Byzantine Gold Cross Pendant

With remains of notch detailing to the outer edges of the arms, two links of the suspension chain. 2.58 grams, 38 mm



Ex DRG Coins and Antiquities, Essex, UK. Ex private Merseyside, UK, collection.

The example of a bronze cross corresponds, in shape and style, to a typology also known in organic material, specifically in wood. Dating this typology is difficult, as it is not easy to identify its place of origin or the context with which these crosses were associated.

Piriform body with impressed hatched bands to the shoulder and upper body, domed filler-hole, intended to be filled with explosive liquid and wick, used as a hand grenade. 802 grams, 18 cm



From a specialist collection of militaria, London, UK, collected 1990s onwards.

; the shape finds correspondence with a fire grenade in the Kars Museum, no.14.09.2009. Apart from the use of siphons or manual flame-throwers called cheirosiphona, special corps of Roman soldiers employed terracotta grenades, in the form of small jars, abundantly evidenced in archaeological excavations. They were called μεσαία kακαβιά or κυτροκακάβια where the former had a bulbous shape and the latter a more cylindrical form.

Bifacial lead plaque with figurative decoration: obverse with Saint George, nimbate, on his horse killing a fallen foe with his spear; 'ΓΕΟΡΓ' label above the horse's neck, raised border with pellets and pellet clusters; reverse with relief pattern of a double circle decorated with double arcs forming a cross pellet to the centre. 48.8 grams, 64 mm



Private collection Mr S.A., Switzerland, before 1992, thence by descent.

According to the Christian tradition, Saint George would have lived between the end of the 3rd century and the beginning of the 4th century: born into a noble Christian family, he became an officer in the Roman army and was then named a prefect by Diocletian. But when the same emperor decided to resume the persecutions, Saint George became a victim despite his important political rank. His role in the development of the faith is so important that he is included among the Great Martyrs of the Eastern Church and his fight against the dragon becomes a symbol par excellence of the fight for Good which defeats Evil. In the Christian symbolism of the Middle Ages, the circle, a perfect geometric shape which has neither beginning nor end, designates the universe whose centre is the source and thus evokes Jesus, the man-light.