Late Bronze Age stamp-seals with negative impressions of seeds from Eastern Hungary

Abstract

The study of plant imprints has a long history in archaeobotany and it became an essential tool for reconstructing the agricultural practices of the past. However, in some cases these imprints are deliberately structured in a way that may suggest interpreting them as symbols, and therefore understanding their manner of organization would help us to reflect on the way people thought about their plants. This applies to the four stamp-seals that I present here. Three of them were found at Berettyóújfalú-Papp-zug and one was found at Baks-Temetőpart. Each seal is dated to the Gáva period and has negatives of seeds on its active face. This study deals with the identification of the seed negatives and the possibilities of interpreting them.