Stamp seal

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The stamp seal (also impression seal) is a common seal die, frequently carved from stone, known at least since the 6th millennium BC (Halaf culture^[1]) and probably earlier. The dies were used to impress their picture or inscription into soft, prepared clay and sometimes in sealing wax.

The oldest stamp seals were button-shaped objects with primitive ornamental forms chiseled onto them.^[2] The stamp seals were replaced in the 4th millennium BC by cylinder seals that had to be rolled over the soft clay to leave an imprint.^[1] From the 12th century BC the previous designs were largely abandoned in favor of amphora stamps.^[3] Romans introduced their signaculum around the first century BC;^[3] Byzantine maintained the tradition in their commercial stamps.^[4]

In antiquity the stamp seals were common, largely because they served to authenticate legal documents, such as tax receipts, contracts, wills and decrees. They are extensively researched because^{[citation needed]} they were usually carved with important "themes" of the society that produced them, rather than with an ordinary signature.^{[citation needed]}