The role of seals in the Chinese culture can hardly be underestimated. For the last 3,000 years they have been used in both official and private spheres. The earliest examples of seals come from the Shang dynasty (c. 16th - 11th century BC) from the archeological sites at Anyang. However, very little is known about their usage at this early stage, it is only starting from the Spring and Autumn period (770-476BC) that we begin to see an increased quantity of seals paired with textual references to them.