UMAY OĞUZHANOĞLU A LEAD SEAL FROM THE LAODIKEIA-KANDILKIRI EXCAVATIONS AND AN OVERALL ASSESSMENT OF SEAL USE IN SOUTH-WESTERN ANATOLIA DURING THE EARLY BRONZE AGE Summary. Kandilkırı, one of the two prehistoric settlements of the ancient city of Laodikeia on the Lykos River (Laodicea ad Lycum), was settled during the Early Bronze Age (EBA) 2 and 3 periods. The present study attempts to provide an overall assessment of questions pertaining to seals and sealing practices in south-western Anatolia, raised due to the discovery of a lead stamp seal at Kandilkırı. In EBA 2, metal seals appeared alongside the pre-existing clay ones, and by the end of the EBA 3, negatives of metal seals seem to have been added to the ‘trinket mould’ repertoire of artisans, who mainly cast lead and were active along the trade routes. The custom of seal usage in the Near East seems to have been partially adopted in south-west Anatolia in the EBA, then passed to mainland Greece from this region. It is proposed that the south-western corner of Anatolia might have played a more active role in the transport of Near Eastern ideas as a result of its closer proximity to the Mediterranean coast, and that at least a part of this connection might have been established via sea routes. To my beloved father INTRODUCTION The first stamps in the Near East are usually accepted to have been tools for decorating textiles, the body or bread, as well as apotropaic instruments (Collon 1997, 11; Lichter 2011, 38; Duistermaat 2012, 1; Umurtak 2000, 7; Bachhuber 2015, 79). The use of stamps as seals, the appearance of the first sealings 1 and their integration into bureaucracy in urban centres are well defined for the Near East (Akkermans and Duistermaat 1996; Collon 1997, 11; Wengrow 2008, 14–18; Frangipane 2012; 2016, 13–14). Since the appearance of the first Near Eastern seal impressions, it has usually been accepted that ‘the origin of the system of sealing had essentially to do with property and the protection of that property’ (Akkermans and Duistermaat 2004, 5). Collon 1 The term ‘sealing’ is used in this paper in a similar sense to the terms ‘bulla’ or ‘cretula’, to refer to an individual clay lump bearing at least one seal impression. When a seal has been stamped on a different surface (such as a pot), this is referred to as a ‘seal impression’. OXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY 38(1) 39–64 2019 © 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 39