A Survey on Motifs and Inscriptions of Sassanid Seals from Buali Museum

Seals are one of the most important archaeological findings that provide reliable information about geographical names and job positions of the past. During Sasanian period seals were used by individual government officials. The use of seals expanded with the growth of Sasanian economy. In the archives of the Bu’ali Museum of Hamadan, 23 Sassanid seals from the Asadabad area are kept. Eleven of these seals have motifs of human, six have animal motifs, one has hand motif and two others hybrid mythological. The present research deals with the ten seals. Among these ten seals, five have human image (four a man’s image and one a woman image), four seals have animal designs (three bull and one ram) and one is a monogram seal. The purpose of this research is to document, read inscriptions and examine the roles of these seals.