The CMS Archive
The Collection
The CMS Archive was collected as seals and sealings were documented for publication in the CMS Series. It holds information on Aegean seals and sealings but also seals recovered in Aegean Bronze Age contexts but imported from elsewhere. Selected data concerning seals belonging to other cultures and time periods as well as forgeries are also available.
A mineralogical collection, reproductions of objects related to Aegean glyptic as well as documents related to the history of the project are also housed in Heidelberg.
Documentation of Ancient Objects
The Archive houses information on more than 10.000 seals and 12.000 different seal faces.
Thousands of index cards record information on every piece handled by CMS scholars. These cards constitute a kind of ID for each piece as they record its characteristics in detail. In addition, they contain unpublished notes with the opinions of the respective scholars on problematic aspects of the various pieces, such as the material of the seal.
The information is accompanied by photographs and slides of the documented objects. Most images are black and white but selected colour images are also available. The Archive is estimated to be housing ca. 100.000 negatives.
A highlight of the collection are more than 23.000 plasticine, silicon and plaster impressions and casts of seal faces, ancient seal impressions, backsides of sealings as well as ancient fingerprints. All these materials render the seal face accurately allowing even the slightest scratches to be reproduced. The positive images on them provide a clear view of the imprinted surface which can be studied without the visual intereference of shades and the colour as well as texture of the original object.
Finely shaded pencil drawings of the seal faces created by the impressions and casts also constitute part of the collection.
The comprehensive collection is unique in that it allows the comparative study of Aegean glyptic in one place, since the orininal objects are kept in collections all over the world.
Modern impression of the seal face of CMS I no. 5
Cast of the base of the sealing HMS 10/12
Drawing of the seal face of CMS V Suppl. 1B no. 111
Other Archival Material
A comprehensive collection of stones and minerals from all over the world, a reproduction of an Aegean bow lathe as well as replicas of Aegean seals and sealings are also kept at the archive.
Selected documents and objects that tell the story of the beginning and development of the project are also housed in Heidelberg. These include letters of correspondence dating to the very start of the CMS project, the notebooks of the first scholars working for the CMS, the PC in which the first version of the CMS Databases was drafted and saved, as well as posters and images created for exhibitions held by the CMS project in Marburg.
Letter of F. Matz to the Kentrikon Archaeologikon Symvoulion (1957)