Intaglios: Imprints of Identity - Exhibit & Seminar by Josephine Carroll-Walden
Curatorial Rationale:
Intaglios and seals were personal items used to identify a person in the ancient world. Whether used as plain seals or worn as jewellery, these inscribed gems when pressed into wax or clay authenticated legal and administrative documents, both identifying their owner and protecting their owner’s identity.
The material, style and artistic quality of intaglios could also signify one’s identity in term of class, political status, kinship, and religious affiliations. Intaglios could also embody the owner of the seal, or the image represented on the seal. Religious imagery, magic, and apotropaic symbols featured frequently on intaglios as a means of personal protection. As such, intaglios are highly personal items that speak to broader themes of status and identity in the ancient world.
This exhibition explores the importance of personal identity and identity protection in the ancient world through the assemblage of intaglios and seals in the RD Milns Antiquities Museum’s collection.
Curated by Josephine Carroll-Walden & Brianna Sands
About Classics and Ancient History Seminars
The seminars of UQ's Discipline of Classics and Ancient History are held on Fridays at 4 pm.
Their format is in person and live on online.
The physical venue for all seminars is room E302 of the historic Forgan-Smith Building (building no. 1) on UQ's St Lucia campus in Brisbane.
For the online link please contact the seminar convenor Associate Professor David M. Pritchard (d.pritchard@uq.edu.au).
Seminars 2-3 and 6-7 will be recorded for subsequent publication as open-access podcasts.
Professor Maria Wyke (Seminar 2) is the 2026 Visiting Professor of UQ's Centre for Western Civilisation.
Dr Roslyne Bell comes to Brisbane as a guest of UQ's Friends of Antiquity. She will be delivering the keynote address at the 2026 Ancient History Day on Saturday 21 March.