Yes, 7th century for sure. The
obverse has an invocational
monogram 'Theotoke boethei', asking the
Mother of God as 'God-bearer' (Theotokos, in vocative 'Theotoke') to 'aid' the seal's owner. That means
his name should be on the
reverse, possibly with
his rank or office, but unfortunately some detail is lost. I do think a plausible reading of the
monogram is IWANNOV -omega and alpha below, two N's left and right, which should leave OV at the top. The letters in the fields make up the last
part of the seal's owner's
identification. Normally, there should be
his rank or office divided into four parts, for example AP-OV-PA-TWN (apo hypaton) or PA-TR-IK-IW (patrikios). But none of the common ranks seem to fit. An interesting possibility is that the upper fields have [V]I - OV ('huios' means 'son'), which would leave the
patronym in the lower fields, but I can't say for certain what that would be.
Regards
Gert
----
As illustration, two
seals from my database. The first one also has a
patronym with the word 'huios' in the
legend. The second one follows my proposed reading of the
monogram of your seal with IV-OV in the
field.
----
Martinos, apo eparchon, son of Ambros.
Byzantine lead seal (26mm, 16.22 gram) c. 7th century AD
+ΘEOT
- KE BOH[Θ]H MAPTNW in four lines
+AΠOEΠAPXWN VIWA[M]BP in four lines
----
Johannes, son of Meze, apo hypaton.
Byzantine lead seal late 7th century
Cruciform
monogram IWANNOV. In the four angles, VI - OV - ME - ZE
Cruciform
monogram AΠO VΠATWN
Zacos/Veglery 363; 9.80g; 25mm;
good fine
