FORVM`s Classical Numismatics Discussion Board

Antiquities Discussion Forums => Seals and Tesserae => Topic started by: Magistros on October 22, 2022, 07:15:35 am

Title: Byzantine seal to ID
Post by: Magistros on October 22, 2022, 07:15:35 am

I’ve been trying to ID this (13th century?) Byzantine seal. I’m not sure about the reading of the seal, any ideas? I can make out the following:

Obverse - Saint Demetrios
Reverse -

+TVΠ (ο over Π)
CΘΡΑΓΙC MI
M,V,EI T(o below T)N
AΠΟ

Title: Re: Byzantine seal to ID
Post by: Magistros on October 22, 2022, 07:16:11 am

Photo of reverse

Title: Re: Byzantine seal to ID
Post by: iolkia on November 10, 2022, 04:19:20 am

Hello,

A possibility could be that the owner's name was Demetrios and the reverse declares this fact, but I can't read it clearly.
A (very) wild guess would be:  " TYΠO[C] CΦΡΑΓΙ[ΔΟ]C MHΝΥΕΙ ΤΟ[Ν] Δ[ΕC]ΠO[THN].

Regards.
Iolkia

Title: Re: Byzantine seal to ID
Post by: Gert on November 12, 2022, 05:23:03 am

Very interesting! A step on the way, but not quite there yet. I'd say your reading of MHNYEI is certain, as is the first word, typos (imprint, but the case remains unclear), and the reading should revolve around that. I am not sure what is being 'revealed' by what yet.

The genitive sphragidos is expected of course (impression of the seal), but the abbreviation 'sphragi(do)s' is problematic, as that is also the nominative form of the word. I think a delta would have to be there.

Regards
Gert

Title: Re: Byzantine seal to ID
Post by: iolkia on November 12, 2022, 12:24:20 pm

Hello,

I mean, the translation would be:
“The imprint of the seal (on the obverse) namely St Demetrios, reveals the (name of the) owner. So the owner‘s name would also be Demetrios.  But I agree, the abbreviation of the word „Sphragidos” is quite peculiar.

Regards,
Iolkia

Title: Re: Byzantine seal to ID
Post by: Gert on November 12, 2022, 03:52:36 pm

Your reading makes sense in itself, it is just that the grammatical cases of typos and sphragis are not clear on the seal. If anything, it reads 'sphragis', not 'sphragidos', which is a problem.

On a positive note, looking in Wassiliou-Seibt's corpus of metric seals, I could find contemporary parallels where the seal's owner is designated 'despotes' (nos 1772 and 2700). So we know the term was used this way at this time. Also, the last line could well read Δ,ΠO, with a superscript T.

A parallel for the usage of 'typos sphragidos' for this purpose (as referring to the name of seal's owner) would also be welcome, but this I couldn't find.

Regards
Gert