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Cylinder seals are a neglected topic at best of times. I've never seen a thread about them. So here are 5 reasons why I think these things should be much better known in media studies (and not just because they are very ancient and come mostly from #Mesopotamia). (1/5) 
Quite indestructible, these tiny carved stones are our main source of knowledge for about 3000 years of image-making (c. 3500 - 500 BC), from the time of the world's first cities to the Persian Empire. But they also had many functions, and were not simply "art objects" (2/5)
Cylinder seals are among the earliest devices for mechanically reproducing complex images; done by rolling the seal onto a strip or block of clay to make raised figures and signs appear (modern impressions on display below). So, they stand at the beginning of print media (3/5)
Cylinder seals were impressed on cuneiform documents but also marked clay stoppers of jars containing food or drink (image, Frankfort 1939). In this way, tiny images of gods, kings, spirits were made to guard and authorise the contents - an early form of commodity branding (4/5)
Walter Benjamin ignored them in his famous (1936) essay on the 'Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.' He started with Greek coins and casts. I don't know why. It's time to put the record straight on these much earlier technological marvels from #Mesopotamia (5/5)
