cut in Mesopotamia and/or Susa and appeared in the Central Zagros in different ways for instance through looting in wars, moving people between the two regions such as those Elamite warriors who would have been hired by Mesopotamian armies or most importantly through trade. These seals as their Mesopotamian counterparts could have been related to local political, economic and military elites. Some of these seals might have been used to seal objects to mark personal property or to limit access to main commodities in an administrative context.