Clay, conical seal with an incised circle and nine (9) shallow holes on the sealing surface. It is dated in the Middle or the Late Neolithic period ( 5800-5300 BC ).

Morphology of the object:

Conical seal made of grey clay. It is hand-made with care though, because the surface was slipped and smoothed. So no finger traces were left on it, as it has happened with other clay seals (such as photo no 6013). The top of the cone has been pierced through, obviously for suspension. The base of the cone was the sealing surface bearing the design of the stamp. It is round and has got nine shallow holes closed in an incised circle round the margin of the circular surface.

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The usual designs on seals in the greek neolithic era are usually linear forming angles, steps, meanders or labyrinthoid shapes (photos no 6013, 6016, all from Middle Neolithic Sesklo). The design of this seal is until now unique, although there have been found round seals the sealing design of which is circular in the form of a spira or concentric circles.

Seals, like figurines or ornaments / jewelery, can not be included in the objects of everyday life for neolithic people. Their existence should be connected with more complicated ideas, beyond food and surviving needs. Unfortunately, there is no relevant evidence for the inerpretation of seals, such as a sealing mark on vases or other clay artefacts. Moreover, our knowledge on the structure of the neolithic society, ruling systems or the commerce are obscure and indirect. To the above, someone could add the inclination of the researchers to interprete the function of seals according to the modern / recent way. Several functions for the seal use have been proposed: a)For tatouase. It is the most probable use, since clay, when warmed at 100 degrees cg. is enough to create a stamp on the skin even without colour. The zig-zag incisions on the shoulders of the marble figurine no. 3928 is a good example (mettere qui imagine 08). b) For designs on clothes, although no seals with traces of coloured pigment have been found and c) for designs on bread. In any case the hole of suspension prooves that there existed an owner for this seal, who kept the seal suspended round his neck / wrist and who used it for sealing either his personal belongings or objects which were someone else’ s property. The latter could mean either a wealthy person in the community or the community itself (public property). Consequently, it should, also be a prestige object. In fact, the number of seals found in the greek neolithic settlements is small -around 25-, and the majority of them , 15 in number,came from Sesklo. The site of Sesklo is an important settlement in Thessaly, which, due to its large size and the high quality of its artefacts, has been considered as the centre for several smaller neolithic settlements around it. One could go further and suggest that there existed a central communal kind of leadership responsible among others for the storing of crops / products. To this activity the seal- owner could be responsible for keeping records and take care of fare distribution. The nine holes of the stamp could be a numerical measurement.

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