The first cylinder seals appear in Eanna V of Uruk. Larger than average, they also tend to be cut from softer stones. Uruk period seals are remarkable for their naturalistic depictions of men, animals, and plants. A copper knob fashioned in the form of a crouching ram or bull was often attached to the top of the seal.

Use of Seals

Although seals were often worn as jewelry or amulets, they also served a very practical function. Through the creative use of lumps of clay and string, just about anything that needed tamper-proofing could be secured, including the door of a storeroom, the lid of a jar, or the contents of a tablet.¹Nissen 1984, 75-75 The advantage of a cylinder seal was that it produced a long string of unique “characters,” the ancient equivalent of a hash code!

The Ensi

Frequently depicted on Uruk period seals, the king of Uruk is shown bare-chested, wearing either a long net-like garment or a short kilt, and a cap with a rolled-up brim. There were two terms used in later periods to designate the king. The first was lugal, which literally means “big man” and the second was “en” (later “ensi”) which means “lord.” The latter term seems also to have referred to a sacred office. It has therefore been suggested that Sumer was originally a theocratic state ruled by a “priest king.” However, by this same criteria we would also have to say that Julius Caesar was a “priest king” since he was both pontifex maximus and dictator of Rome. But no one refers to Julius Caesar this way.

More convincing is the possibility that early Uruk was ruled by a “primitive democracy” of sorts.²Hallo 1998, 36 Thus we find references in Sumerian texts to a “leader of the council” who held one of the highest offices in the land.³Nissen 1984, 94 And in the short epic, Gilgamesh and Agga, Gilgamesh consulted a council of elders and a council of young warriors before embarking on a war with Agga, king of Kish. The elders advised Gilgamesh to make peace with Kish but the young men were eager for war. The story concludes with Agga’s defeat, thus bringing to an end Kish’s suzerainty over Sumer.⁴Kramer 1963, 187

Who is he?

It may be wondered if the early kings of Uruk whose names appear in Sumerian epic and verse are also depicted on Uruk period cylinder seals? If the heroic kings of Uruk do not predate the Early Dynastic II period, as is generally accepted, then they cannot be identified with the ensi depicted on Uruk period seals.⁵Frayne 2009, 29 However, since the standard chronology relies heavily on C14 dating, which is a flawed method in my opinion, and upon an overly dogmatic interpretation of the archaeology, it is worth considering what possibilities are presented by a shorter chronology. In this case, it may be possible to identify the ensi on Uruk period seals with a figure like Enmerkar, thus aligning the golden age of Uruk (Eanna V-IV) with her most famous king. But such identifications must remain tentative until further evidence can be brought to bear on the subject.