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LOT 0933
Byzantine Inscribed Lead Spindle Whorl
5TH-6TH CENTURY A.D.
3/4 in. (2.66 grams, 18 mm).
Discoid with central void and portion of the shank embedded; inscribed with Greek characters '+AEB Φ BEPETEAI'. [No Reserve]
ProvenanceAcquired on the London, UK, art market in the 1990s.
From a gentleman's private collection.
Cf. Tal, O., Piasetzky-David, M., ‘Inscribed Spindle Whorls from a Byzantine Burial Cave at Yavne-Yam, Israel’ in Israel Exploration Journal, vol.70, no.1 (2020), pp.106-113, for similar example in stone (basalt).
FootnotesSimilar objects could have been manufactured to look like spindle whorls, while they were in fact used as beads and/or amulets. The current evidence may suggest that these items were burial goods for females. They are sometimes seen incised with Greek letters and symbols
that seem to suggest a cryptic onomata barbara formula. In this context, they can be viewed as mystical objects with the function of transmitting a message to the Other World, and the sheer mass of letters intended to convey the idea of an authoritative communication inaccessible to ordinary human being.
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