From Bactrian to Arabic: Changes in Seals and Sealing Practices as Observed in the Documents from Bactria
Primary to our understanding of the history and culture of Iran and Central Asia (Greater Iran) from the pre-Islamic into the Islamic era are the Bactrian Documents and the related Khorasan Documents. The first, a corpus of more than 150 legal and economic texts and letters written in the Bactrian language of pre-Islamic Afghanistan between the first half of the fourth and the middle of the eighth century, revealed a Middle Iranian language and society that were hardly known before. The seals and sealing method of the documents reveal strong links with Bactria’s Hellenistic past, although the sealings suggest a variety of cultural and ethnic elements among the inhabitants of the region.
The second group of documents were written in Arabic between 755-777 CE/138-160H, i.e., the early Abbasid period, and belonged to the same private family archive as some of the Bactrian documents. Analysis of each group’s format, sealing method, and form and iconography of the clay seals provides insight into the transition from local to Islamic rule in this part of Afghanistan.
About the Speaker
Judith A. Lerner is an art historian specializing in the visual culture of Greater Iran (i.e., Sasanian Persia and Sogdian Central Asia). As a specialist in glyptic art, she studies the seals and sealings of Achaemenid and Sasanian Iran, Bactria and Sogdiana; she also publishes on the funerary furnishings of Sogdians and other Central Asians who lived in China, and on the revival of Achaemenid and Sasanian imagery in Qajar relief sculpture of the nineteenth century. She is a Research Associate at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University, and co-editor of the series, Inner and Central Asian Art and Archaeology.
