Results3:Susa

It was in this period of time(Susa, last centuries of fourth millennium B.C.) that for the first time engraved stones were used as seals.Stamp seals were almost completely replaced by roller-shaped and lengthwise perforated seal-stones called cylinder seals.They were made of marble, of variously coloured limestone, and also of a composite material which was probably faience.The designs are almost always linear or employ hatching. Earlier the designs mostly included men hunting, tending cattle, hoeing the ground, making and filling storage vessels, storing grain in silos which are not unlike Egyptian ones in outline, baking, weaving, and carrying an exalted personage or statue in a procession or a bearded warrior, doubtless the ruler, is shown transfixing with arrows a host of nude enemies who seem to have threatened a noble temple on a terrace. But later in this period the designs mostly consist of tablets inscribed only with numerals which are called Proto-Elamite, the repertory of which consists almost exclusively of animals or monsters such as griffins. Many other designs are still obscure , but they may be related to protective spirits or the relationship between the vital forces of nature.(I saw many of these in Metropolitan musuem, though I am not sure if they all belonged to Susa, but they were used as seals and the designs were really interesting.).

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