LOT 0957

Byzantine Bronze Stamp Seal with Inscription

6TH-8TH CENTURY A.D.

3/4 in. (12.3 grams, 19 mm).

With a short shank and oblate pierced finial, hexafoil base; to the underside a reversed legend 'ANAL[Γ} / ΦOΔ[D]O / ***'. [No Reserve]

Acquired on the London, UK, art market in the 1990s.
From a gentleman's private collection.

See Wamser, L., Die Welt von Byzanz - Europas Östliches Erbe, München, 2004, items 725-726, for type and discussion; see also Kakish, R., ‘Ancient bread stamps from Jordan’ in Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, vol.14, 2014, no.2, pp.19-31, nos.4A and 9A, for the shape, but in clay.

The seal was probably used for stamping bread in a church. Usually these stamps had two parts: a flat surface with inscriptions or geometric shapes, and a handle. The inscription is an enigma: the upper part can be read [Aθ]ANA[TOC] = Immortal and (if we accept the L like an inversed Γ (gamma) [A]Γ[ΙΟϹ] i.e. Saint = Saint Immortal, one of the three invocation to God (Saint God, Saint Mighty, Saint Immortal). However, the second row of letters is in Greek and Latin (φο-do) if we accept the letter D as a transliteration of the Greek letter Delta.