Abstract/Summary

Occurring at the dawn of Mesopotamian urban civilization, the body of evidence relating to collaborative activity by groups of cities is most notably represented by the so-called City Seals, attested by seal impressions on clay tablets and sealings from a small number of sites dating to the late fourth and early third millennia BCE, the Uruk III and Early Dynastic I periods. Of these sites, Ur is the most significant in terms both of the evidence it yielded during Woolley’s famous excavations there and of the key importance of Ur as the most frequently attested city featuring in that evidence. In this article, we explore the nature of the city seal material and Ur’s role within it, while considering the participation of other cities arguably attested in this challenging body of evidence.