Seal of Tarkasnawa, King of Mira

Description Luwian hieroglyphs surround a figure in royal dress. The inscription, repeated in cuneiform around the rim, gives the seal owner's name: Tarkasnawa, king of Mira. The name of the ruler was previously transliterated into English as Tarkondemos and Tarkummuwa. Other inscriptions naming Tarkasnawa of Mira are known, including seals found at Hattusa (the capital of the Hittite Empire) and the Karabel rock relief carving near Izmir, Turkey. Located in west-central Anatolia, Mira was a vassal state of the Hittite Empire. This seal, originally published in the 1860s, was purchased in Izmir by its first known modern owner, A. Jovanoff. Its famous bilingual inscription provided the first clues for deciphering Luwian hieroglyphs, which were previously called Hittite hieroglyphs.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
10/02/1974	Treatment	cleaned; coated
12/06/1977	Treatment	other
12/20/1977	Examination	x-ray fluorescence

Exhibitions

• The Taste of Maryland: Art Collecting in Maryland 1800-1934. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1984.
• Forgotten Realms. Heirs of the Hittite Empire. Musée du Louvre, Paris. 2019.

Provenance [Purchased at Smyrna (Izmir), ca. 1850]; A. Iovanoff, Constantinople (Istanbul), by 1861; Joseph Brummer, New York and Paris, 1925, by purchase [Brummer inv. no. P2348]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1925, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Inscriptions [Translation] In Luwian hieroglyphs and cuneiform: Tarkasnawa, King of Mira

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1925