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Hittite Seals and Seal Impressions

Seal impressions on clay (bullae) and tablets with seal impressions are part of the Hittite archives because they carry the names and titles of kings and officials down to the present. The richest seal finds in Çorum come from Hattusa, while Šapinuwa has yielded several separate and interesting examples.

Seal finds at Hattusa

The 2017 promotional book of the Çorum Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism and Celal Şenol’s (2024) entry in the Türkiye Tourism Encyclopedia write that the Hattusa excavations produced more than 30,000 tablets and more than 3,000 seal impressions (bullae).

  • Nişantepe: According to Nermin Atila (2021), 28 tablets with seal impressions and 3,268 bullae were found at Nişantepe, south-west of Büyükkale; the entry lists impressions of Hantili II, Muwattalli, and Šuppiluliuma I and II among them.
  • Büyükkale, building D: Atila writes that 280 bullae and tablets were found here and that the documents date to the Middle Hittite period.
  • The 1936 find: Ali İzzet Yılmaz (2019) writes that 280 seal impressions on clay were found in 1936. They belong to kings and officials, and the owner’s name and title are written both in cuneiform and in hieroglyphs. The sources do not say how this figure relates to the Büyükkale building D figure above.

For the course of the dig see the history of the Hattusa excavations, and for the rest of the archive see Boğazköy cuneiform tablets.

Hemispherical seals

An article by İpek, Süel, Aydın and Gerçek (2023) in the journal Höyük writes that hemispherical seals with stirrup handles are among the Hittite seal types that appeared in the transition from the 15th to the 14th century BCE. They were made of metals such as gold, silver and bronze or of stones such as haematite, steatite, serpentine, radiolarite and jasper; the convex face and the base carry the owner’s name and title in hieroglyphs. Hemispherical seals have come from centres such as Boğazköy, Alaca Höyük, Ortaköy, Ras Shamra, Carchemish, Panaztepe and Kavuşan Höyük. According to the article, the find spot is known for only six of the metal examples (Carchemish, Boğazköy 1-2, Panaztepe, Kavuşan Höyük and Ortaköy). Dating the examples found outside excavations is debated: the article reports that Boehmer places this group in the 13th century BCE, while Mora’s classification spans the 15th to 13th centuries BCE.

The Ortaköy hemispherical seal

The seal presented in the same article was found at Ortaköy and handed over to the Çorum Museum in 2015; it is registered in the museum inventory as 10389 (2021/30).

  • The article calls it bronze; archaeometric measurement found roughly 68-69 percent copper and 22-23 percent nickel. It is 3 cm in diameter, 1.8 cm high and weighs 32.50 grams, with a stirrup-shaped handle fixed to the body by two pins.
  • On the convex face and on the base, the owner’s name, Uku, with the title of scribe, is read in hieroglyphs; in the surrounding bands the name, title and a tree motif are repeated four times.
  • The article states that the name of the scribe Uku has not been found on tablets, seals or seal impressions from Hittite centres, while the name Uku appears with the title MAGNUS.PITHOS on some seal impressions from Nişantepe.
  • The authors date the seal to the first or second half of the 14th century BCE. They also suggest that it may have been made in the metal workshops found at Šapinuwa in 2014-2021, which date to the first half of the 14th century BCE (Šapinuwa excavations).

A silver signet ring and an Old Hittite seal at Šapinuwa

İpek and colleagues report that a silver signet ring was found in the Šapinuwa workshops in 2015 and that, because its hoop is broken, it may have been sent to the workshop for repair (citing Süel and Weeden, 2019).

A local-press bulletin of the Presidency of Communications (22 March 2021) describes another seal, found in a field at Ortaköy and brought to the Çorum Museum: a nickel-alloy bronze seal 2.7 cm high and 2.2 cm wide, with a flower-shaped impression face and a hammer-headed handle. Based on a preliminary examination by the archaeologist Resul İbiş, the bulletin says the seal is dated to the Old Hittite period, 1650-1400 BCE, and that a commission would be formed for a detailed examination. İbiş says seals have been signatures of individuals since ancient times and that city gates and food placed in vessels were also sealed.

Where to see seals

Seals and impressions from Hattusa are held in the Boğazköy Museum and other museums, and examples found in Çorum are in the Çorum Museum collection; the museums should be consulted for current displays.

Sources

Frequently asked questions

How many bullae were found in the Nişantepe archive?

According to Nermin Atila's entry in the Türkiye Tourism Encyclopedia, 28 tablets with seal impressions and 3,268 bullae were found at Nişantepe.

Which museum holds the hemispherical seal found at Ortaköy?

The bronze hemispherical seal is registered in the Çorum Museum collection under inventory number 10389 (2021/30); its owner's name is read in hieroglyphs as the scribe Uku.

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