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Author Topic: Small Lead Seal or Bead with Animal? from Caesarea Maritima  (Read 598 times)

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Offline v-drome

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Small Lead Seal or Bead with Animal? from Caesarea Maritima
« on: April 29, 2022, 01:31:13 am »
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)

Offline Gert

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Re: Small Lead Seal or Bead with Animal? from Caesarea Maritima
« Reply #1 on: May 09, 2022, 05:00:37 am »
A galley with rowers?

Offline v-drome

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Re: Small Lead Seal or Bead with Animal? from Caesarea Maritima
« Reply #2 on: May 09, 2022, 06:33:17 am »
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! 

Offline v-drome

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Re: Small Lead Seal or Bead with Animal? from Caesarea Maritima
« Reply #3 on: May 09, 2022, 01:31:13 pm »
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.

Offline Joe Sermarini

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Re: Small Lead Seal or Bead with Animal? from Caesarea Maritima
« Reply #4 on: May 23, 2022, 09:21:25 am »
An eagle flying left with something (a fish) in it talons?
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Offline v-drome

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Re: Small Lead Seal or Bead with Animal? from Caesarea Maritima
« Reply #5 on: May 23, 2022, 05:15:33 pm »
Thanks, all.  To me, in hand, it is starting to look more like some type of symbol rather than an animal.  Here is a drawing of what I "think" I see.  Sorry it is not much help!  We may never know for certain unless a better preserved example shows up.

Online Jay GT4

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Re: Small Lead Seal or Bead with Animal? from Caesarea Maritima
« Reply #6 on: May 23, 2022, 06:54:41 pm »
At first look, to me it appears to be an eagle

Offline v-drome

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Re: Small Lead Seal or Bead with Animal? from Caesarea Maritima
« Reply #7 on: May 23, 2022, 07:40:43 pm »
Hi, Jay.  Yeah that's the problem.  In hand the figure looks quite symmetrical.  Only in the photos does it appear to be wings and talons, head and tail.  There is so much surface damage, color variation, and corrosion.  Nothing I have tried with lighting and angle seems to change that illusion.  It is very frustrating.

Offline Virgil H

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Re: Small Lead Seal or Bead with Animal? from Caesarea Maritima
« Reply #8 on: May 25, 2022, 01:04:50 am »
I have no idea, but at all times I was reading this and looking at pics I was thinking scorpion. Doesn't look like an eagle. It also reminds me of another mythical creature I cannot think of the name of now. Maybe a chimera. But, even your symbol drawing looks like a stylized scorpion.

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Offline v-drome

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Re: Small Lead Seal or Bead with Animal? from Caesarea Maritima
« Reply #9 on: May 25, 2022, 03:59:39 am »
Thanks, Virgil.  Scorpion is definitely a possibility, or sea monster too.

 

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