‘Bottle-brush’ Tree and Its Role in Creating Standard Compositions on Neo-Assyrian Seals in the Linear-style

Neo-Assyrian glyptics produced several standard compositions which were repeatedly reproduced over the three centuries of the Neo-Assyrian empire’s existence, as attested by the numerous seals engraved with almost identical scenes of rituals or hunts. The canon of these compositions could be upheld by applying a rigid scheme in the scenes’ planning and maintaining the same technique of their execution. The seal-cutters often used simple incisions as outlines for the planned scene, which they subsequently masked as floral elements resembling a bottle-brush. These elements of the compositions provide a key to exploring the seal-engraving techniques of the first millennium BC.