In the Interstices of Power: Ur III Women’s Cylinder Seals

This paper aims at analysing the criteria that are usually used by academia to attribute the ownership of specific examples of cylinder-seals to women and which information the inscription provides about the owner. I will base my analysis on Neo-Sumerian cylinder-seals that are related in some way or another to women. Although iconography and the materiality of objects are equally important, in this paper I will limit my analysis to the inscriptions that are engraved on the seals. I will discuss methodological matters, i.e. what and how we can define a woman’s seal, and relevant aspects related to the titles the owner uses to identify himself, mainly family relationships and political/administrative/cultic functions. In the conclusions, I will discuss the image and role of women within the Ur III central administration and networks of power.