Antiquities Discussion Forums > Seals and Tesserae

Small Lead Seal or Bead with Animal? from Caesarea Maritima

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v-drome:
Hi, all.  Here is a very difficult, very small lead seal from Caesarea.  The figure at first seemed like a crocodile, but if the stripes above and below it are legs, there are three pairs of them.  Maybe a shrimp?  Or something else.  Any ideas would be welcome.  I took easily a hundred photos and just can not get anything better than this.  I have inverted the obverse image to give different views, but the figure seems to be fairly symmetrical.  The hole is a little irregular also, so I suppose this could have been some kind of bead or other decoration, as well.  Let me know what you think!  Thanks, V-drome.

BCC LSR7
Lead seal or Bead
Roman 1st -3rd cent CE?
Obv: Uncertain figure, perhaps crocodile or shrimp?
Rev: Blank
15.5 x 8.5 x 4.0mm  2.57gm.
Surface find Caesarea Maritima, 1972
(click for larger pic)

Gert:
A galley with rowers?

v-drome:
Hi Gert.  I though about that, but the ends curve up and down fairly equally, though it is hard to see even in hand.  Sort of like a backwards, sideways "S".  And the "oars" project equally up and down.  Not like any galley I have seen.  Very strange! 

v-drome:
Gert, the link you sent me in the "scorpion, hare, and snake tessera" post led me to a tessera with an eagle which could look something like the image on my seal.  Another friend had also suggested an eagle, so maybe this is a possibility.  Thanks, again!

https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=8103069

edit: Actually, now the more I look at it the less likely this seems, also.

Joe Sermarini:
An eagle flying left with something (a fish) in it talons?

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