[Illustration: Fig. 17. A MOUNTED CYLINDER SEAL. (In the Louvre.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 18. CYLINDER SEAL. (Figured in a tomb at Medûm.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 19. CYLINDER SEAL. (Figured in a tomb at Sakkara. From a drawing by Borchardt, _A.Z._, vol. xxxv, p. 106.)]
The history of cylinder seals in Egypt covers the period from prehistoric times to the end of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, but they were only in general use down to the end of the Twelfth Dynasty, when they gave place to the more convenient “scarab” form of seal. They may be most conveniently classified according to the subjects found engraved upon them, but it is also an important matter for the student to carefully note the shape and the size of their perforation, two points which are often of considerable importance when it is desired to accurately date a specimen.
[Illustration: Fig. 20. AN EARLY CYLINDER SEAL.]
[Illustration: Fig. 21. A CYLINDER SEAL BEARING THE NAME OF MERŶ RA. (In the collection of Mr. Piers.)]
[Sidenote: Varieties of shape and perforation.]
The earliest examples that are at present known are of a peculiarly short thick type, with a narrow hole running through them (fig. 20); they are almost identical in shape with the Chaldean and early Babylonian cylinder seals, and consequently may be thought to indicate a connection at a very remote period between the civilizations of Western Asia and Egypt—a connection which is still more apparent when we come to consider the subjects engraved on many of the seals themselves.[82] At a later period appears another variety, which is long and thick (see fig. 21), but with a much larger perforation than that of the cylinders of the earliest period. These two varieties have been found together in tombs of the beginning of the First Dynasty, but the earlier disappears soon after the reign of King Zet (First Dynasty), while the later one was in general use down to the end of the Sixth Dynasty.
With the beginning of the Middle Kingdom we have another type of cylinder seal making its appearance; this resembles more a long cylindrical bead (fig. 22), with an aperture of only sufficient size to admit of its being strung on a thin cord or thread. The examples dating from the time of Amenemhat III and his immediate successors are often of fairly large size, but with narrow perforation, while those of the latter part of the Thirteenth Dynasty are always much smaller, and dwindle down in shape to mere cylindrical beads.