Collon, Dominique 1940-

PERSONAL:

Born May 18, 1940, in Belgium; daughter of Alexandre and Petronella Collon; children: Gerard. Education: Columbia University, Ph.D., 1971. Religion: Christian.

CAREER:

British Museum, London, curator of western Asiatic antiquities, 1988-2005.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Society of Antiquaries of London (fellow), Deutschen Archaeologischen Institut (corresponding member).

WRITINGS:

(With others) Sondages au flanc sud du Tell de Qala'at el-Mudiq: néolithique, chalcolithique, bronze ancien, Centre belge de recherches archéologiques à Apamée de Syrie (Brussels, Belgium), 1975.

The Seal Impressions from Tell Atchana/Alalakh, Butzon & Bercker (Kevelaer, Germany), 1975.

Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum: Cylinders Seals II, Akkadian-Post Akkadian-Ur III Periods, British Museum Publications (London, England), 1982.

The Alalakh Cylinder Seals, British Archeological Reports (London, England), 1982.

Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum: Cylinder Seals III, Isin/Larsa and Old Babylonian Periods, British Museum Publications (London, England), 1986.

First Impressions: Cylinder Seals in the Ancient Near East, British Museum Press (London, England), 1987, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 1988, revised edition, British Museum Press (London, England), 2005.

Near Eastern Seals, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 1990.

Ancient Near Eastern Art, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 1995.

(Editor and contributor) 7,000 Years of Seals, British Museum Press (London, England), 1997.

Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum: Cylinder Seals IV, Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Periods, British Museum Press (London, England), 2001.

Contributor to books, including Art and Empire: Treasures from Assyria in the British Museum, Harry N. Abrams (New York, NY), 1995; reference books; and shorter publications. Coeditor, Iraq (academic journal), 1979—.

Some of Collon's writings have been published in Japanese.

SIDELIGHTS:

After the publication of her first book, Dominique Collon became a renowned art historian, antiquarian, and curator for seals, Mesopotamia, and Anatolia at the British Museum. Her specialty lies in the study of ancient cylinder seals, archeological discoveries that provide important clues about the civilizations that used them. Collon has written several subsequent books on this topic.

As explained by C.C. Lamberg-Karlovsky in Choice, cylinder seals were used in the ancient Near East to make impressions on clay documents detailing sales, receipt of goods, ownership, and other official and commercial uses. The earliest known cylinder seals date to approximately 3500 B.C.E. Their impressions served as a kind of signature to convey the authority of the sealer and were used like signet rings. The seals are usually ornate, are made from a variety of materials, and are carved with a design in intaglio which appears in relief when they are rolled out on clay. Eventually, these seals evolved into a kind of minor art form and are now valued both for aesthetic and archeological reasons. Collon's book First Impressions: Cylinder Seals in the Ancient Near East offers a comprehensive look at the Near Eastern cylinder seals. It traces their uses and developments, and explains some of the mythology associated with their designs. Though some of Collon's expert knowledge might prove daunting to the nonspecialist, Lamberg-Karlovsky strongly recommended First Impressions for public, college, and university libraries, calling it an "invaluable record of this Near Eastern art form for decades to come." First Impressions was the first general book on the subject to be published since 1939. Edith Porada stated the importance of Collon's contribution in the American Journal of Archaeology: "First Impressions was written for a wider public than [the earlier book]. The terminology is more fully explained, and the geographical charts are simpler to use. The chronology is also easier to follow." First Impressions was described by J.D. Muhly in Classical World as "one of the best general introductions to a scholarly discipline ever written." Muhly called Collon a "superb scholar with a great gift for synthesizing her material to make it attractive and intelligible to a general audience."

Sphragistics, or the study of seals, is also the subject of 7,000 Years of Seals. This collection of essays contains descriptions and explanations by several experts in the field and includes many of the seals housed in the British Museum. Collon and her contributors range from the neolithic Near East and Early Dynastic Egypt to the seals of Georgian England. The entries discuss the multiple nature of the seals as jewelry, art, and bureaucratic stamps.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Journal of Archaeology, October, 1988, Edith Porada, review of First Impressions: Cylinder Seals in the Ancient Near East, pp. 602-604; January, 1997, Nicolo Marchetti, review of Ancient Near Eastern Art, pp. 167-169.

Antiquaries Journal, January, 1984, review of The Alalakh Cylinder Seals, pp. 138-139.

Choice, March, 1988, C.C. Lamberg-Karlovsky, review of First Impressions, p. 1158.

Classical World, January-February, 1992, J.D. Muhly, review of First Impressions, p. 246; September-October, 1992, review of Near Eastern Seals, pp. 48-49.

Religious Studies Review, October, 1984, review of Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum: Cylinders Seals II, Akkadian-Post Akkadian-Ur III Periods and The Alalakh Cylinder Seals, pp. 389-390; April, 1997, review of Ancient Near Eastern Art, p. 164.

Times Literary Supplement, March 19, 1999, Nigel Spivey, review of 7,000 Years of Seals, p. 29.