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Author Topic: Hebrew inscription (?) on a 4th century lead seal  (Read 388 times)

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Offline Gert

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Hebrew inscription (?) on a 4th century lead seal
« on: June 05, 2023, 10:52:44 am »
Hi,

This tiny seal has quite a neat and well-engraved Christogram on one side. Below is a wavy line and an X. The reverse seems to be paleo-Hebrew (or is it another script?), which is why I post this piece here (it was also bought from an Israeli auction house). Any comment is appreciated.

Another photo with the reverse again (looking at my first photo, I think it's not the right way up). It's also a bit larger.

Best regards

Gert


Offline Gert

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Re: Hebrew inscription (?) on a 4th century lead seal
« Reply #1 on: February 03, 2024, 05:44:01 pm »
I got a reply off-board that the legend is not recognized as Hebrew. I wonder if any of the palaeo-Hebrew readers here agree with this.
Regards
Gert

Offline Lech Stępniewski

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Re: Hebrew inscription (?) on a 4th century lead seal
« Reply #2 on: February 03, 2024, 06:47:17 pm »
Snake below Christogram is intriguing. Like on this famous coin:



This "script" seems to have more in common with Latin letters. Maybe it is something like "barbarous" products, made by someone who was illiterate?
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Offline v-drome

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Re: Hebrew inscription (?) on a 4th century lead seal
« Reply #3 on: February 03, 2024, 07:48:23 pm »
I know commenting without knowledge is discouraged, and I have none, but could it be Coptic or Armenian script?

Offline Aarmale

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Re: Hebrew inscription (?) on a 4th century lead seal
« Reply #4 on: February 04, 2024, 05:57:13 pm »
It does not look like Hebrew to me, certainly not of the period. Hebrew on a Christian seal from this time would also be surprising, and to my knowledge, unique.
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היינו דאמרי אינשי: טבא חדא פילפלתא חריפתא ממלי צנא קרי

Offline Gert

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Re: Hebrew inscription (?) on a 4th century lead seal
« Reply #5 on: February 05, 2024, 03:48:49 am »
Thanks to all for the replies! (First of all, one of my considerations for palaeo-Hebrew, which I neglected to share, is that this seal was bought from an Israeli collection, but with no find spot specified.) But I see Aarmale's second confirmation it is not likely to be Hebrew. I had a look at some Armenian/Syriac inscriptions from late antiquity and I don't see much to go on there either.

Any script other than Latin and Greek would indeed be unique in combination with a christogram. However, to interpret the legend as Latin or Greek would imply that it is very, very crude. This does not align with the rendition of the christogram, which is very neatly and 'professionally' engraved in the seal stamp, seriffed and all. That variety in craftmanship on a single die is hard to explain. If the engraver had no knowledge of the Latin or Greek alphabets - as could be seen everywhere in public inscirptions - then how did he engrave such a nice christogram? Or did he deliberately blunder the legend, as on 'magical' amulets?

Lastly, I do not think a combination of a christogram and Hebrew should be excluded as an a priori impossibility. The christogram does not even need to be Christian (which is something the legend might make clear).
Regards
Gert

Offline Lech Stępniewski

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Re: Hebrew inscription (?) on a 4th century lead seal
« Reply #6 on: February 05, 2024, 06:34:05 am »
Or did he deliberately blunder the legend, as on 'magical' amulets?

Magical amulet would be an interesting possibility but what about pearl ring, like on die. Is it present on amulets? This thing was apparently intended to be a coin-like.
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Offline Gert

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Re: Hebrew inscription (?) on a 4th century lead seal
« Reply #7 on: February 05, 2024, 02:13:22 pm »
No, that neat pearled border is typical for seals, not amulets. And this is most definitely as seal, as it has a channel running through which is not visible on the photo. It would be highly unusual to see magical legends or iconography on seals.
Regards
Gert

Offline SC

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Re: Hebrew inscription (?) on a 4th century lead seal
« Reply #8 on: February 10, 2024, 08:44:40 am »
An aramaic script?

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(Shawn Caza, Ottawa)

Offline Lech Stępniewski

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Re: Hebrew inscription (?) on a 4th century lead seal
« Reply #9 on: February 10, 2024, 11:42:33 am »
An aramaic script?

Not impossible. Everybody can noticed some similarities. But Gert needs a real expert.
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Offline Yoel S

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Re: Hebrew inscription (?) on a 4th century lead seal
« Reply #10 on: February 10, 2024, 03:39:51 pm »
Just a guess, but the first line looks like:
Yud Nun Mem Lamed

Yud Nun could be Yeshu Notzri (Jesus the Nazerene).
The logical conclusion to that would be like INRI (Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum), so maybe mem lamed is the beginning of "melekh" (king).
But it's closer to a lamed than a yud (missing the yud's crossbar).
And if it is "melech", then where is the final kaf? I don't see anything that looks like it.

 

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