Field Symbol 3 (ASI 1977, Mahadevan Concordance)

Speculative reconstruction.of the signboard on a gateway, Dholavira.

Six bronze stamps (a-b) circular with pin-wheel design recalling a svastika (c) square with heart-shaped pattern; broken lug on the back (d-f) broken with radiating spokes; one with broken lug. British Museum No.1880.3710.a-f

Curator's comments: IM.Metal.154. C. Fabrègues: Together with 1880.3710.b-c, the object belongs to the large class of compartmented seals. Such partitioned seals are characteristic of the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC, also known as the Oxus Civilization), the modern archaeological designation for a Bronze Age culture located along the upper Amu Darya (Oxus River) in present-day Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, southern Uzbekistan and western Tajikistan. The BMAC may have extended as far as southern Afghanistan and Baluchistan, which have also yielded artefacts typical of the culture. 'Six bronze stamps for impressing designs'. That is, these objects could also have served as seals to impress on objects produced for trade by metalworking artisans. Compartmented seals have been found in large numbers in these areas, both from clandestine diggings in the 1970s (Pottier 1984, Tosi 1988, fig.11, Salvatori 1988) and from scientific excavations. Known sites where examples have been excavated are: Namazga on the banks of the Murghab river (Masson and Sarianidi 1972) Togolok (Sarianidi 1990) and Gonur Tepe in Margiana (Sarianidi 1993, 2002), Dashly Tepe (Masson and Sarianidi 1972) and Mundigak (Casal 1961) in Afghanistan, Dabar Kot, Rana Gundai and Shahi Tump (Amiet 1977, p.117), and the Mehrgarh-Sibri complex (Sarianidi 1993, p.37) in Baluchistan. These seals depict geometrical motifs, like 1880.3710.a–c, and also floral motifs, crosses, animals such as goats, snakes and scorpions, birds (primarily eagles with spread wings), human figures and fantastic dragons. 1880.3710.a, c closely resemble some examples from plundered tombs in Bactria, now in the Louvre Museum (Amiet 2002, p.168, fig.13.h, l) and 1880.3710.c an example said to come from southern Bactria, now in a private collection (Salvatori 1988, p.183, fig.49, bottom right). Impressions of such seals have been found on pottery. Scholars disagree about their use. It has been suggested that they were used for administrative control of trade and production (Hiebert 1994, p. 380); were related to a well organised trade system which involved transporting and transacting goods over long distances (Salvatori 1988, p.163); were symbols of power and property, or, since a large number have similar images, they may have served as amulets protecting their owners from evil rather than as symbols of ownership (Sarianidi 2002, p.41). Compartmented seals have been variously dated to the end of the 3rd/beginning of the 2nd millennium (Amiet 1977, p.119, Salvatori 1988), or to the first half of the 2nd millennium BC (Tosi 1988, p.123, Sarianidi 1993, p.36). According to Amiet (1977, p.117, 1988, pp.166, 169), they originated in Iranian Sistan: at Shar-i-Sokhta their development can be charted throughout the 3rd millennium BC from steatite prototypes and it is only here and at Shahdad, on the other side of the Lut desert in the Kerman region, that they are known to have been used as marks on pottery (Hakemi and Sajjadi 1988, pp.145, 150). Sarianidi considers this a purely local invention (2002, p.41).The Begram seals add to the number of examples already available, provide an exact provenance for some varieties and evidence that the Begram plain had interaction with the BMAC."

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