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Details
LOT 0789
Byzantine Redware Bread Seal
CIRCA 6TH CENTURY A.D.
4 in. (239 grams, 10.2 cm).
Bearing a central hand motif and surrounding inscription in Greek letters 'K E R A Y I O I T H I M (?)' probably the mark of the producer. [No Reserve]
Provenance
Acquired 1990s-early 2000s.
East Anglian private collection.
Literature
Cf. Friedenberg, D.M., ‘The evolution and Uses of Jewish Byzantine Stamp Seals’ in The Journal of the Walters Art Gallery, Vol. 52/53 (1994/1995), pp.1-21, figs. 18,18b, for similar stamps.
Footnotes
Museum collections hold many stamps or seals of different forms, materials and shapes, some bearing inscriptions or images. These could have been used on bread, dough or on fresh clay to stamp amphoras, bricks, lamps and other clay objects.
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