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Gems of Heaven
Recent Research on Engraved Gemstones in Late Antiquity,
c. AD 200600
Edited by Chris Entwistle and Nol Adams
Front Cover: Sardonyx cameo of Julia Domna as the Dea Caelestis.
British Museum, GR 1956,0517.1. See, Marsden, Pl. 2, p. 164
ISBN 978-086159-177-0
ISSN 1747-3640
The Trustees of the British Museum 2011
Second printing 2012
Contents
Foreword
List of Contributors
Illustration Acknowledgements
v
vi
viii
10
25
39
50
62
69
75
82
Grylloi
Ken Lapatin
88
99
Selected Antique Gems from Israel: Excavated Glyptics from Roman-Byzantine Tombs
Shua Amorai-Stark and Malka Hershkovitz
105
114
Intaglios and Cameos from Gaul in the 3rd and 4th Centuries AD
Hlne Guiraud
127
130
135
149
163
Love and Passion: Personal Cameos in Late Antiquity from the Content Collection
Helen Molesworth and Martin Henig
179
186
193
208
214
221
229
Inscriptions on Portrait Gems and Discs in Late Antiquity (4th to 6th centuries AD):
Between Epigraphical Tradition and Numismatic Particularism
Sbastien Aubry
239
Roman Intaglios Oddly Set: the Transformative Power of the Metalwork Mount
Genevra Kornbluth
248
257
263
Foreword
Gems of Heaven | v
List of Contributors
Dr Nol Adams
c/o Department of Prehistory and Europe
British Museum
London WC1B 3DG
UK
dnagranat@msn.com
Professor Shua Amorai-Stark
Kaye College of Education
Beer-Sheva
Israel
shua@macam.ac.il
Dr Sbastien Aubry
Rue Jardinire 91
CH-2300 La Chaux-de-Fonds (NE)
Switzerland
sebastien.aubry@unine.ch
Dr Graa Cravinho
Instituto de Histria da Arte
Universidade Nova de Lisboa
Av. de Berna, 26-C
P 1069-061 Lisboa
Portugal
graca.silvaster@gmail.com
Professor Dr Vronique Dasen
Institut des Sciences de lAntiquit et du monde byzantin
Sminaire d'archologie classique
Universit de Fribourg
16 rue Pierre-Aeby
1700 Fribourg
Switzerland
veronique.dasen@unifr.ch
Professor Dr Josef Engemann
Moosstrae 145a
5020 Salzburg
Austria
ngmann-weil@aon.at
Chris Entwistle
Department of Prehistory and Europe
British Museum
London WC1B 3DG
UK
centwistle@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk
Professor Chris Faraone
Department of Classics
University of Chicago
1115 E. 58th St
Chicago, IL 60637
USA
cf12@midway.uchicago.edu
Dr Elisabetta Gagetti
Masaryk University
Faculty of Arts
Department of Archaeology and Museology
Arna Novaka, 1
60200 Brno
Czech Republic
elisabetta.gagetti@gmail.com
Dr Tams Gesztelyi
Institue of Classical Philology
University of Debrecen
H-4032 Debrecen
Hungary
gesztelyi.tamas@arts.unideb.hu
vi | Gems of Heaven
Dr Richard Gordon
Universitt Erfurt
Postfach90 0221
99105 Erfurt
Germany
gordon.erfurt@gmx.org
Professor Hlne Guiraud
BAL 59
2 boulevard d'Arcole
31000 Toulouse
France
guiraud.helene@numericable.fr
Dr Felicity Harley-McGowan
School of Culture and Communication
The University of Melbourne
Victoria 3010
Australia
fharley@unimelb.edu.au
Dr Martin Henig
Institute of Archaeology
36 Beaumont Street
Oxford, OX1 2PG
UK
martin.henig@arch.ox.ac.uk
Dr Malka Hershkovitz
Institute of Archaeology
Hebrew University
Mount Scopos, 91905
Jerusalem
Israel
mhershkovitz@huc.edu
Dr Genevra Kornbluth
10508 Forestgate Place
Glenn Dale
MD 20769
USA
contact@KornbluthPhoto.com
Dr Antje Krug
c/o Deutsches Archologisches Institut
Podbielskiallee 69-71
D - 14195 Berlin
Germany
krugantje@arcor.de
Dr Ken Lapatin
Department of Antiquities
The J. Paul Getty Museum
1200 Getty Center Drive
Suite 1000V
Los Angeles, CA 90049-1745
USA
KLapatin@getty.edu
Dr idem Lle
1679 Henley Court
Wheeling
Illinois, 60090
USA
cigdemlule@yahoo.com
Dr Adrian Marsden
Norfolk Landscape Archaeology
Shirehall
Market Avenue
Norwich
NR1 3JQ
adrian.marsden@norfolk.gov.uk
List of Contributors
Professor Attilio Mastrocinque
Dipartimento di Arte, Archeologia, Storia e Societ
Universit di Verona
Via dellArtigliere 8
37129 Verona
Italy
attilio.mastrocinque@univr.it
Dr Gertrud Platz-Horster
c/o Antikensammlung
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Bodestrasse 1-3
D 19178 Berlin
Germany
gertudplatz@gmx.de
Hadrien Rambach
34 Campden Hill Towers
112 Notting Hill Gate
London W11 3QW
UK
coinadvisor@yahoo.co.uk
Helen Molesworth
Avenue du Mail 25
Geneva 1205
Switzerland
helen.molesworth@gmail.com
Dr rpd M. Nagy
Classical Collection
Museum of Fine Arts
Dzsa Gyrgy t 41
1146 Budapest
Hungary
amnagy@szepmuveszeti.hu
Dr Bruna Nardelli
Santa Croce 2333
30135 Venezia
Italy
brunanar@libero.it
Dr Emma Passmore
Department of Conservation and Scientific Research
British Museum
London WC1B 3DG
epassmore@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk
Dr Orit Peleg-Barkat
The Institute of Archaeology
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Mount Scopus, 91005
Israel
orit.peleg@mail.huji.ac.il
Illustration Acknowledgements
N. Adams: The Garnet Millennium: the Role of Seal Stones in Garnet
Studies
Pls 1,2,3,4,5,6,7, 9,10 author; Pl. 8 Kubaba Photography, New York.
N. Adams, . Lle and E. Passmore: Lithis Indikois: Preliminary
Characterisation of Garnet Seal Stones from Central and South Asia
Pl. 1 Emma Passmore; Pls Group I, 18, Group II, 111 Nol Adams
S. Amorai-Stark and M. Hershkovitz: Selected Antique Gems from
Israel: Excavated Glyptics from Roman-Byzantine Tombs
Pls 110, 1236 courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority and the
Israel Exploration Journal; Pl. 11 London, British Museum.
S. Aubry: Inscriptions on Portrait Gems in Late Antiquity (4th to 6th
centuries AD): Between Epigraphical Tradition and Numismatic
Particularism
Pl. 1 author; Pls 2,3,6,7,8,9,10,13,15,16,18,19,20,21,22,23,26,28 after
J. Spier, Late Antique and Early Christian Gems, Weisbaden, 2007, nos
20,18,76,60,52,23,43,19,42,25,45, 74,39,1,44,17: my thanks to Jeffrey
Spier; Pl. 4 Numismatica Genevensis, Auction 2 (18 November 2002),
no. 142: thanks to L. Baglione, www.ngsa.ch; Pl. 5 after J. Spier, Some
unconventional Early Byzantine Rings, in C. Entwistle and N. Adams,
Intelligible Beauty: Recent Research on Byzantine Jewellery, London,
2010, pls 3a,3c; Pl. 11 Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni
Archeologici di Napoli e Pompei, no. inv. 26054/216: thanks to P.G.
Guzzo, ssba-na@beniculturali.it; Pl. 12 after M. Henig, The Content
Cameos, Oxford, 1990, no. 45; Pls 14,29,32 after M.-L. Vollenweider
and M. Avisseau-Broustet, Intailles et cames II. Les portraits romains
du Cabinet des mdailles, Paris, 2003, nos 228, 162, 135; Pl. 17 after
M.-L. Vollenweider, Die Portrtgemmen der rmischen Republik, Mainz
am Rhein, 197274, pl. 106/8; Pl. 24 after A.M. McCann, The portraits
of Septimius Severus (MAARXXX), Roma, 1968, 183 (j), pl. XCII; Pls
25,30 E. Zwielein-Diehl, Glaspasten in Martin-von-Wagner Museum
der Universitt Wrzburg, Munich, 1986, nos 801,819; Pls 27,31 after E.
Zwielein-Diehl, Antike Gemmen des Kunsthistorischen Museums in
Wien, vol. 3, Vienna, 1991, nos 1741, 1729; Pl. 33 after E. Spagnoli and
M.C. Molinari, Le monete, in A. Salvioni (ed.), Il tesoro di Via
Alessandrina, Rome, 1990, 94, no. 17; Pl. 34 after L. Pirzio Biroli
Stefanelli, I gioielli, in A. Salvioni (ed.),Il tesoro di Via Alessandrina,
Rome, 1990, 45, no. 5.
G. Cravinho and S. Amorai-Stark: Christian Gems from Portugal in
Context
Pl.1 Luis Fraga da Silva; Pl. 2 Pedro Cravinho; Pls 3,4 after
H.H. Hofsttter and H. Pixa, Histria universal comparada, III, Lisbon,
1985, 113; Pl. 5 Braga, Museu D. Diogo de Sousa; Pls 6,28 Lisbon,
Museu Nacional de Arquelogia; Pl. 7 Conimbriga, Museu de
Conimbriga and author; Pls 8,9,10,11,12,13,26,33,34,35,36,37,38,39
author; Pls 14,15 after C.A. Ferreira de Almeida, Arte paleo-crist da
poca das Invases, Histria da Arte em Portugal, II, Lisbon 1986, 14
and 10; Pl. 16 after V.H. Correia, Conmbriga Guia das Runas,
Lisbon, 2003, 12; Pl. 17 after A.M. Alarco, F. Mayet and J. Nolen,
Runas de Coimbra, Roteiros da Arqueologia Portuguesa 2 (1989), 83;
Pl. 18 after E. Frana, Anis, braceletes e brincos de Conimbriga,
Conimbriga VIII (1969), 61; Pls 19,20,21,22,24,25 Conimbriga,
Museu Monogrfico de Conimbriga; Pl. 23 Conimbriga, Museu de
Conimbriga; Pls 27,30,31 after M. Fabio, M. Dias and M. Cunha, SIT
TIBI TERRA LEVIS Rituais Funerrios Romanos e Paleocristos em
Portugal (Catlogo de Exposio), Museu Nacional de Arqueologia,
Lisboa, Lisbon, 2008, 501; Pl. 29 Museu de Arqueologia e
Numismtica de Vila Real and author; Pl. 32 Arquivo Centro de
Arqueologia de Almadal; Pl. 33 after F. Almeida, Antiguidades da
Egitnia alguns achados dignos de nota, Arqueologia e Histria, 8
srie, 11 (1965), pl. III, no. 1.
V. Dasen: Magic and Medicine: Gems and the Power of Seals
Pl. 1 after Loeil dans lantiquit romaine, Lons-le-Saunier, 1994, fig. on
27; Pls 2,6,7,8,9 London, British Museum; Pl. 3 Paris, Cabinet des
mdailles: photo A. Mastrocinque; Pl. 4 after S. Michel, Bunte Steine
Dunkle Bildern: Magische Gemmen, Munich, 2001, pl. 24; Pl. 5 I.
Welner, Aeskulapius s Hygieit brzol gemma Lenyomatval
dsztett edny Aquincumbl (un vase orn de lempreinte dune
gemme reprsentant Esculape et Hygie trouv Aquincum),
Archaeologiai rtest 92 (1965), 424, fig. 1.
Illustration Acknowledgements
T. Gesztelyi: The Re-use and Re-interpretation of Gemstones in
Medieval Hungary
Pl. 1 after A. Tocik, Altmagyarische Grberfelder in der
Sdwestslowakei, Bratislava, 1968, Taf. LV/17; Pl. 2 after M. Hlatky, A
magyar gyr (The Hungarian Ring), Budapest, 1938, 48; Pls
3,4,5,8,13,14 National Archives of Hungary (Magyar Orszgos
Levltr), Budapest; Pl. 6 http://www.corvina.oszk.hu/images/
CoatofArms/cimerhunyadi02.jpg& imgrefurl; Pl. 7 Archives of
County Hajd-Bihar, Debrecen; Pl. 9 after E. Brandt and E. Schmidt
(eds), Antike Gemmen in deutschen Sammlungen I 2, Staatliche
Mnzsammlung Mnchen, Munich, 1970, no. 1467; Pl. 10 after J.
Jerney, Magyar Trtnelmi Tr 2, Budapest, 1855, 155, fig. 17; Pl. 11
Debrecen, Dri Mzeum; Pl. 12 after E. Zwierlein-Diehl, Antike
Gemmen und ihr Nachleben, BerlinNew York, 2007, pl. 899; Pl. 15
Budapest, St Stephen Basilica, http://bin.sulinet.hu/ikep/2004/05/
sztjobb.jpg&imgrefurl; Pl. 16 Komrom, Klapka Gyrgy Mzeum.
R. Gordon: Archaeologies of Magical Gems
Pls 111,1314 London, British Museum; Pl. 12 after Preisendanz
PGM II 166 (Gordon, n. 59).
H. Guiraud: Intaglios and Cameos from Gaul in the 3rd and 4th
Centuries AD
Pl. 1 Y. Deslandes; Pl. 2 Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe; Pl. 3
S. Prost, service archologique municipal; Pls 47 author.
F. Harley-McGowan: The Constanza Carnelian and the Development of
Crucifixion Iconography in Late Antiquity
Pls 1,6,8 London, British Museum; Pl. 2 Rome, German
Archaeological Institute; Pl. 3 author; Pl. 4 after R. Garrucci, Storia
della arte Cristiana nei primi otto secoli della chiesa, 6 vols., Prato, 1880,
vol. 6, tav. 483; Pl. 5 photo by Robin Jensen; Pl. 7 Rome, Museo
Palatino, Inv. 381403; Pl. 9 after J. Spier, Picturing the Bible; the
Earliest Christian Art, New York and London, 2008, 227, fig. 1.
G. Kornbluth: Roman Intaglios Oddly Set: the Transformative Power of
the Metalwork Mount
Pls 1,2,3,4,6,7,8,11,12,13,14,15,16,18,19,20,21 Author; Pl. 5 Abbey of
St-Maurice dAgaune; Pls 9,10 Foto Marburg; Pl. 17 Oxford,
Ashmolean Museum; Pl. 22 after C. Boulanger, Le Cimetire
FrancoMrovingien et Carolingien de Marchlepot (Somme): tude sur
lOrigine de lArt Barbare, Paris 1909; Pl. 23,24 after W. Veeck, Die
Alamannen in Wrttemberg (Germanische Denkmler der
Vlkerwanderungszeit.1), Berlin 1931, pl. G8.
A. Krug: The Belgrade Cameo
Pls 1,5 Belgrade, Narodni Muzej u Beograd; Pls 2,3,8 plaster cast,
Akademisches Kunstmuseum, Bonn; photos author; digital
processing: Hans Rupprecht Goette; Pl. 4 drawing Gisela Hhn,
Bonn; digital processing: Hans Rupprecht Goette; Pls 6,7 photos
author; digital processing: Hans Rupprecht Goette; Pls 9,11 digital
processing: Hans Rupprecht Goette; Pl. 10 London, British Museum.
K. Lapatin: Grylloi
Pls 1,1216,2235,37, Addendum author after historical sources noted
in the captions; Pls 2,4,9,10,1821,36 London, British Museum; Pls
3,58 Courtesy of the Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University:
photos by Bruce M. White, 2010; Pl. 11 courtesy of the Derek J. Content
Collection; Pl. 17 courtesy of the Beazley Archive, Oxford.
. Lle: Non-destructive Gemmological Tests for the Identification of
Ancient Gems
Pl. 1 Elina Ratcheva; Pl. 2 Stuart Robertson; Pl. 3 Lisbet Thoresen;
Pl. 4 author.
A. Marsden: Gods or Mortals Images on Imperial Portrait Gems,
Medallions and Coins in the 3rd Century AD
Pls 1,2,3,12,17,21,27,28,32,35,39,45 London, British Museum; Pl. 4
private collection; Pl. 5 Colchester Castle Museum; Pl. 6 private
collection; Pl. 7 Berlin, Antikensammlung; Pl. 8 after L. Endrizzi
and F. Marzatico (eds), Ori delle Alpi, Trento, 1997, no. 1183; Pl. 9 after
O. Neverov, Antique Intaglios in the Hermitage Collection, Leningrad,
1976, 79, no. 141; Pls 10,20 after J. Tassie and E. Raspe, A Descriptive
Catalogue of a General Collection of Ancient and Modern Engraved Gems,
Cameos and Intaglios, Taken from the Most Celebrated Cabinets in
Europe; and Cast in Coloured Pastes, White Enamel, and Sulphur,
London, 1791, nos 12067, 12081; Pls 11,26 after G.M.A. Richter,
Engraved Gems of the Romans, London, 1971, no. 586, 589; Pl. 13 after
M. Schlter, G. Platz-Horster and P. Zazoff, Antiken Gemmen in
Deutschen Sammlungen, Band IV, Hannover Kestner-Museum, Hamburg
Museum fr Kunst und Gewerbe, Weisbaden, 1975, no. 1599; Pl. 14 after
E. Zwierlein-Diehl, Die Antiken Gemmen des Kunsthistorischen
Museums in Wien III, Munich, 1991, no. 1730; Pl. 15 courtesy of Drs
Matteo and Maria Campagnolo, Muse dart et dhistoire, Geneva; Pls
16,18,23 after E. Zwierlein-Diehl, Glaspasten im Martin-von-Wagner
Museum der Universitt Wrzburg, Munich, 1986, nos 13, 794, 793; Pl.
19 Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale; Pl. 22 private collection;
Pls 24,31 after M.-L. Vollenweider and M. Avisseau-Broustet, Cames
et intailles. Tome II : Les portraits romains du Cabinet des Mdailles:
catalogue raisonn, Paris, 2003, no. 206; Pl. 25 Christies Images/
The Bridgeman Art Library; Pls 29,30 after R. Delbrueck, Antike
Porphyrwerke, Berlin and Leipzig, 1932, pls 57b,58a; Pls 33,34,36,37
after J.M.C. Toynbee, Roman Medallions, New York, 1944, pls XV,56,
XLIV,1 and XLVI,5; 64; Pl. 38 after A.B. Marsden, Some sing of
Alexander and some of Hercules: artistic echoes of Hercules and
Alexander the Great on coins and medallions, ad 260269, in L.
Gilmour (ed.), Pagans and Christians from Antiquity to the Middle
Ages, BAR International Series 1610, 2007, 66; Pl. 40 Paris,
Bibliothque nationale; Pls 41,42,43 Oxford, Ashmolean Museum; Pl.
44 after In Pursuit of the Absolute. Art of the Ancient World from the
George Ortiz Collection, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 20 January6
April 1994, London, 1994, no. 238; Pl. 46 Internet.
A. Mastrocinque: The Colours of Magical Gems
Pl. 1 Rome, private collection; photo: author; Pls 2,10 author; Pl. 3
courtesy Civic Museum of Verona; photo: author; Pls 4,5,8,12 London,
British Museum; Pls 6,9,11 courtesy of Cabinet des mdailles, Paris;
photos: author; Pl. 7 after: medicalimages.allrefer.com.
S. Michel-von Dungern: Studies on Magical Amulets in the British
Museum
Pl. 1 Hamburg, Collection W. Skoluda; photo: author; Pls
2,3,4,5,6,9,14 London, British Museum; Pl. 7 Diagram Dodekaoros
after Teukros and the Daressy Zodiac: author; Pls 8,10 Hamburg,
Collection E. Sossidi; photo: author; Pls 11,12 Malibu, The J.P. Getty
Museum; Pl. 13 Ann Arbor, Kelsey Museum; photo: author; Pl. 15
Kansas City, Linda Hall Library (For copyright: PDF).
H. Molesworth and M. Henig: Love and Passion: Personal Cameos in
Late Antiquity
Pls 127 courtesy Derek J. Content Collection
.M. Nagy: Magical Gems and Classical Archaeology
Pl. 1 St Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum; photo: V.
Terebenin, L. Kheifets, Y. Molodkovets; Pls 2,3,5 London, British
Museum; Pls 4,8, St Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum;
photos: A. Rzs; Pl. 6 after M. Maaskant-Kleibrink, Catalogue of the
Engraved Gems in the Royal Coin Cabinet, The Hague, The Hague, 1978,
355, no. 1119; Pl. 7 courtesy of M. Avisseau-Broustet, Cabinet des
mdailles, Bibliothque Nationale, Paris; photo: A. Mastrocinque
(d.r.); Pl. 11:1 courtesy of B. Shipman, Taubman Medical Library, Ann
Arbor; photo: B. Shipman; Pl. 11:2 Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts;
photo: L. Mtyus; Pl. 11:3 after S. Michel, Bunte Steine Dunkle Bildern:
Mgische Gemmen, Munich, 2001, pl. 15,89; Pl. 12 courtesy of M.
Torbgyi, Hungarian National Museum, Budapest; photo: A. Dabasi.
B. Nardelli: Late Roman Gems from Tilurium in Croatia
Pls 17,9,1113 T. Sesel, Archaeological Museum of Split; Pls 8,10
I. Prpa Stojanac, Archaeological Museum of Split.
O. Peleg-Barkat and Y. Tepper: Engraved Gems from Sites with a
Military Presence in Roman Palestine: the Cases of Legio and Aelia
Capitolina
Pls 113 Yotam Tepper
G. Platz-Horster: Seals in Transition: their Change of Function and
Value in Late Antiquity
Pl. 1 Bonn, Rheinisches Landesmuseum, photo: S. Taubmann; Pl. 2
author; Pl. 3 Stuttgart, Landesmuseum Wrttemberg: after L.
Wamser, Die Rmer zwischen Alpen und Nordmeer, Mainz, 2000, cat.
no. 141; Pl. 4 London, British Museum; Pl. 5 The J. Paul Getty
Museum, Malibu, California, Inv. no. 83.AM.228.1-7; Pl. 6 Krefeld,
Museum Burg Linn: after R. Pirling, Rmer und Franken am
Niederrhein. Burg Linn, Krefeld, Mainz, 1986, pl. 133.
Gems of Heaven | ix
Illustration Acknowledgements
x | Gems of Heaven
Plate 1 Basic
gemmological
instruments:
gemmological
refractometer, light
source, polariscope,
dichroscope, handheld spectroscope,
Chelsea Colour
Filter, 10X loupe
and tweezers.
Lle
Plate 2 A polished slice of a
quartz geode (diam. c. 25cm).
The outer rim of the geode
with brown and black bands is
constructed of microscopic
quartz grains and represents
micro-crystalline quartz. The
grain size and the translucent
structure of this layer indicate
that this is an example of
chalcedony. Quartz crystals
are visible to the naked eye
towards the centre.
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
Gems of Heaven | 3
Introduction
The gemstone sources that supplied raw materials to ancient
gem cutters are known to us today mostly from ancient
inscriptions and texts. Many sources are described, and clearly
more varieties of gems were known than have been identified
positively or have survived to the present day. Together, texts
and archaeological work sometimes have revealed associations
between extant carved gems and gem-producing localities,
despite the paucity of direct evidence of gem-mining activity.
In addition, archaeology has rectified written accounts that
sometimes confuse centres of gem industry with gems at their
sources. It also has provided illuminating details about gem
production and the circulation of gems throughout the ancient
world whether raw materials, partially worked blanks, or
finished, fashioned gems discovered in workshops, trading
centres, or settlement and burial contexts.
Where archaeology is lacking and an ancient writers
meaning is elusive, geology and its sub-specialty, mineralogy,
can at least provide useful references for evaluating the
prospective associations between the gemstones and sources
described in the ancient and archaeological literature. The
application of gemmological and analytical techniques to gems
of the ancient world, or archaeogemmology, is a specialised
field of study that has been profitably applied to correctly
identifying gemstones, recognising treatment or enhancement
techniques applied by ancient gem cutters, and geographic
provenancing. The instruments and techniques used in
gemmology are non-destructive and in general, non-invasive
or minimally invasive.1
The application of gemmology to geographic provenancing
relies upon a combination of properties that includes
observable features, optical properties, physical constants,
crystalline structure, and chemistry. A brief summary is given
below of analytical techniques and microscopy used in
gemmology that are useful for geographic provenancing with
several studies on Roman emeralds cited as examples. Because
the variety of gemstones and the geographic range of their
prospective origins in the later Roman Empire is a subject of
great breadth and complexity, a single engraved gem, the
chrysothrix, or rutilated quartz, will be used here to illustrate
the aspects of ancient gemstone origin that gemmology can
illuminate. The focus will be on the visually observable
characteristics of this gemstone and what it may reveal about
itself in relation first, to its origin, second, to other gemstones
with which it may share a common origin, and third, to the
interpretation of gems described in ancient texts, here with
reference to Pliny the Elders Naturalis Historia and the Orphic
Lithika. The latter two points may be of more practical interest
to gem scholars investigating the relationships between
individual gems as products of a particular artist, workshop, or
period and place. To a certain degree, such associations have
4 | Gems of Heaven
Gems of Heaven | 5
Thoresen
Cohabitation of multiple associated guest minerals in a gem
host also may help to isolate salient locality-specific features,
especially when gems from different localities otherwise
exhibit some overlapping characteristics. For example, a
distinctive suite of inclusions, rather than a single unique
inclusion helps to differentiate emeralds from Habachtal,
Austria; the Central Urals, Russia; Ajmer, Rajasthan State,
India; Swat District, NWFP, Pakistan; Lake Manyara,
Tanzania.11 Even visually distinctive inclusions may require
confirmation by other techniques. Chemical analyses
sometimes are needed to confirm the identity of the mineral or
fluid inclusions within the gem host, in addition to determining
the gem hosts chemistry.12
Plate 2 The dense concentration of rounded protogenetic apatite crystallites
in hessonite from Sri Lanka is a characteristic feature (30 x mag)
Plate 4 Evoking the gem Pliny the Elder calls anthracites or carbuncle stone,
which appears to have sparks running in different directions through it (Nat.
Hist. XXXVII.190), here, a Hellenistic almandine-pyrope garnet is host to a
metamict zircon crystal in which the radioactive elements contained in its
crystal lattice caused it to rupture; the inclusion is seen against a background
of acicular crystals of rutile that are oriented in two directions (field of view
7.0mm)
6 |Gems of Heaven
very fine to coarse and when oriented in a reticulated or netlike structure it is termed sagenitic rutile.23 Rutilated quartz is
found in Karagandy Province, Kazakhstan; Balochistan and
North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), Pakistan; the Central
Urals, Russia; and in Europe: Viseu District, Portugal; Brittany,
France; Ticino and Uri in the Swiss Alps; several localities in
Austria, including Carinthia, and several sites in the environs
of Salzburg, including Habachtal Valley, and also Styria and
the Austrian Tyrol. Specimens have been collected from the
cliff faces of a quarry in Wadebridge District, Cornwall,
England.24
Discussion
The gemstone chrysothrix is first mentioned in ancient
literature in the 4th century ad, in the Orphic Lithika. Ruslan I.
Kostov deduced that the stone implied in the text is rutilated
quartz, a crystalline quartz containing guest inclusions of
golden-coloured acicular or fibrous crystals of the mineral
rutile. Today, this gem is also known as Venus hair stone, a
term derived from Plinys veneris crinis.25
It does not appear that the chrysothrix of the Lithika has
been identified with any extant ancient engraved gems
previously. Golden inclusions in quartz which complement the
sun god motifs of Helios/Helioros have been noted by Sliwa
and perhaps others, but these distinctive features were
recognised in the early 1990s for their rarity in ancient glyptic
in the Malibu gem, which disposed Spier to notice similar types
related first by the material rutilated quartz and then the
shape of the stone, motifs, and inscriptions. The dates for his
group ranges from the 2nd to 3rd century ad, suggesting that
they were probably products of a tradition more than a
workshop. Previously, Campbell Bonner observed that rock
crystal quartz not specifically rutilated quartz is a relatively
rare material for magical gems, and he speculated that the lion
motif seen on these special stones might belong to a group
produced in the same workshop.26 Spiers group of quartzes
engraved with the related sun god motif of Helios/Helioros
may help to reinforce Bonners hypothesis.
Gems of Heaven | 7
Thoresen
Pinpointing the origin of the magical gems carved from
rutilated quartz, although rare in ancient glyptic, is
problematic. Rock crystal quartz (SiO2) is ubiquitous in nature.
Rutile may occur as an inclusion in quartz anywhere rutile
(also not a rare mineral) is present in the local host rock. Even
so, reported sources of rutilated quartz are relatively few
compared against the widespread occurrence of its two
principal constituents. In most localities, whether mining is
small, large or commercial in scale, rutilated quartz is likely to
be a minor or anomalous occurrence and not the predominant
mineral.27 Reported (and especially unpublished) occurrences
of rutilated quartz in Cornwall, England; Brittany, France;
Viseu, Portugal or other localities may be minor or virtually
negligible, which perhaps is similar to the circumstances as
found in antiquity. A serendipitous find or several may explain
the appearance of so few rutilated quartzes (bearing in mind
that the more common rock crystal is also not very prevalent as
a material for magical gems).
Conclusion
Moore and more recently Kostov enabled an association to be
made between chrysothrix, an obscure gemstone named in an
ancient poem, and an extant group of rare gemstones in
Roman glyptic. In the light of characteristics of the magical
gems demonstrably identified by the term chrysothrix, it would
be helpful now not to confuse or conflate it with other gems
Moore and Kostov proposed previously.28 Chrysolite is a
deprecated and confusing historical term applied to
chrysoberyl and also to the gem olivine, peridot. Chrysoberyl
has not been shown to be a gem of the ancient world. Sunstone,
a phenomenal variety of gem feldspar, likewise is a gem not yet
identified in the ancient gem cutters repertoire. The
interchangeable use of the terms rutilated quartz and sagenitic
quartz is unhelpful, because sagenitic connotes reticulated
rutile, or rutile having a network structure.29 They are very
different in appearance and only the acicular and fibrous (Pls
6,7,8) morphology has been identified. Cupids arrows is
another unhelpful descriptive term. At least Venus hair stone
has a clear derivation Plinys veneris crinis. Rutilated quartz is
correct and unambiguous.
It is the subject for another study to investigate the
typological connection between all the magical gems carved
from crystallus and chrysothrix or to hypothesise further about
their prospective association with a common workshop or
other groups of engraved gems. The material of the ancient
chrysothrix, in itself is not likely to reveal its geographic origin
on the basis of visual observation alone or even with the help of
currently available analytical techniques. However,
developments have been dramatic in the past 15 years, and the
next frontier in mineralogy promises that useful developments
are forthcoming rapidly, especially with the availability of
portable FTIR and portable Raman instruments, isotopic tools
and micro-Raman spectometry (used to identify mineral and
fluid inclusions in gemstones for provenancing) (Pl. 8).30
In future studies of the gems described in this essay and its
related types, suitable techniques useful for geographic
provenance determination should include analyses not only on
the rutilated specimens, but on all of the quartzes. Some of
them may have been obtained from the same source. Reference
standards for comparison from the localities enumerated
8 |Gems of Heaven
Notes
1
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17 J. Spier examined the gem in Malibu about the same time as the
author, but did not discuss the stone until 2009.
18 J. Spier kindly provided the following references for the three
gems: 1) a cabochon with convex back (faceted in modern times) in
which Helios stands facing, holding whip and phiale, formerly
Marlborough and Arundel collections, Walters Art Museum,
Baltimore, acc. no. 42.1157, in J. Boardman, The Marlborough
Gems, Oxford, 2009, 83, no. 128; and 2) an intaglio of a standing
figure of a lion-headed man (Helioros) holding a globe and whip,
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, acc. no. 01.7556, in: Romans and
Barbarians (exh. cat., Boston), Boston, 1985, 57, no. 78, and
C. Bonner, Studies in Magical Amulets, Ann Arbor, 1950, 1920 and
292, no. 234, pl. 11,2; and 3) an intaglio similar to the previous,
described as tinged with brownish yellow, so probably smoky
quartz, Ruthven collection (present whereabouts unknown), in
Bonner ibid., 293, no. 236. (The author has not personally
examined these gems.)
19 J. Spier points out that chrysothrix may be the same stone Pliny
called solis gemma: Solis gemma candida est, ad speciem sideris in
orbem fulgentis spargens radios (Nat. Hist. XXXVII.181;
mentioned also in Les Lapidaires Grecs [n. 13]); chrysothrix is
mentioned also in a less well-known text, PseudoHippocratesMed. , 35, which
appears to be a version of the Orphic Lithica.
20 Cited in Michel (n. 16), 273: the entry reads: Bergkristall, goldene
Einschlsse. SLIWA 84, pl. 23, 116: n.r. Helio/Harpokrates mit
Strahelenkranz rudert; Rs.; IAW. (The author has not personally
examined this gem.)
21 R. Webster, Gems: Their Sources, Descriptions and Identification,
rev. P.G. Read, Boston, 1994 (5th edn), 223, 3656.
22 Photoatlas 1, 188, 193, 313; Photoatlas 2, 6279.
23 Photoatlas 2, 29, 6301.
24 Rutilated Quartz: Rutilated Quartz mineral information and data
n.d., [online] Available at: http://www.mindat.org/min-3485.
html [Accessed 29 December 2010].
25 Nat. Hist. XXXVII.184. Veneris crinis is described as a very dark,
brilliant stone, which has an inclusion resembling a lock of red
hair; Pliny does not give a locality.
26 In Michel (n. 16), 77.
27 Brazil is a notable exception; today it is a significant producer of
high-quality, large pieces of rutilated quartz that are widely
available in the gem market.
28 See, n. 15.
29 Kostov (n. 15), 11112.
30 For a general overview of developments and analytical tools useful
in gemstone provenancing see: C.M. Breeding, A.H. Shen,
S. Eaton-Magaa, G.R.R. Rossman, J.E. Shigley and A. Gilbertson,
Developments in gemstone analysis techniques and
instrumentation during the first decade of the 2000s, Gems &
Gemology 46(3) (2010), 24157; G.R.R. Rossman, The geochemistry of gems and its relevance to gemology: different traces,
different prices, Elements 5(3) (2009), 15962; M.A. Ziemann, In
situ micro-Raman spectroscopy on minerals on-site in the Grotto
Hall of the New Palace, Park Sanssouci, in Potsdam, Journal of
Raman Spectroscopy 37 (2006), 101925; H.A. Gilg and N. Gast are
collaborating on Raman studies on unusual fluid inclusions in
amethyst from the ancient mine in Wadi El-Hudi, Egypt,
unpublished, pers. comm. from H.A. Gilg to the author, 20 January
2011.
31 The author is grateful to Graa Cravinho for providing the
references to the site at Roman Ammaia; G. Sena Chiesa, Gemme
del Museo Nazionale di Aquileia, Padua, 1966; G. Cravinho and S.
Amorai-Stark, A Jewish intaglio from Roman Ammaia, Lusitania,
Liber Annuus 56 (2006), 53343; G. Cravinho, Some engraved
gems from Ammaia, Pallas. Revue dtudes antiques 83 (2010),
1415, notes 57.
32 See, C. Wei, Die antiken Gemmen der Sammlung Heinrich Dressel
in der Antikensammlung, Berlin, Wrzburg, 2007, 303, pl. 79.604.
33 See, Boardman (n. 18).
Gems of Heaven | 9
Plate 1 Ternary diagrams of the end members of the pyralspite series, plotted with distribution of Early Medieval garnet plates, Calligaros Types IV (left) and
garnet specimens from India, Sri Lanka and Bohemia (right), after Calligaro et al. (n. 63), pl. III
10 | Gems of Heaven
Gems of Heaven | 11
Adams
Sasanian seal stones by David Bivar, in which the garnets were
identified as almandines by Mavis Bimson in the British
Museum Research Laboratory.10 Hopefully with the publication
of a new garnet database for the British Museum, established
with the cooperation of the Research Laboratory, problems of
nomenclature and misidentification will be a thing of the past.
Hellenistic and Roman period intaglios
Leaving aside some early Chalcolithic beads in India, a few rare
garnets identified as grossulars amongst ancient Near Eastern
seal stones and the occasional employment of garnet in early
Egyptian jewellery,11 a marked escalation in the use of garnet
gems began in the Hellenistic period (c. 32330 bc, from the
death of Alexander to the fall of the Ptolemaic kingdom in
Egypt). This is commonly attributed to the eastern advances of
the Greek armies under Alexander who invaded India via
Central Asia in 326 bc.12 The establishment of the GraecoBactrian kingdom in the region of modern Tajikistan,
Afghanistan and Pakistan (c. 250175 bc) and the successor
Indo-Greek kingdom which expanded south of the Hindu Kush
into India (c. 18010 bc), may also have opened access to
eastern localities, or, perhaps more significantly, contributed to
a taste for gold ornaments set with colourful translucent
gemstones. Whatever the reason, an increase in garnet usage
in the Hellenistic period can be demonstrated by comparing
the relative percentages of garnet intaglios in museum
collections.
For example, despite the issues of identification, a large
collection such as that held in the Greek and Roman
Department at the British Museum (today over 4,000 intaglios)
is statistically significant for the interpretation of patterns of
usage.13 In the 1926 catalogue raisonn of the collection Walters
identified no engraved garnets in what he termed the Archaic
and Finest Greek periods, nor do they appear amongst the Italic
gems of the Roman Republican period.14 As we have seen above
the single intaglio he included amongst the 45 stones in his Late
Greek Period (4th century bc) has now been shown to be
carnelian rather than garnet. From the 3rd century bc Walters
classified two Late Etruscan scarabs as jacinth. Amongst the
Hellenistic gems, however, he identified 18 garnets and two
jacinths amongst 64 intaglios. Garnets thus represent almost
30% of the total gemstones from the period in the British
Museum collection. A not dissimilar pattern can be detected in
the large collection in the Antikensammlung in Munich, with
63 garnets amongst 272 Hellenistic stones, or 23.16% of the
total.15 These preliminary surveys suggest that in the
Hellenistic period garnets may have constituted a quarter to a
third of the stones being engraved.16
In the Roman period, garnets are for the most part smaller
in size and represent a smaller percentage of the total. Walters,
for example, lists only 34 garnets amongst a total of 1,475 stones
assembled under the prudent heading Graeco-Roman (cat.
nos 12412716); these represent 0.024% of the total. The picture
is similar in the Munich collection noted above where a single
garnet catalogued in the Republican and Imperial periods
constitutes 0.0037% of the total of 273 and the 7 Late Roman
garnet stones representing only 0.0146% of the 478 gemstones
from that period.
How should we interpret this information in the light of the
opening of the sea trade routes in the 1st century ad,
12 | Gems of Heaven
Plate 5 Dagger hilt and detached garnet inlay from hilt, Tomb 3, Armaziskhevi,
Republic of Georgia, mid-3rd century AD, L. 10.5cm
Adams
of the Greeks, but not apparently in any quantity, even into the
1st millennium ad. The scarcity of garnet may be attributed in
part to its relative hardness (6.57.5 on the MOH scale) which
was a factor in even the earliest times.30 Garnet beads, for
example, were excavated from 4th and 3rd century bc levels at
Taxila in present-day Pakistan, but their numbers were small in
comparison to microcrystalline quartz varieties.31 Similarly,
modern excavations at Sonkh near Mathura, the Kushan capital
in northwest India, produced 765 beads, 595 of which were
clearly stratified; more than half of these belong to the Kushan
levels and there was no garnet.32 Garnet beads have been
reported at sites in Central and South Asia but always in lesser
quantities than the quartz group.33 At the trading port site of
Arikamedu on the southeast coast of India near modern
Pondicherry, there is clear evidence of garnet bead
manufacture; uncertain stratigraphy in many levels, however,
does not permit a close dating for these finds.34 Whether these
were made using local garnet sources as Peter Francis suggests
or with stones imported from India remains to be investigated.
Similarly scientific analysis of beads found in Oman with
examples from Sri Lanka established a correspondence but
could not rule out an Indian source.35
We are thus confronted with a paradoxical situation in
which we hypothesise that India or Bactria supplied stones to
the Hellenistic Greeks in the West, yet the local population
appears to have used garnet themselves only rarely, or at least
not extensively until the 1st millennium ad. At present, the
earliest garnet gems from excavated contexts suggest that
garnet may have been used primarily as a decorative inlay. The
garnet inlay in a 1st century bc reliquary deposit in a stupa at
Bhir Mound, the oldest of the excavated ruins at Taxila in
modern Pakistan, was flattened and notched in the manner of
garnet plates found on Kushan and Early Medieval garnet
cloisonn.36 In fact, the use of flat garnet stones used as
jewellery inlays appears simultaneously in the archaeological
record in Bactria and at Pompeii,37 and it seems possible that
not only techniques like foiling behind stones originated in
India, but, as I have discussed elsewhere,38 quite possibly
garnet cloisonn as well.
The earliest garnet seal stones in the East were excavated in
the treasury of the Hellenistic palace in the great GraecoPersian city of A Khanum. Two of these are large stones, close
to 2030mm in greatest dimensions.39 All save one are too
fragmentary to assess the iconography. The most complete
intaglio depicts the lower portion of a female bust; Henri
Francfort, the excavator of the piece, compared the engraving
to Ptolemaic portraits, implying it may have been of western
manufacture. A Khanum, founded in the 4th century bc, is
generally thought to have fallen to the Yuehzhi from Inner Asia
in the decades after 145 bc. This suggests a general but
certainly not absolute terminus post quem for these finds as
some occupation continued in the city. Sited at the confluence
of the Amu Darya (Oxus) and the Kokcha Rivers on
Afghanistans northern border, the city controlled major trade
routes, including those from the mountains of Badakshan, the
source of lapis lazuli, as well as other precious minerals such as
garnet.
Garnet seal stones excavated in 1st century ad contexts
show the influence of Graeco-Roman iconography. A garnet
gem engraved with a profile female head was amongst the
14 | Gems of Heaven
Gems of Heaven | 15
Adams
effect of asterism in garnets has recently been scientifically
proven to be the result of bundles of elongated inclusions
(generally rutile) often in combination with elongated voids
which cause streaking of light; these are orientated along the
axes of the crystal, resulting in diagonal and right-angled
crossings.56 There are very few known sources of asteriated
garnets worldwide and only three of these could have been
known in the ancient world India, Sri Lanka and Tanzania in
central East Africa.57
Ancient perceptions of sources
Discussions of the sources of garnet cited in the ancient
literature accompany most garnet studies; these are generally
taken at face value and form the basis of modern scientific
study. However, if classical authors did not apply consistent
terminology to the gemstones they handled, can we assume
that the sources they cite are necessarily accurate? The ancient
confusion between sites which were sources as opposed to
suppliers of stones through trade is well known, but a brief
review of the source information remains of interest.
In the late 4th century bc Theophrastus account of sources
for anthrax point specifically to Asia Minor (Miletus in western
Turkey) and Africa (Peri Lithn, 1819).58 He states that anthrax
is brought from Carthage and Massalia, the latter often taken
to be Marseilles in southern France. As Theophrastus cites only
African sources for gems and the term appears again in his
discussion of anthrakion as the country around Massalia (Peri
Lithn, 345), on balance this is probably a reference to
Masaesylia in the west of the Berber kingdom of Numidia
(between Algeria and Tunisia in Africa) (cf. Strabo Geographica
XVII.iii.6). Strabo (634 bcc. ad 24; Geographica XVII.iii.19)
also notes that the precious stones are brought to Carthage
from the land of the Garamantes,59 the Saharan desert in the
province of Fazzn in modern southwestern Libya, still
occupied by oasis farmers and pastoral nomads.
By the later 1st century ad Pliny (Nat. Hist. XXXVII.25)
makes it clear that India had become the first of the two
primary sources of carbunculi. The Garamantic stones follow
the Indian and to these are added the thiopian and the
Alabandic stones, the latter of which are found at Orthosia in
Caria, but are cut and polished at Alabanda. Pliny clearly
knows nothing specific of the Indian sources and the
attribution to Caria seems incorrect on the basis of modern
knowledge but, thanks to an earlier Roman expedition, he
seems to have a closer knowledge of the African sources. In
Book V (Nat. Hist. V.3538) he gives an account of the spoils,
proudly labelled and displayed, which were brought back from
Libya in the campaign of the African proconsul, L. Cornelius
Balbus, against the Garamantes in 19 bc; the final one in the list
bears the name of Mount Gyri, which was preceded by an
inscription stating that this was the place where precious
stones were produced.
The geologist Jean-Philippe Lefranc has suggested that
Mount Gyri should be identified with the rock formations at
Jabal al Haswnah or Jabal Fazzan.60 This is in south central
Libya, south of Tripoli, west of the modern Jabal as Sawda,
which he identifies as the ancient Mons Niger. Following his
expeditions into the Precambrian outcrops in the southern
region of the massif, he reported that granites and schists were
traversed by pegmatite veins rich in tourmaline, mica and
16 | Gems of Heaven
Adams
Plates 9a-c Muse standing to left,
reading from scroll, column behind,
garnet, gold, 21 x 10mm (GR 1772,
0314.1); Apollo or hermaphrodite with
thrysos, leaning on column, 20.2 x
6.5mm (GR 1872,0604.1191);
Dionysius holding lyre, leaning on
column, 20 x 8.3mm (GR 1872,
0604.1183). All London, British
Museum
Adams
influenced garnet seal stones in 1st century ad archaeological
contexts in Bactria at Tillya-tepe and in Gandhara in the IndoParthian levels at Taxila, may also document overland contact
with the West; again it is not yet clear whether these finds
represent imports or, as Callieri has suggested, evidence for
western gem engravers arriving in the East during the period
of Parthian rule.95 Further evidence of cross-cultural contact
appears in the form of garnet stones polished flat on both sides,
used both for intaglios and as jewellery inlays in the 1st century
ad in both the East and West.96
Somewhat surprisingly, in the period from the 1st to the
2nd and early 3rd century ad in the Roman West, preliminary
surveys suggest that overall less garnet was used for seal stones
than in the Hellenistic period. Jewellery inlays and beads in
garnet were still popular but in a narrower range of uniform
shapes, perhaps imported pre-cut. Expanded trade along the
sea routes to India and Sri Lanka may have supplied such gems,
but garnet seals were apparently not favoured by as many
clients in the Roman period, either because the stones
hardness made it more expensive to engrave or possibly
because of some perceived eastern or barbarian flavour.
By the later 1st and certainly the 2nd century ad in the East
garnet seal stones were being produced locally with
iconography derived from Graeco-Roman models. Garnet seals
from the period of the Great Kushans (Group I in Adams, Lle
and Passmore below) were presumably sourced from localities
with reliable access to the Kabul and/or Swat valleys. Although
Kanika I extended the Kushan Empire into India, the absence
of garnet in excavations near Mathura, the southern capital of
the Kushans, may suggest that seal-cutting expertise was
concentrated in workshops in Bactria and/or Gandhara. Garnet
was undoubtedly in use across the Indian subcontinent as
jewellery inlays and beads and it seems that industrialised
garnet bead-making at the site of Arikamedu on the east coast
of India began in this period.
With the exception of the Indo-Parthian finds noted above,
the evidence for garnet engraving (or indeed hardstone
engraving at all) from the Parthian period is sparse.97 Garnet
jewellery inlays are abundant, however, and from the mid-2nd
to the mid-3rd century ad examples of cellwork garnet
cloisonn appear in the archaeological record on the eastern
borders of the Roman Empire, notably in trade route cities
taken from the Parthians by the Sasanians and in
Transcaucasia (Iberia and Armenia) where eastern Roman/
Parthian and Sasanian influence remained strong.98 Garnet
cloisonn can also be documented in Gandhara and Bactria in
the 2nd to early 3rd century ad.99 Although cellwork cloisonn
in the Hellenistic tradition continued uninterrupted into the
first millennium,100 at present the surviving examples of such
work incorporate only glass and softer stone inlays. It is
possible that both the exemplars and expertise to produce
intricately-shaped interlocking garnet inlays were introduced
from the East to the West in the later Parthian period.
One outcome of the decline in seal stone engraving in the
West in the course of the 3rd century ad was the use of
unengraved seal stone blanks as inlays. These offer evidence of
a transitional period in lapidary workshops between the
production of intaglios and the first purpose-cut plates for
garnet cloisonn. Some lapidaries working in the eastern
Mediterranean found new clients amongst Sasanian patrons
20 | Gems of Heaven
The pilot phase of the GCEM project could not have been accomplished
without the generous input of numerous colleagues, foremost among
them Chris Entwistle who has offered support and liaised with the
curatorial departments in the British Museum.
Michael Willis in the Department of Asia made it possible for me to
begin this study of the Central and South Asian garnet intaglios and
Clarissa von Spee arranged for garnet seals from the Stein collection to
be gathered together and taken off display. I am grateful to Lesley
Fitton and Ian Jenkins for allowing access to the gems in the
Department of Greece and Rome and to Alex Reid and the other
museum assistants in that department who patiently opened many
dozens of drawers, helping me bring unpublished stones to light. Liz
Errington in Coins and Medals assisted with the Charles Masson
collection gems. Emma Passmore in the Research Laboratory at the
British Museum performed the Raman spectroscopy on the gems and
interpreted the results. I would also like to thank Catherine Higgitt and
Janet Ambers in the Research Laboratory at the British Museum.
At the Engraved Gemstones conference I met Dr. igdem Lle
whose doctorate in mineralogy in Ankara investigated garnet sources
in the Menderes Massif in Turkey. As a qualified gemmologist she
undertook the initial phase of gemmological examination, and also
amended some of my mineralogical passages in the text. After the
conference Lisbet Thorsen generously shared her research on garnet
seal stones with me.
Notes
1
Adams
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
93, fig. 2 and P. Callieri, Seals and Sealings from the North-West of
the Indian Subcontinent and Afghanistan (4th Century bc 11th
Century ad): Local, Indian, Sasanian, Graeco-Persian, Sogdian,
Roman, Naples, IsIAO, 1997) used the term wine-red chalcedony
for many garnets in his catalogue; see also n. 3 above.
F.H. Marshall, Catalogue of the Finger-Rings, Greek, Etruscan and
Roman, in the Departments of Antiquities, British Museum, London,
1907, no. 351; Walters (n. 2), 73, no. 603 (GR 1814,0704.1292,
Townley collection). The exhibition history and modern
publications of this famous ring may be found on the British
Museums online database.
The scarab was omitted by Walters. In modern mineralogy jacinth
(from the Greek hyacinth) refers to a variety of zircon (ZrSiO4 =
zirconium silicate, a neosilicate like garnet); it has a wide colour
range from colourless to yellow, brown, red, pink, blue and green
to black. Although Walters states in his introduction (n. 2, xiii) that
jacinth is an orange-coloured stone, in comparing the actual
stones in the collection to his catalogue it is clear that he used the
term rather indiscriminately to describe stones of both orange and
pale violet hues.
A.D.H. Bivar, Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British
Museum, Stamp Seals, II, The Sassanian Dynasty, London, 1969.
P.R.S. Moorey, Ancient Mesopotamian Materials and Industries: the
Archaeological Evidence, Oxford, 1994, 83.
Cf. Furtwngler (n. 3), III, 150; Walters (n. 2), xiii.
D.N. Adams, Late Antique, Migration Period and Early Byzantine
Garnet Cloisonn Ornaments, (unpublished D. Phil. thesis,
University College, London), 1991, Appendix III, 2923, 301, table 1.
Walters (n. 2), 43769 (nos 437564); 11031 (nos 9481142).
Likewise J. Boardman, Greek Gems and Finger Rings, Early Bronze
Age to Late Classical, London, 2001, 3737, includes no garnet but
takes Theophrastus text as evidence that it was in use.
E. Brandt, Antike Gemmen in deutschen Sammlungen (hereafter
AGDS) I, Staatliche Mnzsammlung, Mnchen, 1. Griechische
Gemmen von minoischer Zeit bis zum spten Hellenismus, Munich,
1968; E. Brandt and E. Schmidt, AGDS I, Staatliche
Mnzsammlung, Mnchen, 2, Italische Gemmen, etruskisch bis
rmisch-republikanische, Italische Glaspasten vorkaiserzeitliche,
Munich, 1970; E. Brandt, A. Krug et al., AGDS I, Staatliche
Mnzsammlung, Mnchen, 3, Gemmen und Glaspasten der
rmischen Kaiserziet sowie Nachtrge, Munich, 1972.
It must also be noted that some major museums have collected
remarkably few engraved garnets. For example only six garnets
were recorded amongst a total of 564 intaglios ranging from the
Minoan, Greek, and Etruscan through the Roman period in Berlin
(E. Zwierlein-Diehl, AGDS II, Staatliche Museen, Preussischer
Kulturbesitz Berlin, Munich, 1969) and 12 garnets amongst 1,739
intaglios in Hanover (M. Schlter, G. Platz-Horster and P. Zazoff,
AGDS IV, Hannover, Kestner-Museum, Hamburg, Museum fr Kunst
und Gewerbe, Wiesbaden, 1975). Whether this reflects the personal
taste of curators or the availability of particular stones at the time
the collections were assembled is difficult to assess.
E.H. Warmington, The Commerce between the Roman Empire and
India, London, 1974, 1214, 394 h and I, passim.
Adams (n. 13), Appendix 1, 2814.
Adams (n. 13), 2934, Table II. Garnet seals constitute 11.59% of the
total (92 of 794 stones in all materials, excluding glass and metal)
and 7.7% of the collection in the Hermitage Museum in St
Petersburg (57 of 804 stones).
J. Spier, Late Antique and Early Christian Gems, Wiesbaden, 2007,
25, 8794.
Ibid., 87, pl. 138, fig. 6; these are essentially deep versions of Bivars
Bezel A (Bivar [n. 10], 21, 142).
Spier (n. 20), 87; A. MacGregor, A seventh-century pectoral cross
from Holderness, East Yorkshire, Medieval Archaeology 44 (2000),
21722. Treasure Annual Report 2000, DCMS, London, 2002, 445,
no. 61.
Bezel D: Bivar (n. 10), 21, 142; ringstone F: M. Maaskant-Kleibrink,
Catalogue of the Engraved Gems in the Royal Coin Cabinet, The
Hague. The Greek, Etruscan and Roman Collections, The Hague,
1987, 60, fig. 2, F1, F2 and F5.
Adams (n. 13), Appendix III, 2947, Graphs 17.
Ibid., 2947, Graphs 911; N. Adams, The Development of Early
Garnet Inlaid Ornaments, in Cs. Blint (ed.), Kontakte zwischen
Iran, Byzanz und der Steppe in 6.7. Jh. (Varia Archaeologica
Hungarica 10), Budapest-Naples-Rome, 2000, 1370, at 223, pl. IV.
22 | Gems of Heaven
61 See n. 48 above.
62 Although the first examination of medieval garnet took place in
the 19th century in Bavaria (Gilg, Gast and Calligaro [n. 53]),
modern work was initiated by Birgit Arhennius in conjunction with
her seminal study of garnet cloisonn from the Merovingian
period in Europe: Granatschmuck und Gemmen aus nordischen
Funden des frhen Mittelalters, Acta universitatus
Stockholmiensis, Stockholm, 1971. Arguing that much of the
garnet used on ornaments of this period originated from
Bohemian sources, she arranged for Mellis (O. Mellis,
Mineralogische Untersuchungen an Granaten aus in Schweden
gefundenen Schmuckgegenstanden der Merowinger- und
Karolingerzeit, Archiv for Mineralogi och Geologi 3/15 (1963), 297
362) in Stockholm to perform basic gemmological tests on a
number of flat garnet plates. The later English language version of
her 1971 text included further analyses by Diego Carlstrm:
Merovingian Garnet Jewellery, Emergence and Social Implications,
Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien, Stockholm,
1985, 2634.
63 Mellis (n. 62); P. Lundstrm, Almandingranaten von Paviken auf
Gotland, Early Medieval Studies 6 (1973), 6777; L. Lfgren, Die
mineralogische Untersuchungen der Granaten von Paviken auf
Gotland, Early Medieval Studies 6 (1973), 7896; M. Bimson, S.
La Niece and M.N. Leese, The Characterisation of Mounted
Garnets, Archaeometry 24 (1982), 518; S. Greiff,
Naturwissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zur Frage der
Rohsteinquellen fr frhmittelalterlichen
Almandingranatschmuck rheinfrnkischer Provenienz, Jahrbuch
des Rmisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums Mainz 45/2 (1998),
599646; F. Farges, Mineralogy of the Louvres Merovingian
garnet cloisonn jewelery: Origins of the gems of the first kings of
France, American Mineralogist 83 (1998), 32330; D. Quast,
Mineralogische Untersuchungen zur Herkunft der Granate
merowingerzeitlicher Cloisonnarbeiten, Germania 78/1 (2000),
7596; T. Calligaro, P. Perin, F. Vallet and J.-P. Poirot, Contribution
ltude des grenats mrovingiens (Basilique de Saint-Denis et
autres collections du muse dArchologie nationale, diverses
collections publiques et objets de fouilles rcent), Antiquits
Nationales 38 (2006/7), 11144; M. Mannerstrand and L.
Lundqvist, Garnet Chemistry from the Slinge Excavation,
Halland and Additional Swedish and Danish Excavations
Comparisons with Garnet Occurring in a Rock Context, Journal of
Archaeological Science 30 (2003), 16983; P. Prin with T. Calligaro
and C. Sudres, A propos du trsors de grenats de Carthage,
attribu lpoque vandale, Antiquits nationales 40 (2009)
(2010), 15565; H.A. Gilg, Anthrax, Carbunculus, and Granatus:
Garnet in Ancient and Medieval Times, in H.A. Gilg et al. (n. 1),
1218; Gilg, Gast and Calligaro (n. 53), 87100.
64 Calligaro, Perin, Vallet and Poirot (n. 63). Chemical analyses of
garnet plates at C2RMF uses the PIXE method with particle
acceleration AGLAE, micro-spectrometry RAMAN and micromadding in the PIXE mode.
65 Greiff (n. 63), tab. 2 and abb. 2, performed microprobe analysis on
ten garnet specimens from Indian localities and one from
Afghanistan; Calligaro, Perin, Vallet and Poirot (n. 63), Type I
which is equivalent to Gilg, Gast and Calligaro (n. 53), Cluster B.
66 Bohemia: Farges (n. 63); Quast (n. 63); Calligaro, Perin, Vallet and
Poirot (n. 63), 1267, Type IV, equivalent to Cluster D in Gilg,
Norbert and Calligaro (n. 53); Portugal: Calligaro, Perin, Vallet
and Poirot (n. 63), Type V equivalent to Gilg, Norbert and Calligaro
(n. 53), Cluster E.
67 Gilg, Norbert and Calligaro (n. 53), xx.
68 Cf. Calligaro, Perin, Vallet and Poirot (n. 63), 125, fig. 8. The author
has been informed by modern gem dealers in Hatton Garden in
London that gem-quality stones from East Africa are today
regularly shipped to India for preparation where the skills and
labour force exceed those of the native source.
69 Lfgren and Mannerstrand and Lundqvist (both n. 63).
70 C. Lle-Whipp, Mineralogical-Petrographical and Geochemical
Investigation on some Garnets from Volcanic Rocks of Grece Village
CumaovasiI zmir and Metamorphites of Menderes Massif and their
possible Archeogemmological Connections, unpublished PhD thesis,
Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey, 2006.
71 I met Lisbet Thoresen, who directed these studies, for the first time
at the 2009 Engraved Gems conference. I am grateful to her for
sharing her unpublished work with me which dovetails so well
Gems of Heaven | 23
Adams
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
with the GCEM project; her results are forthcoming in: L. Thoresen
(ed.), On Gemstones: Gemological and Analytical Studies of Ancient
Intaglios and Cameos.
Nat. Hist. XXXVII.25: The Carchedonian stones, they say, are of
much smaller size than the others; but those of India admit of
being hollowed out, and making vessels that will hold as much as
one sextarius.
J.N. Christensen, J. Selverstone, J.L. Rosenfeld and D.J. DePaolo,
Correlation by Rb-Sr geochronology of garnet growth histories
from different structural levels within the Tauern window,
Eastern Alps, Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology 118
(1994), 112.
Rouse (n. 1), 42.
J. Hyrl, New gemmological study of large garnets of supposedly
Czech origin, Deutschen Gemmologie, Zeitschrift der Deutschen
Gemmologischen Gesellschaft 50/1 (2001), 3742.
Recently crystals of different species measuring from 30mm to
70mm have been recorded in Pakistan and Afghanistan (D.
Blauwet, Pakistan and Afghanistan: Garnet from the Roof of the
World, in Gilg et al. (n. 1), 706).
Commercial examples of these: http://customgemstonestudio.
com/custom-gemstones/worlds-largest-umba-valley-red-garnet.
The largest stone on this particular site weighs 59ct, diam. 24mm
and depth 14mm; it has been faceted.
Adams (n. 13), Appendix V, 3379; Adams (n. 25), 3841.
Calligaro, Perin, Vallet and Poirot (n. 63), 125.
Hyrl (n. 75), 41.
J. Boardman, Intaglios and Rings, Greek, Etruscan and Roman from
a private collection, London, 1975, 92, no. 56; J. Boardman and D.
Scarisbrick, The Ralph Harari Collection of Finger Rings, London,
1977, 24, no. 28; Boardman and Vollenweider (n. 5), 100, no. 342.
Unpublished results from tests performed by Emma Passmore.
G. Platz-Horster, Knigliche Artemis? Eine neue Granatgemme im
Kestner-Museum zu Hannover, Niederdeutsche Beitrge zur
Kunstgeschichte 34 (1995), 926; D. Plantzos, Hellenistic Engraved
Gems, Oxford, 1999, 127, no. 399.
Rapin (n. 33), pl. 68, M23.1-3
L.A.N. Iyer, Indian Precious Stones, Bulletins of the Geological
Survey of India, Series A, Economic Geology, no. 18 (1961), 504,
summarises 19th and 20th century records of garnet, recording
both mining and panning for garnet from river sands.
Bimson, La Niece and Leese (n. 63), 52, note 1; M. Bimson, Darkage garnet cutting, Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and
History 4 (1985), 1258, at 125, figs. 23; Adams (n. 26), 1678, n. 3.
Adams (n. 25), 1720.
Marshall 1907 (n. 8), 118, no. 707 (garnet-set ring found with a coin
of Lysimachus (r. 306281 bc).
M. Treister, Late Hellenistic Bosphoran Polychrome Style and its
Relation to the Jewellery of Roman Syria (Kuban Brooches and
24 | Gems of Heaven
Lithis Indikois
Preliminary Characterisation of Garnet Seal Stones from Central and South Asia1
Nol Adams, igdem Lle and Emma Passmore,
with contributions by Harry Falk and Nicholas Sims-Williams
The GCEM project (Garnets: Classical, Eastern and Medieval)
This paper presents the initial findings of the GCEM project,
designed to create a scientific database of garnet intaglios held
in different departments in the British Museum. Of all the
ancient stones used as seal stones, garnets are perhaps the most
promising in terms of yielding a broad reference database.
Unlike diamond, the corundum series (ruby, sapphire) and
spinels which were used relatively rarely in antiquity,
substantial numbers of garnets were used steadily over many
centuries. And, unlike the inclusions in the quartz group whose
various members are ubiquitous throughout antiquity, the
distinctive inclusions within garnets, when compositionally
identified, may in some cases be used to match a particular
gemstone to a host rock.
As reviewed in the previous paper in this volume,
considerable scientific research into the mineralogy of ancient
garnets has been done on stones set on Early Medieval objects
with the goal of identifying source localities. Some of the
problems associated with the investigation of Early Medieval
period garnets examining mounted garnets from the end of a
millennium of continuous usage can be sidestepped by
shifting the focus to another corpus of garnet stones. The
GCEM project will generate reference data derived from
engraved seal stones used across the garnet millennium, from
c. 300 bc to c. 700 ad, ranging from the Hellenistic, GraecoRoman and Byzantine periods in the West, to the Sasanian
empire in greater Persia and finally to the Indo-Greek, IndoParthian, Kushan and Hunnic dynasties in Central and South
Asia.
Unlike mounted garnet plates on Early Medieval objects,
many of which are held in settings which cannot be
deconstructed or subjected to vacuum pressure, most intaglios
can be easily tested and quantified. Mounted intaglios can in
some cases present obstacles to initial gemmological
identification, and of course the individual stability of each
gem must be considered before subjecting it to some scientific
tests. The following pilot study employed non-destructive
testing combining standard gemmological identification for
inclusion characterisation, followed by mineralogical
examination using Raman spectroscopy. The initial application
of this straightforward and non-destructive methodology to
engraved garnets from Central and South Asia in the British
Museum identified two distinct clusters of stones on the basis
of their gemmology, inclusions and mineralogy.
This preliminary work has been undertaken in the
knowledge that, at present, even advanced levels of garnet
identification do not necessarily result in information which is
source-specific. As Gbelin and Koivula noted many years ago
with respect to inclusions: while these inclusions are
symptomatic for almandine garnet, they do not differ from
deposit to deposit, i.e. all over the world the inclusion scenes in
Lithis Indikois
Massons collection came to the British Museum in 1878
with the closure of the India Museum, run by the East India
Company where he was employed for much of his career.
Cunningham travelled widely across South Asia and
established the Archaeological Survey of India. In addition to
serving in Tibet, Kashmir, Burma and the NWFP, he explored
Buddhist monuments in central India. His collection was
purchased and donated to the British Museum by A.W.F. Franks
in 1892. The Stein collection gems were purchased in Ytkn,
the ancient capital of Khotan in present-day Xinjiang, China.8
Cunningham himself published some of the gemstones in
his collection9 and in 1960 M.G. Dikshit published a partial
catalogue of the stones in the Department of Asia.10 David Bivar
worked on some of the inscribed stones, first in his unpublished
PhD dissertation and subsequently in publications for the
Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum.11 Robert Gbls four volumes
on Kushan and Hunnic coins published in 1967 also included
many of the Hunnic period seals in the collection, juxtaposed
against the coin issues of the region.12 Work is ongoing on the
Masson collection as part of a larger project within the British
Museum, led by Elizabeth Errington who has published some
of the Masson gems.13 Most recently, many, but by no means all,
of the Central and South Asian gemstones in the department
were published by Pierfrancesco Callieri in 1997.14 His analysis
of the gems resulted in groupings based upon stylistic
considerations, inscriptions and historical context. He also
published a few stones in the Stein collection, now being
investigated by the Stein project at the museum.15
Almost half the 80 garnets identified in the collection in the
Department of Asia are unpublished; eight of those are
published here. The registration numbers for the most part
reflect the date of acquisition of the collections although a
number of the seal stones acquired by the department in the
late 19th century were not assembled and formally registered
until 2005 and thus do not appear in Callieris 1997 catalogue.
With the exception of the first four gemstones in Group I
which are uniformly convex with flat backs, many of these
gems are quite irregular in shape in comparison to western
intaglios. Seals from Bactria and northwest India have been
classified according to both Graeco-Roman and Sasanian
conventions,16 and cat. nos I.15 and II.1 correspond to
western ring stone type B,17 but others of these engraved stones
vary so much from the Graeco-Roman tradition that it is not
clear to what extent this terminology is meaningful.
Accordingly at this stage we have made no attempt to
categorise the stone shapes. The unusual shape of many of
these seal stones, of course, must ultimately have a bearing on
whether or not they were fitted into rings or other settings.
All measurements were taken with dial callipers.
Photographs were taken by Nol Adams in the students room
in the Department of Asia and in the British Museum Research
Laboratory. Almandine garnets can be difficult to photograph
accurately for colour and while the colour may be seen to be
reasonably accurate, there has been no attempt to exert rigid
colour control in either the shooting or printing of the
catalogue photographs at this stage.
Following the scientific contributions by igdem Lle (CL)
and Emma Passmore (EP), the catalogue text sets the gems in
their historical context and provides a preliminary analysis of
their iconography and style. This includes readings and
Lithis Indikois
Plate 1 Raman spectra obtained from 19 garnet intaglios. The two spectra shown in grey (Pl. 1a) are reference spectra for the Mg-rich pyrope end member and
the Fe-rich almandine end member of the pyralspite solid solution series. The wave numbers of the highest intensity peaks are labelled in all figures for
comparison, and object registration numbers are shown next to their respective spectra. The spectra have been grouped according to the position of the highest
intensity peak (in the range 916928cm-1), and the second highest intensity peak (in the range 342370cm-1). Spectra in black came from garnets where no
inclusions were measured, the spectrum in red from a garnet that had a single quartz and several amphibole-type inclusions, spectra in blue came from garnets
containing amphibole-type inclusions, and spectra in green came from garnets containing an as yet unidentified inclusion.
mount, it was not possible to see clearly into the body of the
garnet, and this stone may also contain inclusions. Where
possible, the inclusions were analysed where they were
exposed on polished surfaces. For those below the surface the
confocal microscope of the spectrometer was adjusted so that
the inclusion was in focus rather than the surface of the garnet.
Due to time restrictions, and the difficulty in accessing
inclusions that occurred below the garnet surface, only one
measurement of each type of inclusion was made per object.
The Raman spectra obtained for the garnets were
compared to garnet reference spectra obtained from
experimentally-grown garnets with known compositions.20 In
this study all the garnets were measured twice at two different
locations on the garnet surface, and all produced identical first
and second spectra, suggesting that composition is
homogeneous across each gemstone and they are therefore
unlikely to be compositionally zoned with respect to major
elements. The spectra produced indicate that all the garnets
measured have compositions within the pyralspite group
(X32+Y23+(SiO4)3; where X=Mg, Fe2+, Mn, and Y=Al), in a solidsolution between the Mg-rich pyrope end member, and the
Fe-rich almandine end member. No spectra were obtained that
indicated a spessartine composition (Mn end member).21 The
garnets have been broadly grouped in Pl. 1 according to the
'Gems of Heaven | 29
30 | 'Gems of Heaven
CATALOGUE
Nol Adams
Group I
This group is composed of almandine garnets, generally with
dark, brownish orangey red colours. Their gemmological
properties are between almandine and spessartine and they
are all distinguished by inclusions of dark opaque tabular
crystals. Raman spectroscopy revealed the composition of
these garnets to be close to the almandine end member and the
dark inclusions which were examined proved to a type of
amphibole (specifically within the tremolite ferroactinolite
solid solution series).
The iconography of the group is strongly classicising,
representing either Graeco-Roman mythological figures
(Herakles, putto) or Kushan-period deities represented in a
western classical manner (Nan, Hrit, Mahsena/Skanda).
Two are inscribed in Bactrian, two in Kharost h and one in
Middle Persian. The first five are consistent in size and cut and
are oval convex stones with flat backs.
Group I includes two well-known seals from the Kushan
period (cat. nos I.1 and I.2), both inscribed with compound
personal names in Bactrian. In the 2nd century bc the GraecoBactrian kingdom in Central Asia fell to nomadic tribes named
in the Chinese sources as the Yuezhi. The descendents of one
dominant tribe amongst the Yuezhi confederacy, the Kushans,
established a dynasty which eventually controlled much of
Central Asia and India. They adopted the language of their
subjects, Bactrian, an eastern Iranian language with signs
adapted from the Greek alphabet, as their administrative
language.23 By the time of Kaniska I their kingdom extended
from Kashgar, Khotan and Yarkand in the Tarim Basin region
(modern Xinjiang) to northern India. The territory was
administered from two capitals: Purushapur (Peshawar in
northern Pakistan) and Mathura in northern India, with a
summer capital at Kpi in Afghanistan.
As Callieri and others have pointed out, the female deity
seated on a lion on cat. no. I.1 resembles representations of
Nan on Kushan coinage of Kanis ka I and Huvis ka;24 this
suggests a date in the 2nd century ad but there is no way to be
certain that the subject matter was not present before the coins
were struck or how long it survived. In any case, the
significance of the imagery to the royal Kushans is made clear
by the famous inscription in the sanctuary at Rabatak, north of
Pul-i Khumri in Afghanistan, which states that Kanis ka
obtained the kingship from Nan.25 She holds a shallow bowl
in her right hand and a pronged staff in the other; a crescent
moon appears above her head and the ties of a diadem float
down behind the tied bun at the back of her head.
Cat. no. I.2 depicts a standing goddess with a cornucopia,
and with a small male child before her, which suggests she
represents Hrit, the goddess responsible for protection from
childhood diseases. Bivar has suggested that the proliferation
of Hrit images in Gandhran art documents the rise of
smallpox in South Asia, which rapidly became a pandemic,
spreading to the West in the reign of Marcus Aurelius in ad 166.26
As he notes, the disease was the dark side of the flourishing Silk
Route trade which underpinned the stupendous gold coinage
issued by Huvis ka (c. ad 154/55186/7) and indeed the crosscultural imagery reflected in the seals of the period.
Lithis Indikois
If the image of a putto driving a griffin engraved on cat. no.
I.7 seems a fairly faithful rendition of the subject matter of
Imperial Rome, the Herakles depicted on cat. no. I.4, with a
sketchily-rendered lion skin, heavy club and jockey-cap helmet,
represents a local interpretation of this most popular god of the
Hellenistic East. Herakles with a skin and club appears on the
reverse of coins of Kujula Kadphises (ad 3080), who united
the Yuehzhi tribal confederation and became the first Kushan
emperor.27 According to the Rabatak inscription he was the
grandfather of Kanis ka, and coins of Kanis kas successor
Huvis ka also featured the standing Herakles motif. A group of
clay sealings impressed with Herakles figures in similar poses
were excavated in stratified levels of the 2nd3rd century ad at
Rajghat, near Varanasi (Benares), Uttar Pradesh.28 These
provide evidence of trade, most probably with Bactria, of local
goods such as ivory carvings and cloth;29 whether they represent
the presence of foreign merchants, as the excavators suggest,
or simply the internal movement of goods is less easy to
determine.
An elegantly executed fusion of the attributes of the Roman
gods Mars (shield and spear) and Mercury (cockerel) appears
on cat. no. I.3. The warrior stands in a contraposto pose attired
in a version of a Graeco-Roman lorica, worn with Iranian-style
leggings; his headband displays a cockade. Carter has argued
that in this region the militant deity associated with a cockerel
can be identified as the Kushan Maaseno (Mahsena); this
figure also relates to the Zoroastrian god Sraoa (mentioned
amongst the deities in the Rabatak inscription, see above) and
to the Gandhran god Skanda/Kumra.30 A similar figure
engraved on a carnelian in the British Museum (1892,1103.176)
was the personal seal of Yl, son of Orl, according to its
Bactrian inscription, while another in Sir John Marshalls
collection in Peshawar has a personal name in Kharost h:
pahatigasa (of Prabhtika).31
Cat. no. I.4 is engraved with a personal name in Kharost h,
the script used primarily for the Prakrit dialect of Gndhr, the
language of the ancient kingdom of Gandhra; it was in use
from the 3rd century bc to the 3rd century ad in modern
northern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. It is structurally
related to Brhm, represented on the gemstones in Group II,
which eventually replaced it. Callieri identified cat. no. I.4 as a
Roman gem depicting Mars Gravidus, proposing that a later,
less skilful hand inserted the inscription in the 2nd or 3rd
century ad.32 The fact that a palm is depicted as well suggests
the image may also evoke Mars Quirinus, bringer of peace, the
complementary aspect of Gravidus (the marching god). The
plumed helmet with a wide flat brim copies the Alexandrian
bull-horn helmet first depicted on coinage of the Bactrian king
Eukratides (c. 171139 bc) and his successors which still
featured on Indo-Greek coinage issued in the eastern Punjab in
the 1st century bc.33 The close mineralogical grouping
established by GCEM confirms that this stone was carved in the
East, possibly as early as the 1st century ad.
Cat. no. I.5 also bears an inscription in Kharost h, but the
characters cannot be resolved easily into a name in any
language. The inscriptions giving a personal name on cat. no.
I.6 are in Middle Persian script typical of the early Sasanian
period. The figure bears some comparison with other garnet
gems engraved with what Callieri termed Kushan period
Gandhran tutelary deities,34 but whether the inscriptions
2nd3rd century ad
19.7 x 17 x 5.5mm; low cabochon, flat back, bevelled, chipped top and
bottom.
Reg. no. 1892,1103.100; Major-General Sir Alexander Cunningham
collection; Franks Bequest.
Bibliography: Cunningham 1892 (n. 9), pl. XXII.18, and 116 (as jacinth;
he notes a duplicate in 'red carnelian in the collection of General
Pearse); idem, 1893 (n. 9), 128; A. Maricq, La grande inscription de
Kaniska et lto-tokharien, lancienne langue de la Bactriane, Journal
Asiatique 246/4 (1958), 345439, at 420, no. 14; Gbl (n. 12), vol. 1, 2223,
G3 (as hyacinth), vol. III, pl. 85; J.M. Rosenfield, The Dynastic Art of the
Kushans, Berkeley-Los Angeles, 1967, 102, seal 4; Bivar 1968 (n. 11), pl.
I,2; B.N. Mukherjee, Nana on Lion. A Study in Kushna Numismatic Art,
Calcutta, 1969, 23, 11011, pl. IV.9 (as jacinth); V.A. Livic, K otkrytiju
baktijskix nadpisejna Kara-tepe, Raskopki buddiijskie pe ery Karatepe v Starom Termeze. Osnovnye itogi rabot 19631964 gg, Moscow,
1969, 4781, at 578; Gbl (n. 24), 153, pl. 177, no. 4; B. Ja. Staviskij,
La Bactriane sous les Kushans. Problmes dhistoire et de culture, Paris,
1986, 145, n. 55; Callieri (n. 14), 1978, 233, 310, cat. no. U 7.23, Class IX;
Ghose (n. 24), 100, fig. 10b.
Inscription: AH/FreiXoado/Freykhwadew, a personal name
equivalent to Sogdian friend of the lord (Sims-Williams in Callieri (n.
14), 310; see also G.D. Davary, Baktrisch. Ein Wrterbuch auf Grund der
Inschriften, Handschriften, Mnzen und Siegelsteine, Heidelberg, 1982,
107, 190, Sig. 3 and N. Sims-Williams, Bactrian Personal Names,
Iranisches Personennamenbuch, Fasc. 7, R. Schmitt, H. Eichner,
B.G. Fragner and V. Sadovski (eds), Band II, Mitteliranische
Personennamen, Vienna, 2010 (hereafter IPNB II/7), 144 (no. 501).
Gemmology: almandine garnet. Inclusions: large tabular and prismatic
opaque inclusions. CL.
'Gems of Heaven | 31
1st2nd century ad
19 x 16.5 x 6.5mm (with bezel), cracked.
Reg. no. 1880.3730; Charles Masson collection.
Bibliography: Callieri (n. 14), 186, 282, U 5.1.
2nd3rd century ad
17.3 x 14.3 x 3.7mm, low cabochon, flat back.
Reg. no. 1892,1103.173; Major-General Sir Alexander Cunningham
collection; Franks Bequest.
Bibliography: Cunningham 1892 (n. 9), 11112, no. 61, pl. xxi.16 (as
agate); idem 1893 (n. 9), 127; Maricq (cat. I.1), 420, no. 10; Gbl (n. 12),
vol. I, 2234, G5, vol. III, pl. 85 (as Ardoxso); Bivar 1968 (n. 11), pl. I.3;
Mukherjee (cat. I.1), 118, pl. IX.38 (as agate); Livic (cat. I.1), 579;
Gbl (n. 24), 153, pl. 177, no. 6; Callieri (n. 14), 114, 310, U 7.22.
1st3rd century ad
18.8 x 16.1 x 5.2mm, cabochon, flat back; paper label Punjab35 on
reverse as with some Cunningham stones.
Reg. no. 2005,0815.4.
Inscription: damage to the surface obscures some letters and the
symbol above the right shoulder could be a glyph or an attribute.36 The
Kharost h letters can be read: hat akhohajad a-sa, but the language
(?Scythian) and meaning of the name are unknown. HF.
Gemmology: almandine garnet. Inclusions: large tabular and prismatic
opaque inclusions. CL.
Raman spectroscopic analysis: confirms almandine composition of the
garnet. The inclusions were shown to be amphibole. EP.
6. A figure in profile to right, ?Herakles with ?spears and ?lion-skin
2nd3rd century ad
20.5 x 16 x 4.5mm, low cabochon, flat back, bevelled, chipped at bottom
and proper left.
Reg. no. 1892,1103.170; Major-General Sir Alexander Cunningham
collection; Franks Bequest.
Bibliography: P. Callieri, La glittica romana nel Gandhra: presenze e
influssi, Atti dellAccademia Nazionale dei Lincei (1989), s. 8,
Rendiconti, 44 (1991), 24357, at 251, fig. 11; Callieri (n. 36), 418, pl. 96,
no. 21; Callieri (n. 14), 191, 234, 27071, U 7.5, Class XI.
Gemmology: probably almandine garnet, dark orangey brown;
however, the spectrum is unclear and requires Raman. Inclusions:
clusters of tabular black and opaque crystals, many prismatic
transparent and colourless crystals, possibly apatite. CL.
Raman spectroscopic analysis: confirms almandine composition of the
garnet. The tabular, black, opaque crystals were shown to be
amphibole, but the transparent, colourless crystals were not analysed.
EP.
32 | 'Gems of Heaven
1st3rd century ad
10.6 x 11.6 x 2.7mm, broken, low cabochon, flat back.
Reg. no. 2005,0815.16.
Gemmology: almandine garnet, medium slightly orangey red.
Inclusions: clusters of large opaque dark crystals, mostly tabular;
groups of prismatic colourless transparent crystals and very small
needles in a cloud. CL.
Raman spectroscopic analysis: confirms almandine composition of the
garnet. This garnet had the most almandine-rich composition of all the
garnets analysed. The large, opaque dark inclusions were shown to be
amphibole, and a single colourless crystal was quartz. This stone was
the only one where two different types of inclusion were measured in
the same stone. EP.
Lithis Indikois
7. A putto harnessing a griffin to right
1st2nd century ad
12.5 x 11.9 x 3.2mm, originally larger, low cabochon, deeply hollowed
back.
Reg. no. 1880.3576; IM.Gems.41; Charles Masson collection.
Bibliography: Callieri (n. 14), 523, cat. 1.25.
Gemmology: almandine garnet, medium slightly brownish orangey
red. Inclusions: almost fibrous/silk cloud with black opaque tabular
crystals, occasional small transparent colourless crystals which may
be apatite. CL.
Raman spectroscopic analysis: confirms almandine composition of the
garnet. The inclusions were shown to be amphibole. EP.
8. Draped female figure, standing frontal, head turned to left, left
hand upraised, wearing a fillet/diadem, Middle Persian inscriptions
2nd4th century ad
13.8 x 9 x 2.8mm, low cabochon, flat back.
Reg. no. 2005,0815.7.
Inscriptions: hpwh. ry d'lyk (Shhpuhr-drg), personal name. NS-W.
Gemmology: possibly almandine garnet but the spectrum is unclear
and requires Raman. Inclusions: fingerprint37 inclusions with dark
opaque tabular crystals, no other inclusions. CL.
Raman spectroscopic analysis: confirms almandine composition of the
garnet. The inclusions were shown to be amphibole. EP.
Group II
This group has been gemmologically identified as almandine
garnet of purple and reddish purple colours. Raman
spectroscopic analyses show that the composition of these
garnets is in the pyrope-almandine range, but with a greater
pyrope component (more Mg) than Group I. All the garnets in
Group II have the same set of inclusions which in some cases
included crystals of distinct structure and yellowish colour.
Spectra produced by analysing the inclusions using Raman
spectroscopy have not yet been matched to reference spectra,
and these remain as yet unidentified.
These intaglios are stylistically and iconographically
heterogenous, with subject matter ranging from animal
representations, narrative human subjects, a tamgha,
inscriptions alone and individualised portraits. Bactrian and
Brhm scripts are represented. Although not all are easy to
date, the intaglios appear to span two centuries or more; this
could suggest that the locality or localities that produced these
stones provided gems over centuries to different workshops.
Depending upon their ultimate source, they could provide
evidence of regional trade in garnets between the North-West
frontier and India, but much more investigation needs to be
done before reaching any conclusions.
2nd4th century ad
23.6 x 20.1 x 6.3mm, cabochon.
Reg. no. 1907,1111.26; Sir Aurel Stein collection, purchased at Ytkan
site, Yo.0008a.
Bibliography: Stein (n. 15), vol. I, 21011, vol. II, pl. XLIX, Y.008.a; Gbl
(n. 12), vol. I, 227, G8, vol. III, pl. 85; Zwalf (n. 43).
Inscription: variant transcriptions of the Bactrian are gathered
together in Davary (cat. no. I.1), 109, 186, Sig. 8, but Nicholas SimsWilliams (pers. comm. January 2011) is of the opinion that the
inscription is too unclear to be deciphered properly.
Gemmology: almandine garnet, dark, slightly reddish purple.
Inclusions: low relief fingerprints, zircon crystals with dark discoid
fractures, yellowish transparent crystals which may be apatite. CL.
Lithis Indikois
Raman spectroscopic analysis: confirms almandine composition of the
garnet. The inclusions were not analysed. EP.
5. Tamgha
3rd4th century ad
15.8 x 12 x 3mm, low profile, almost flat, chipped along all edges.
Reg. no. MAS 212; Sir Aurel Stein collection, from Khotan.
Gemmology: almandine garnet, medium slightly reddish purple.
Inclusions: clouds (very fine silk?), zircon crystals with dark discoid
fractures, yellowish transparent crystals which may be apatite, no
needles. CL.
Raman spectroscopic analysis: confirms almandine composition of the
garnet. The inclusion analysed produced a Raman spectrum that has
not yet been matched to a reference spectrum, and remains
unidentified. EP.
3rd4th century ad
12 x 11 x 2.8mm, low cabochon, flat back, chipped, traces of whitish
paste in engraving.
Reg. no. 1892,1103.146; Major-General Sir Alexander Cunningham
collection (no. 39); Franks Bequest.
Bibliography: Dikshit (n. 10), 128, no. 38 (1st2nd century ad).
3rd5th century ad
17.3 x 12.6 x 3.2mm, low cabochon, flat back, bevelled.
Reg. no. 2005,0815.15.
Inscription: Var hula is a hypochoristic name, abbreviated from a
compounded name which includes var ha, the boar, often standing for
Visnu. HF.
4. Pegasus to right
3rd5th century ad
12 x 11.4 x 2.8mm, very low cabochon, flat back, high polish, traces of
white paste in engraving.
Reg. no. MAS 219; Sir Aurel Stein collection, from Khotan.
Gemmology: almandine garnet, medium dark reddish purple.
Inclusions: yellowish transparent prismatic crystals, zircon crystals
with dark discoid fractures and some small clouds of very fine silk. CL.
Raman spectroscopic analysis: confirms almandine composition of the
garnet. The inclusions were not analysed. EP.
3rd5th century ad
18.5 x 14 x 4.9mm, low cabochon hollow back, very worn, irregular,
chipped, broken and repaired.
Reg. no. 1903,1116.3; W.S. Talbot collection.
Inscription: Rol dityah is probably a local form of Lolditya, which
compares to lolrka, playful sun. Similar names of kings in the
Rjatarangin are Madanditya and Lalitditya. HF.
Gemmology: almandine garnet, medium reddish purple. Inclusions:
fingerprints, zircon crystals with dark discoid fractures. CL.
Raman spectroscopic analysis: confirms almandine composition of the
garnet. The inclusions were not analysed. EP.
'Gems of Heaven | 35
4th5th century ad
11.5 x 11.4 x 3mm, low cabochon, hollowed back, badly chipped.
Reg. no. 2005,0815.17; originally stored with gems from Franks
Bequest.
Gemmology: almandine garnet, medium purple. Inclusions: prismatic
transparent colourless crystals which may be apatite. CL.
Raman spectroscopic analysis: confirms almandine composition of the
garnet. The inclusions were not analysed. EP.
9. Male bust profile to right, diademed, mustachioed, Bactrian
inscription
6th7th century ad
20.2 x 17.2 x 3.4mm, low cabochon, flat back.
Reg. no. 1892, 1103.121; Major-General Sir Alexander Cunningham
collection (no. 8); Franks Bequest.
Bibliography: Dikshit (n. 10), 125, pl. V,14; Gbl (n. 12), vol. I, 2512, G55,
vol. III, pl. 87; Callieri (n. 14), 204, cat. no. U 7.42, Class IV; Callieri 1999
(n. 57), 2824, pl. 5, cat. no. U 7.42, Class D.
Inscription: Patmar, splendour of the lotus (Garbini in Callieri (n.
14), 285 (6th7th century ad).
Late 4thfirst half of 5th century ad
18.7 x 14.4 x 4.1mm, cabochon with irregular bevel, flat back, all edges
chipped.
Reg. no. 1892,1103.171; Major-General Sir Alexander Cunningham
collection; Franks Bequest.
Bibliography: Gbl (n. 12), vol. I, 2412, G33, vol. III, pl. 86; Bivar 1968
(n. 11), pl. II,7 (OA 28); Callieri (n. 14), 202, 311, cat. U 7.34, Class II;
Callieri 1999 (n. 57), 2824, pl. 4. as Cat. U7.36, Class D.
Inscription: (Tiroado) Davary (cat. no. I.1), 112, Sig. 33; SimsWilliams in IPNB II/7, 1367 (no. 468) suggests: Dedicated to Tir and
Wad, a personal name combining the divine names T r () and
Wd Wind (), both attested on Kushan coins.
Gemmology: almandine garnet, colour medium dark, slightly reddish
purple. Inclusions: a few fissures with brown FeO staining, various
sized zircon (?) crystals with dark discoid fractures around them. No
needles. CL.
Raman spectroscopic analysis: confirms almandine composition of the
garnet. The inclusions were not analysed. EP.
10. Male bust, profile to right, earring, facing Brahm inscription
6th7th century ad
21 x 18.3 x 5.9mm, low cabochon, flat back, chipped at bottom.
Reg. no. 1880.3505; Charles Masson collection.
Bibliography: Callieri (n. 14), 202, 22931, 285, 297, cat. no. U 7.36, Class
IV; Callieri 1999 (n. 57), 2824, pl. 4 as 7.41; Grenet (n. 64).
Inscription: Rostama (Rustam), a personal name.
36 | 'Gems of Heaven
Notes
Lithis Indikois
6
7
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24 Callieri (n. 14), 198; cf. R. Gbl, System und Chronologie der
Mnzprgung des Kunreiches, Vienna, 1984, 43, pl. 167, Nana 4;
M. Ghose, Nana: The Original Goddess on the Lion, Journal of
Inner Asian Art and Archaeology 1 (2006), 97112, at 100.
25 N. Sims-Williams, A New Bactrian Inscription of Kanishka the
Great, pt. 1: The Rabatak Inscription, Text and Commentary,
Silk Road Art and Archaeology 4 (199596), 7797; J. Cribb, The
Early Kushan Kings: New Evidence for Chronology, Evidence from
the Rabatak Inscriptions of Kanishka I, in Alram and KlimburgSalter (n. 13), 177205; see also in the same volume, R. Gbl, The
Rabatak Inscription and the Date of Kanishka, 15176. H. Falk,
The Yuga of Sphujiddvaja and the Era of the Kusanas, Silk Road
Art and Archaeology 7 (2001), 12136, has analysed early Sanskrit
astronomical texts which suggest that the start date of the Kaniska
inscriptions should begin around ad 127/28.
26 Bivar summarises his arguments in A.D.H. Bivar, Kushan Dynasty
i. Dynastic History, Encyclopdia Iranica 2009 (www.iranica.
com/articles/ Kushan Dynasty i).
27 J. Cribb and O. Bopearachchi, Greek hero-god, Heracles, in
E. Errington and J. Cribb (eds), Crossroads of Asia, Transformation
in Image and Symbol (exh. cat., Fitzwilliam Museum), Cambridge,
1992, 7982, nos 756.
28 K.K. Thaplyal, Greek Devices on some Rajghat Sealings: a Review,
Journal of the Numismatic Society of India 31 (1969), 1359;
V.S. Agrawala, Varanasi Seals and Sealings, Varanasi, 1984, 1618,
pl. XIX, nos 4936.
29 Thaplyal, ibid., 1379.
30 M.L. Carter, Buddhist Aspects of the Imagery of Skanda in
Gandhra and Central Asia, in South Asian Archaeology 2003,
Proceedings of the Seventeenth International Conference of the
European Association of South Asian Archaeologists (EASAA) (711
July 2003, Bonn: U. Franke-Vogt and H.-J. Weisshaar [eds]),
Aachen, 2005, 399404; M.L. Carter, The Gods of the Rabatak
Inscription, in South Asian Archaeology 1999, Proceedings of the
Fifteenth International Conference of the EASAA (59 July 1999,
Leiden), (E.M. Raven [ed.]), Groningen, 2008, 28995. Callieri
(n. 14), 191, identified the figure as the Hindu god Krttikeya whose
symbol was the peacock. On Gandhran images of Kumra and
their relationship to Palmyrene sculpture, see P. Pal, Indian
Sculpture, Vol. I, c. 500 bcad 700, A Catalogue of the Los Angeles
County Museum of Art Collection, Berkeley, Los Angeles and
London, 1986, 164, no. S41.
31 Callieri (n. 14), 106, no. 7.2 and 191, no. U 7.4; A. ur Rahman and H.
Falk, Seals, Sealings and Tokens from Gandhra (Monographien
zur Indischen Archologie, Kunst und Philologie, 21), Wiesbaden,
2011, 204, no. PM 07.03.01.
32 Ibid., 186.
33 Cf. O. Bopearachchi, Monnaies Grco-Bactrinnes et Indo-Grcques,
Catalogue Raisonn, Bibliothque nationale de France, Paris, 1991,
20215, pls 1622 (Eukratides I [c. 170145 bc]) and his successors
in eastern Bactria and 368, pl. 68 (Apollophane [3525 bc]).
34 Cf. Callieri (n. 14), 107, 7.5; 1956, U 7.17.
35 Punjab in this context refers to the Punjab Province in British
India. This covered a large area which comprised the present-day
provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly the
NWFP) as well as the Islamabad Capital Territory in Pakistan,
together with the states of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and
Haryana, Delhi and the Chandigarh Union Territory in India.
36 Lighting-rod zig-zags appear above the shoulders of a Herakles
carved on another gem from the region (P. Callieri, 'Seals from
Gandhara, Foreign Imports and Local Production', in M.-F.
Boussac and A. Invernizzi (eds), Archives et Sceaux du Monde
Hellnistique, Archivi e Sigili nel Mondo Ellenistico, Turin, 1996,
41322, at 41718, pl. 96, fig. 18ab.). Callieri suggests they derive
from the stylised ends of a Hellenistic ribbon or taenia as depicted
on Indo-Greek coins of the 1st century bc.
37 Fingerprint is a generic term used in gemmology to describe
minute fluid and solid inclusions formed on a fissure or fracture as
secondary processes try to heal the break.
38 A review of the evidence for the ad 233 date in M.L. Carter, Notes
on Kusa na Chronology and the Bactrian Era, Journal of Inner Asian
Art and Archaeology 1 (2006), 813.
39 Bivar (n. 6), 74, pl. 11, DJ16; R.N. Frye (ed.), Sasanian Remains
from Qasr-I Abu Nasr, Seals, Sealings and Coins, Cambridge (MA),
1973, nos D2525, 257.
'Gems of Heaven | 37
38 | 'Gems of Heaven
Gordon
were of no concern.20 Not one of the 50 intaglios in the
collection of the University of Pavia, acquired by Pietro Vittorio
Aldini during his tenure of the chair of numismatics and
antiquities 181942, has a provenance.21 The list of cities where
in the mid- to late 19th century the collector and dealer
Constantine Schmidt-Ciyski purchased his final gem and
cameo collection (now in the Museum of the Jagellonian
University in Cracow) includes: Paris, London, St Petersburg,
Moscow, The Hague, Vienna, Milan, Turin, Venice, Rome,
Florence, and in addition thousands of other [dealers] from
whom I have purchased cameos.22 In the particular case of
magical gems, Furtwnglers distaste meant, and often
continues to mean, that they are generally poorly represented
in private collections.23 Museality, however, does not
necessarily prevent us from thinking of ways of re-presenting
them so as to yield new information.
The production of new facts is one major function of
archaeology, not in the sense of objects newly dug up, or even
site plans, but as it were secondary or constructed facts
produced from counting or otherwise synthesising already
existing data, and so representing them in a different mode.
Two now standard kinds of such constructed second-order
facts are distribution maps and statistical charts. Could a
distribution map of provenances of our objects be constructed?
At first sight, in view of the point I have just made about
museality, we would have to say it is impossible, at any rate if
we think in terms of trying to map the totality. But, as both
Zazoff and Philipp long ago pointed out, a certain number of
magical amulets do have attested provenances, notably two
dozen in Aquileia, one or two in Germany, one or two in
Britain, one or two from Carnuntum, items from Porolissum,
Micia and Celeia in Romania, in Bulgaria, the northern Black
Sea area, Greece and especially Thessaloniki, the west coast of
Asia Minor, Cyprus, Israel, Egypt.24 Additional information
could be derived from more or less reliable reports of the
provenance of individual collections or part collections.25 Even
if proveniences would be much more telling, mapping such
provenances assuming the cases provide a random sample,
which of course needs arguing would constitute a new sort of
fact of the kind I envisage.26 In the long run, the creation on the
internet of a unified virtual database of all or almost all
magical gems will make it possible to produce such a map by
just clicking the mouse;27 but in the meanwhile pencil and
paper will be a surer if much slower means of achieving the
same result. Further information about ancient recognition of
the category of magical gems would be forthcoming if such a
map could be compared with a map of all ascertainable gemprovenances of the relevant period.
Gems are like relief sculpture, coins and pottery in that
they are relatively hard to destroy. They survive infinitely
better than papyrus or wax tablets.28 Quite apart from telling us
something about the distribution of demand, a map of
provenances would permit inferences about familiarity with
the discourse implicit in such amulets, and so about the
extension into the (eastern and central) Mediterranean of
awareness of Graeco-Egyptian magical practice, which is
otherwise, given the total loss of relevant papyri and codices
outside Egypt, hardly measurable. A first impression, based on
the tiny number of magical gems found at Aquileia (1.5% of
1573 catalogued gems), Altino (VE) (0.75% of c. 400), Caesarea
40 | Gems of Heaven
Gordon
42 | Gems of Heaven
Gems of Heaven | 43
Gordon
or the invocation of melothesic schemes, such as the zodiacal
sign Scorpius to protect the genitalia (Pl. 4).70 Amulets to aid
childbirth and its attendant ills and dangers (Pl. 5) are another
very common specialised type.71 Mariangela Monaca has
proposed that yet another group may have been used as aids in
(astrological) divination (Pl. 6).72
We may assume specialisation even in the numerous cases
where the precise intention is to us obscure, as in the case of
so-called Pantheos figures (Pls 7, 11).73 Some non-ringstones
were evidently considered analogous to the terracottas of the
Isiac cycle that fill our museums,74 and used performatively (Pl.
8).75 Simone Michel has even revived the thought that certain
designs may have served as tokens in mystery initiations,
though this seems very speculative.76 More, perhaps many
more, were apparently intended eo ipso to evoke a deity or
group of deities for now unspecifiable purposes, thus
functioning in exactly the same manner as the voces barbarae
and the charakteres (Pl. 9).77 The magical papyri suggest that a
few may have been used as phylacteries in the course of
performing rituals.78 Except in cases of extreme routinisation,
it is wise to assume that a specific intention lies behind the
design, particularly when it is more or less unique (Pl. 10).79 We
may also assume that non-standard designs were more
expensive.
It would however be over simple to think only in terms of
the explicit intentions of designers. In my view, it is quite
implausible to suppose that all practitioners could have
provided the type of commentary to individual designs that
one finds in modern catalogues. The extent of routinisation
(Pl. 11),80 as well as the probable existence of receptaries for
common designs, surely excludes this. Routinisation also
implies that most amulets were not elaborately consecrated.81
Such considerations lead us on to considering magical gems as
an aspect of culturally specific consumption.
We usually think of the magical gems exclusively in
instrumental terms, as objects intended to cause changes in the
real world (or to prevent possible changes) by appeal to
imputed specialist knowledge of the ins and outs of the divine
world. Insofar as they are given a Sitz-im-Leben, we invoke
belief in their power. But in the wake of Appadurais notion of
the social life of things we might also try to think of ways of
seeing them in relation to other contexts, thus challenging the
determinacy of imputed meanings.82 Just as clothes and
personal adornment in antiquity provided a material language
of social stratification and role-expression,83 just as the
adoption in the north-western provinces of terra sigillata and
even insignificant articles of use such as hair-tweezers for
depilation imply larger shifts in self-understanding and social
place,84 so perhaps the Graeco-Egyptian magical gems have
implications for self-understanding which could be teased out.
As purely elective items, magical gems offered benefits
beyond their overt instrumental value. One of these was
membership in a loosely defined imagined community of the
pious. From that point of view the amulet is a pre-paid votive
offering, amounting to an expectation. Within Egypt, these
gems mediated between two worlds, the metropolis and the
temple. The group of designer-practitioners collectively
referred its authority to an institution, the temple, which
served not merely as the guarantor of the age-old efficacy of
Egyptian religious culture but prided itself on its command
44 | Gems of Heaven
Gems of Heaven | 45
Gordon
7
10
11
12
13
14
15
46 | Gems of Heaven
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
Gems of Heaven | 47
Gordon
56 A rough idea of their distribution is provided by R. Kotansky, Greek
Magical Amulets. The Inscribed Gold, Silver, Copper and Bronze
Lamellae, 1: Published Texts of known Provenance. (Papyrologica
Coloniensia 22.1), Opladen, 1994. For a provisional list of
(Christian) phylacteries on lead, see S. Giannobile and D.R.
Jordan, A Lead Phylactery from Colle san Basilio (Sicily), Greek,
Roman and Byzantine Studies 46 (2006), 7386, at 814.
57 See the survey with translated texts by J.C. Gager, Curse Tablets
and Binding Spells from the Ancient World, New York, 1992, repr.
1999; the recent volume by M. Martin, Sois maudit! Malediction et
envotement dans lAntiquit, Paris, 2010, mainly concerns
defixiones outside this tradition.
58 Nagy (n. 17), 162.
59 K. Preisendanz (ed.), Papyri graecae Magicae (ed. 2 A. Henrichs),
2 vols, Stuttgart, 197374; ed. 1, 3 vols, Leipzig and Berlin, 1928,
1931, [1941].
60 In her survey of the gems from the Lower Danube area, where
there were gem workshops at Novae, Ratiaria, Serdica and perhaps
elsewhere, A. Dimitrova-Mileva, Die Gemmen und Kameen vom
Unteren Donaulimes in Bulgarien, Studien zu den Militrgrenzen
Roms, 2 (Beihefte der Bonner Jahrbcher 38), Cologne and Bonn,
1977, 2827, mentions none that would now be classified as
magical.
61 M. Maaskant-Kleibrink, The Microscope and Roman Republican
Gem Engraving. Some Preliminary Remarks, in Hackens and
Moucharte (n. 1), 189204; no second edition of her Classification
of Ancient Engraved Gems (n. 19), where she promised to continue
this research, ever appeared; but cf. eadem, Three Gem-engravers
at Work in a Jewellers Workshop in Norfolk: The Evidence of the
Roman Engraved Gems in the Jewellers Hoard found at
Snettisham, Bulletin Antieke Beschaving 67 (1992), 15167.
62 Brooklyn Museum inv. no. 47.218.156; illustrated in the pull-out in
S. Sauneron, Le papyrus magique illustr de Brooklyn (Wilbur
Monographs 3), Brooklyn NY, 1970, with the comments of E.M.
Ciampini, Tradizione faraoniche e iconografie magiche, in
Mastrocinque (n. 7), 2740, at 34. On Egyptian temple magic, see
the authoritative account by J.-F. Quack, La magie au temple, in
Y. Koenig (ed.), La magie en gypte. la recherche dune dfinition,
Paris, 2002, 4168.
63 The range of Pharaonic magical texts can be judged from the
editions and translations by J.F. Borghouts, e.g. The Magical Texts
of Papyrus Leiden I. 348 (OMRL 51), Leyden, 1971; Ancient Egyptian
Magical Texts, Leyden, 1978; cf. idem, Magical Texts, in Textes et
langages de lgypte pharaonique: Hommage J.-F. Champollion, 3,
Cairo, 1974, 719; idem, s.v. Magie, Lexikon der gyptologie 3
(1980), 113751.
64 W. Brashear, Magical Papyri: Magic in Bookform, in P. Ganz (ed.),
Das Buch als magisches und als Reprsentationsobjekt (Wolffenbtteler Mittelalter-Studien, 5), Wiesbaden, 1992, 2557.
65 It is difficult to discover whether older types of Egyptian amulets
continued to be produced in the Roman period, i.e. co-existed with
the intaglios, which would again have implications for the type of
market served by magical gems. I know only of scattered items in
exhibition catalogues.
66 A typical example of this learned frame of reference is a green
jasper in the British Museum (Pl. 1). The obverse shows a papyrus
boat, with Horus-falcons at either end, carrying Harpokrates on
the lotus; the god is being adored by an ithyphallic hamadryad.
This motif evokes not just the complex of rituals that
commemorated the moment of creation but also the order
necessary to their continuation and their efficacy. The sun and
moon in the field reinforce this claim by suggesting the
immutability of this order. Cf. Philipp (n. 4), 76f., no. 100;
Zwierlein-Diehl 2007 (n. 1), 219, no. 782; Michel (n. 10), 272f., 19.3;
Ciampini (n. 62), 39.
67 Th. Hopfner, s.v. , Realencyclopdie der classischen
Altertumswissenschaft 13.1 (1926), 74769, at 748f.; M. Wellmann,
Die Stein- und Gemmenbcher der Antike, Quellen und Studien
zur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften und der Medizin 4.4 (1935),
86110; R. Halleux and J. Schamp (eds, trans.), Les lapidaires grecs
[Bud], Paris, 1985, xiiixxxiv; E. Reiner, Astral Magic in Babylonia
(Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 85.4),
Philadelphia, 1994.
68 Bust of Sarapis, surmounted by a kalathos and encircled by the
command addressed to the god (see Pl. 2); cf. Philipp (n. 4), 55f.,
nos 55f.; Mastrocinque (n. 10), 148, Si 3, also 132, Ro 4 (Asia Minor);
48 | Gems of Heaven
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
Gems of Heaven | 49
Galen lived in the Roman Imperial period, but the book he cites
was written several centuries earlier in the Ptolemaic period,
probably by a hellenised Egyptian pretending to be Nechepso,
one of the last native pharaohs.11 A few centuries after Galen
made his experiment, Marcellus of Bordeaux recorded a
similar recipe in Latin: This is a powerful remedy for pain of
the stomach: on a jasper stone carve a radiant serpent, so that it
has seven rays; enclose it in gold and employ it on the neck.12
He does not say, however, what colour the jasper should be. We
have, then, three different recipes to guide us, each from a
different era: Nechepsos Hellenistic version (green jasper and
radiant serpent set in a finger-ring); Galens Roman-Imperial
one (a string of plain jasper stones hung over the oesophagus);
and Marcellus Late Antique one (jasper and radiant serpent set
in gold and hung around the neck). All, however, aim at curing
pains in the digestive tract by using the same gem and in two
cases the same image, but none make any mention of
inscribed text.
Numerous examples of this type of light green jasper have,
in fact, been discovered in the Mediterranean basin and Europe
and they are conventionally dated to the Roman Imperial
period in which Galen lived.13 There is some variation in the
type of stone, running the gamut from translucent jaspers of
various shades of lighter green to more transparent gems of the
same hue, such as olivine.14 A good example of the type is a
green jasper in the British Museum (Pls 1ad): on the obverse
Plates 1ad Jasper with Chnoubis, 15 x 12 x 3mm. London, British Museum, PE G 397
Gems of Heaven | 51
Faraone
Plate 4 Black-figure vase with Heracles and the lion, 520 BC. H. 43.18cm.
London, British Museum, GR 1843,1103.67
Plates 5ad Jasper with Heracles and the lion , 12 x 10 x 3mm. London, British
Museum, PE 1986,0501.80
Here we see that the -SSS- alone heals pains in the lungs and
sides, if inscribed on a whitish translucent stone.26 Very few
gems of this type have actually survived27 and Marcellus is the
only author to report the independent power of the -SSS-,
which appears on the reverse of most Chnoubis amulets, but is
never mentioned by any other writers. It is unwise, finally, to
dismiss the astrological features on some of these amulets:
both the name and image of Chnoubis and the -SSS- symbol
appear in astrological texts in the Hellenistic period and in
these texts the god is connected with the healing of the
stomach. This suggests that astrology probably always played a
role in the Chnoubis amulets. We run into a different problem
below when the discussion turns to scorpion amulets, where
the image of the eight-legged scorpion is much older and its
role in the astrological healing system differs significantly from
the amuletic. There, as we shall see, the protective nature of
the image clearly precedes its later astrological application.
Red jasper and Heracles strangling the lion
My second case is a series of opaque red stones with images of
Heracles and the lion that were designed to heal colic. This is a
more complicated assemblage, because unlike the image of the
Chnoubis serpent, this scene is not a recent Hellenistic
invention, but a very old icon, already popular in Archaic
Greece, as can be seen on a vase in the British Museum (Pl. 4).
This scene of Heracles famous labour was, however, thought to
have curative power: in his chapter On the colicky condition
Alexander of Tralles, a 6th-century ad Greek physician,
prescribes the following treatment for colic, a painful disease
of the lower intestine: On a Median stone engrave Heracles
standing upright and throttling a lion. Set it in a gold ring and
give it to the patient to wear (2.579).28 There is some confusion
about the precise identity of the Median stone in this passage,
which may have been a form of haematite or magnetite29 but
Alexanders description coincides well with a popular series of
amulets that consist of an opaque red stone (almost always
jasper) engraved with the wrestling scene that he describes; for
example, three gemstones in the British Museum (Pls 5a, 6a,
7a).30
52 | Gems of Heaven
Plates 6ad Jasper with Heracles and the lion, 15 x 11 x 3mm. London, British
Museum, PE G 224
Plates 7ad Jasper with Heracles and the lion, 18 x 13 x 3mm. London, British
Museum, PE 1986,0501.81
Plate 9 Archaic bronze shield-band reliefs, with Heracles and the lion, 600550 BC. Olympia, Olympia
Museum
Plate 10 Carnelian scarab with Heracles and the lion. 15 x 12mm. London,
British Museum, GR 1894,1101.458
Gems of Heaven | 53
Faraone
Gems of Heaven | 55
Faraone
56 | Gems of Heaven
womb and having little to do with the key and the magical
action of closure or containment.74 The Egyptian accretions, in
other words, apparently enhance the power of the original
womb-and-key device, but they are not central to its mission.
Conclusions
I have, then, traced the evolution of some of these popular
magical gems, beginning with the idea that a powerful, but
unadorned, stone has some innate curative, painkilling or
other power. We know from Greek medical texts and lapidaries
that haematite and yellow jasper were thought to have such
natural powers when ground up and mixed in with liquids for
drinking or application; Galens experiment with green jasper,
moreover, proved to his satisfaction, at least, that this
gemstone when placed near the site of his heartburn was also
effective without any image engraved upon it. Socrates and
Dionysus likewise recommend that we place an unadorned
yellow stone on a scorpion sting to alleviate the pain. The
power to kill pain may, in fact, be an important feature of
jasper gems more generally: the green or white ones were
thought to heal stomach ache, the sky-blue ones pleurisy; the
red ones intestinal pain and the yellow ones snakebite and
scorpion-sting. The Aphrodite amulets are anomalous in this
regard: they do not obviously fit the category of a curative or
protective amulet75 and we have no independent evidence that
lapis lazuli had any magic power of its own, beyond its status
(in the Greek mind) as a rare and exotic stone connected with
Egypt and the Near East.
At the second stage it seems that the sorcerers or
stonecutters added images. In the case of the scorpion or
Heracles and the lion these images were very old, imported
from the East and probably thought to have inherent powers of
their own. The scorpion appears alone on a yellowish gem from
the time of Hatshepsut and the 5th-century bc Cypriot gem
with Heracles, the lion and the two eyes of Horus suggests
that a number of the other pre-Roman red stones that carry the
scene may have also been used as an amulet. The three other
images discussed here are, however, relatively novel.
Aphrodite Anadyomene was, for example, the late 4th-century
bc invention of the Greek painter Apelles and Chnoubis in the
form of a radiant lion-headed snake, is first attested in
Hellenistic Egypt. And although we have no direct iconographic evidence, there is literary evidence from the late
Classical period for the metaphor of the womb as an inverted
jug. All this suggests that the Hellenistic period may have been
a time when some of the most popular images were beginning
Gems of Heaven | 57
Faraone
Notes
1
They are all usually thought to guard against the evil eye; see O.
Jahn, ber den Aberglauben des bsen Blicks bei den Alten,
Berichte ber die Verhandlungen der kniglich schsischen
Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Philologisch-Historische
Classe 7 (1855), 28110, at 5960 (gorgoneia), 636 (frontal eyes)
7680 (phalloi); for a recent survey and bibliography for the
Roman world, see A. Alvar Nuo, El mal de ojo en el occidente
Romano: Materiales de Italia, norte de frica, Pennsula Ibrica y
Galia (doctoral diss.), Madrid, 2009, passim, especially for the use
of the phallus first on the Italian peninsula in the 2nd century bc
and then spreading to the provinces. For the gorgoneion in earlier
Greek culture, see M. Halm-Tisserant, Le gorgonion, emblme
dAthna: introduction du motif sur le bouclier et lgide, Revue
Archologique (1986), 24578; G.H. Clarke, The Shield Devices of the
Greeks in Art and Literature, Cambridge, Mass., 1902, 502,
discusses frontal eyes and gorgoneia on Archaic and Classical
Greek shields.
Regarding the gemstones, see, C. Bonner, Studies in Magical
Amulets, Chiefly Graeco-Egyptian (University of Michigan Studies,
Humanistic Series 4), Ann Arbor, 1950, 22: The very great number
of magical gemstones ... from the first few centuries of the
Christian era suggests that in some way magic had got a stronger
hold upon people of those times than ever before. A.A. Barb, The
survival of the magical arts, in A. Momigliano (ed.), The Conflict
between Paganism and Christianity in the Fourth Century, Oxford,
1963, 10025, speaking generally about magic provides the classic
formulation, e.g., in a discussion of Roman Imperial laws against
sorcery, when the syncretistic, rotting refuse-heap of the dead and
dying religions of the ancient world grew to a monstrous height (at
104) or magic-ridden centuries (at 105).
For recent reviews of the history of these terms, see, M.G.
Lancellotti, Mdicine et religion dans les gemmes magiques,
Revue de lHistoire des Religions 218 (2001), 42756, and R. Gordon,
rev. of S. Michel, Die magischen Gemmen im Britischen Museum, 2
vols, London, 2001, in Journal of Roman Archaeology 15 (2002),
66670. A. Delatte, Etudes sur la magie grecque IV. Amulettes
indites des Muses dAthnes, Muse Belge 18 (1914), 2196, at
2122, seems to be the first to call them magical gems, which was
then made popular by Bonner (n. 2), 12. A. Nagy, Daktylios
pharmakites: magical healing gems and rings in the GraecoRoman world, in C. Burnett and I. Csepregi-Vardabasso (eds),
Ritual Healing in Antiquity and the Middle Ages (The Warburg
Institute Colloquia Series), London, 2010 (in press), agrees that
magical gems is a convenient archaeological designation for a
phenomenon of the Roman period with three defining
iconographic motifs: magical names (voces magicae), magical
signs (charaktres) and non-standard iconographical types. But
he openly acknowledges that magically protective rings and gems
existed as early as the Classical period, but since these do not carry
any of the three criteria listed above, he dubs them talismanic to
avoid confusion.
S. Michels catalogue (Die magischen Gemmen: eine Studie zu
Zauberformeln und magischen Bilderen auf geschnitten Steinen der
Antike und Neuzeit, Geissen, 2004) lists around 2600 examples,
but scholars rightly estimate that the number could be twice as
large; see, M. Smith, Relations between magical papyri and
magical gems, Papyrologica Bruxellensia 18 (1979), 12936, at 131,
or R. Gordon, rev. of Michel ibid., in Journal of Roman Archaeology
21 (2008), 71318, at 713, n. 3. This is a huge number when
compared with the 68 amulets inscribed on metal foil collected in
R. Kotansky, Greek Magical Amulets, vol. 1 (Papyrologica
Coloniensia 22.1), Opladen, 1994, or the 36 papyrus amulets
collected in the first volume of R. Daniel and F. Maltomini,
Supplementum Magicum, 2 vols (Papyrologica Coloniensia 16.1 and
2), Opladen, 19901.
Bonner (n. 2), 3, for example, begins his study by acknowledging
the inherent power of stones like amethyst and galactite and
cautiously avers that the presumption that classical ringstones
had quasi-amuletic value is quite strong (at 6), but then he notes a
marked change in the 1st century ad when rings and pendants of
semi-precious stones ... show that they are magical, either by
designs of so particular a character as to admit to no other
classification or by the unmistakable evidence of the inscriptions.
Here his distinction between amuletic and magical begs the
question.
58 | Gems of Heaven
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
white agates in the collection (nos 3234 and 327). A chipped gem
of this type (described as crystal glass) was discovered in Corinth
(it has the serpent and the name, but the reverse is inscribed with
the three Greek letters znx and then a symbol that looks like a
sideways turned psi); see, G. Davidson, Corinth XII: The Minor
Objects, Princeton, 1952, 225, no. 1777.
Chnoubis appears as a decan of Leo and Cancer in astrology, and
thus also cures by an elaborate coordination of zodiac sign and
body part; see Bonner (n. 2), 25 and 545, and especially
Lancellotti (n. 3), 44951, and Michel (n. 4), 16570.
W.M. Brashear, The Greek magical papyri: an introduction and
survey; annotated bibliography, Aufstieg und Niedergang der
rmischen Welt II, 18.5 (1995), 3593, cites two possible Hebrew
interpretations (bound by chains or bound by incantations) and
one Egyptian: le tour potier + me de dieu.
Bonner (n. 2), 1689, who also discusses some variants for the
former, e.g. gigantopantorkta (breaker of all giants); or
gigantopniktorkta (throttler-breaker of giants). Michel (n. 4),
2589, lists one example of gigantopantoplkta (striker of all
giants).
See Nagy (n. 6), 1645, for some PGM recipes for gems that are
likewise engraved with the gods images and their names (PGM =
K. Preisendanz [and A. Henrichs], Papyri Graecae Magicae: Die
Griechischen Zauberpapyri2, 2 vols, Stuttgart, 19734).
A. Delatte and P. Derchain, Les intailles magiques grcogyptiennes de la Bibliothque Nationale, Paris, 1964, no. 80 (a
greenish black jasper in Paris) and C. Bonner, A miscellany of
engraved stones, Hesperia 23 (1954), 13857, pls 346, at no. 36 (a
light green stone possibly jadeite which now resides in the
collection of the Department of Near Eastern Languages at the
University of California at Berkeley. The second prayer uses a
plural imperative, suggesting that the author imagined Chnoubis
and at least one other addressee. Michel (n. 4), 25960, describes a
haematite gem in the Skoluda collection, on the back of which
appears the Chnoubis serpent sitting on the womb-and-key design
(see below) beneath which lies the -SSS- symbol. Round the edge is
the prayer: Chnoubis, stop the pain of the stomach, Abrasax!
Michel (n. 3), no. 338. See the paper by Mastrocinque, this volume,
pl. 12. For other examples, see Bonner (n. 2), no. 83, a bluish
chalcedony that has the serpent, -SSS- and the name chnoubis on
the front and on the reverse Digest, digest!; Bonner (n. 2), 59, also
mentions a brownish chalcedony Chnoubis amulet in the Museo
Borgiano that has Digest! inscribed three times. He also observes,
ibid. ad no. 83, that many Chnoubis stones are strongly convex;
I would add that many of them are quite small and do not seem to
have been designed for a ring or pendant setting: if Chnoubis is
called on to digest and if he is called the crusher of snakes, might
it be the case that some of these smaller or seed shaped convex
gems were actually swallowed so they could enter the stomach and
allow the god to do his work directly? Recall how Galen insisted
that the string of green jasper gems be placed over the oesophagus
to cure pain in the oesophagus. Direct contact with the painful site,
in short, seems to have been important for the efficacy of these
amulets.
For the idea of a gemstone as a miniature statue, see Theophrastus,
Charact. 21.10, who describes a man who cleaned his Asclepius ring
daily and then oiled it and crowned it with a wreath: see Nagy (n.
3) for a brief discussion.
E.g. Bonner (n. 2), 25, and Michel (n. 4), 168, n. 859.
Marcellus, De med. 24.7 (n. 12). For the preservation of the -SSS- in
the manuscripts, see R. Heim, Incantamenta Magica Graeca-Latina
(Jahrbcher fr classische Philologie suppl. 10), Leipzig, 1893, 480,
n. 3.
The Latin word aerizusa renders the Greek aerizousa, a participle
of the verb aeriz, to resemble the air, to be pure as the air. See C.
Lewis and C. Short (eds), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford, 1879, s.v., who
define the verb as to be light as air and to be light blue (perhaps
grey, cloudy). Bonner (n. 2), 60, suggests that aerizusa means of
gray or bluish colour, but when Socrates and Dionysus describe a
variation of the Chnoubis amulet (discussed above) as an onyx
stone ... white and transparent just like air, I suspect they are
describing the same type of crystalline or translucent white stone.
For example: M. Buora and F. Prenc, Gemme Romane da Aquileia,
Udine, 1996, no. 206 (chalcedony; -SSS- between an epsilon and a
sigma and the magical word abramath); and S. Amorai-Stark,
Engraved Gems and Seals from Two Collections in Jerusalem,
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
Gems of Heaven | 59
Faraone
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
stones into two parts (arri and phrasi) and then suggests (at
242) that the second half preserves a purposely scrambled version
of the Greek transliteration of Hebrew saphir (lapis lazuli; the
Greek word is sappheiros).
E. Drioton, Notes diverses, Annales du Service des Antiquits de
lEgypte 45 (1947), 823, no. 12, who remarks: Il est remarkable que,
pour illustrer la vielle formule qui dbute par le nom Hathor, le
gravieur nait pas reproduit une desse gyptienne.
Delatte and Derchain (n. 21), no. 333. See, G. Bevilacqua, Ares e
Afrodite sulle gemme magiche, in Mastrocinque (n. 6), 1325.
Ashmolean: M. Henig and A. MacGregor, Catalogue of the Engraved
Gems and Finger-Rings in the Ashmolean Museum. II: Roman (BAR
International Series 1332), London, 2004, no. 13.20.
On the date, see Lancellotti (n. 3), 437. I use the translation of
Waegeman (n. 38), 41 and 79, with one change in each passage: in
the first section the Kyranides describes the euanthos stone as all
golden (pagchrusos), but Waegeman (at 434) argues persuasively
that this must be a mistake for the very similarly spelled adjective
all colourful (pagchroos), a kind of opal with bluish tinge. In the
second recipe the gem is called sapphire (sappheiros), but, as
Waegeman (n. 38), 1, and C. Oldershaw, Gems of the World,
Richmond Hill, 2008, 216, explain, this was a common way of
referring to lapis lazuli in the ancient world.
We find a similar combination of Aphrodites magical name and
vegetal matter in the following recipe (PGM IV 223140): For (i.e.
erotic) fetching spells: burn roses and sumac, then write a
different spell on myrtle leaves and put them under the tablet. The
spell: Steneri arrriphrasis yyyy i i i i, fetch her, so-and-so, for
him, so-and-so! Wear it on a woollen cord.
E.g. Delatte and Derchain (n. 21), 1837, and Michel (n. 4), 2501.
The name lapis lazuli combines Latin lapis (stone) with the
Persian word lazhuward, which means sky or heaven and was
added to the Latin language as lazulum. It is a form of
metamorphosed limestone, that has been mined in Afghanistan
for more than 6000 years (it is mentioned in the epic of
Gilgamesh). It was very popular in Mesopotamia and Persia and
used extensively in religious ceremonies by the Egyptians: see
Oldershaw (n. 43), 21718. It is also interesting to note M.J.
Treister, Bronze matrices in the Georg Ortiz collection, in
A. Calinescu (ed.), Ancient jewelry and archaeology, Bloomington,
1996, 178: Aphrodite Anadyomene was so popular in Hellenistic
and Roman Egypt, where it was reproduced in bronze, marble,
bone, terracotta and faience, that some scholars believe the type
originated in Alexandria. Cf. LIMC (n. 38), s.v. Aphrodite (in
peripheria orientali), nos 4066.
M.C. Ross, Catalogue of the Byzantine and Early Mediaeval
Antiquities in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection, Volume 2: Jewelry,
Enamels and Art of the Migration Period (With an Addendum by S.A.
Boyd and S.R. Zwirn), Washington DC, 2005 (2nd edn), 1819, no.
12 and LIMC (n. 38), Aphrodite, no. 89.
See e.g. G. Sena Chiesa, Gemme di Luni, Rome, 1978, who places
under the general category of animals gems no. 149 (eight legs;
sardonyx; no inscriptions; 1st century ad), 150 (yellow jasper with
no inscriptions), and 151 (red carnelian with no inscriptions), but
under magical gem no. 173 (red jasper with different and unique
inscriptions), or Amorai-Stark (n. 27) who under animals
catalogues no. 63 (a sardonyx with no inscription).
Delatte and Derchain (n. 21), for example, place under animaux
astrologiques nos 388 (orange translucent carnelian; inscription
tthdpgli on obverse; back blank); 389 (yellow jasper; inscription
ethmencheilianb on reverse); and 390 (hexagonal yellow
jasper; inscription rthmenchiniambn on reverse). See, more
recently, R. Casal Garca, Coleccin Glptica del Museo Arqueolgico
Nacional, 2 vols, Bilbao, 1990, ad. no. 453 (rose carnelian inscribed
with a scorpio olivaceus) probablemente zodiacal, or Henig and
MacGregor (n. 42), ad. no. 13.25 (light brown jasper with scorpion
and the usual magical name, but no star): Perhaps Scorpio as a
cure for diseases of the genitals.
Michel (n. 4), 1605.
Bonner (n. 2), 778, following S. Eitrem, Der Skorpion in
Mythologie und Religionsgeschichte, Symbolae Osloenses 7 (1928),
5382, allows that these stones were designed to protect against
the painful sting of the scorpion, but adds that they may have
come under the influence of systematic astrology according to
which each zodiac sign governed a special part of the human body;
since the region assigned to Scorpio was the genital organs, it is
60 | Gems of Heaven
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
incantation.
68 Delatte (n. 3), nos 33 (contract, womb!) and 34 (contract!);
Michel (n. 3), no. 351 (stop moving!); H. Philipp, Mira et Magica:
Gemmen im gyptischen Museum der Staatlichen Museen
Preuicher Kulturbesitz. Berlin-Charlottenburg, Mainz, 1986, no.
184 (Stop moving, womb!).
69 Ritner (n. 63), 21920, and M.G. Lancellotti, Il serpente ouroboros
nell gemme magiche, in Mastrocinque (n. 6), 7185, show that the
protective ouroboros serpent is a very old Egyptian device. The
ouroboros also appears on the gem depicted in Pl. 17, but it is worn
and difficult to make out.
70 Ritner ibid.
71 Other gods: e.g. Michel (n. 3), nos 358 (Chnoubis alone), 35966
(Chnoubis flanked by other Egyptian gods) and 36780 (various
Egyptian gods).
72 Bonner (n. 2), 79 and 226; the quotation is on 22.
73 First mentioned explicitly by Theophrastus, but there may be some
references to it in the Hippocratic corpus; see Hanson (n. 60), 290
2.
74 See the catalogue in Michel (n. 4), 33441. There are, to be sure,
some examples of Thoth or other Egyptian gods with their hands
on the key and clearly involved in the magical process, but this is
very rare. These and other more rarely appearing Egyptian gods,
like Seth or Chnoubis, often point to different and novel
adaptations of the series; see Ritner (n. 63).
75 Lancellotti (n. 3), 433 and passim. C.A. Faraone, Ancient Greek Love
Magic, Harvard, 1999, 96131, discusses how these gemstones,
along with knotted cords and other amuletic types of charm- and
love-magic, comprise the sphere philia-magic that is distinct from
eros-magic. The former mimics curative forms (e.g. amulets)
because it aims to heal a pre-existing relationship.
Gems of Heaven | 61
Introduction
Lapidary books from Assyro-Babylonian to Roman Imperial
times underline the importance of stones and their properties
in the production of amulets. Greek lapidary books and
magical papyri describe several kinds of magical gems and
prescribe the sort of stone to be used. A comparison between
these texts and the surviving gems shows that the major trends
of gem cutting follow the rules of written recipes,1 although
one has to admit that there are many exceptions. Indeed for the
Imperial period we know of only a very limited selection of
recipes although one cannot be certain that all recipes followed
the same rules as the few preserved ones.
A detailed study of each type of semi-precious stone from
the Assyrian to the Imperial Roman period has not yet been
done. We have only the important essay on haematite by
Alphonse Barb2 and a few other contributions on various
questions concerning these stones.3 Research teams, in which
Assyriologists, Egyptologists, and classicists co-operated in a
complete description of every sort of semi-precious stone in its
cultural environment and from an inter-cultural perspective,
would be a welcome development. Here I would like to offer a
contribution on the basis of my recent studies of a large amount
of magical gems in Italy4 and in the Cabinet des mdailles,
Paris.5 My experience forces me to recognise some kind of
relationship between parts or organs of the human body and
the colours or forms of some magical gems.6 The relationship
between herbs or coloured clothes and the colour of certain
diseases has been studied within the context of medical magic
in the Middle Ages.7 The same can also be true of gemstones.
Stones which imitated human behaviour were called
, they which imitate man.8 Near Eastern
traditions conceived of colours mostly in association with
objects, and indeed people said colour of the goat, colour of
the sky and so on. In the Assyrian and Hebrew languages only
the specific names for red-brown and green-yellow existed. (By
specific I mean red or yellow, whereas creamy for example
is a non-specific term.) Stones were usually described
62 | Gems of Heaven
The liver
Another name for haematite was hepatitis,28 or liver stone.
This type of stone was the property of Ares-Mars, a very
dangerous planetary god. According to the doctrines of eastern
sages, each planet was associated with one particular metal; in
the case of Mars (i.e. Ares) it was iron,29 the metal of arms. In
the British Museum are two haematite gems on which the
figure of Ares is engraved as well as the inscription:
(): Ares stopped the livers pains
(Pl. 4).30 The choice of haematite was conditioned by the iron
which is in this stone. Its colour was also important, for
haematite, when polished, has the sheen of iron and the gloss
Plates 6a-b Haematite in the form of a kidney. Paris, Cabinet des mdailles
The kidney
There is a variant of haematite known as limonite, whose
colour tends to brown or yellow. It is produced when haematite
is metamorphosed by absorbing water (Fe2O3+ H2O).
Sometimes small blocs of haematite or limonite (oolithes) are
kidney-shaped.35 They also have the colour of this organ, which
is reddish-brown. Pliny the Elder36 knew a stone called Adads
kidney and it is highly probable that it was either haematite or
limonite. In the Cabinet des mdailles in Paris there is one
haematite intaglio whose form is very similar to that of a
kidney (Pls 6ab, 7).37 On the obverse are engraved two gods,
namely a smiting god and Apollo of Hierapolis-Bambyce
(Syria),38 and Heracles. The reverse depicts Selene and Helios,
with an engraved line between them which divides the stone
into two zones in a similar manner to divinatory terracotta or
bronze Etruscan livers. The Orphei Lithika kerygmata39
mention the mantic properties of siderite, an iron-rich
carbonate, and therefore one could not exclude a mantic
purpose for this intaglio.
Gems of Heaven | 63
Mastrocinque
Plates 9ab Serpentine amulet with Chnoubis above a womb, and an ibis
above IAW. Paris, Cabinet des mdailles
The materials actually used for the type of the lion-headed snake
cover a fairly wide range, and yet there are certain manifest
preferences. Commonest of all is chalcedony, white, gray, blue,
pale yellow, and smoky brown; next, (probably) green jasper,
plasma, chrysolite, and prase. There are also some specimens on
agate and on black jasper and obsidian, and I have seen several on
stones that had been so altered by heat, whether purposely or
accidentally, that the original colour and even the material could
not be readily determined. Yellow jasper is rare, red jasper
probably rarest of all. There is so much irregularity about all
magical amulets that we should hesitate to treat an unusual
material as a ground for suspicion of forgery.44
Plates 12ab Green jasper with anguipede and Chnoubis and inscribed: Chnoubis,
digest, digest!. 33 x 31 x 9mm. London, British Museum, PE 1986,0501.40
One prase gem bears the inscription: Avert from Julian, son
of Nonna, every (abdomens) stress, every bad digestion, every
stomach pain!.64 One green-yellow jasper in the British
Museum has the inscription [] [...]:
Chnoubis, digest, digest! (Pls 12ab).65 The same inscription
urging to digest is cut on a gray-blue chalcedony,66 whereas
one yellow chalcedony has the inscription :
Rescue-help (protection of the) stomach.67 One may agree with
Bonner that there is some confusion concerning the material
and the colour of stones intended for Chnoubis amulets.
The gem of Proklos and others with personal names were
produced on demand. On the other hand, anonymous gems
were often mass-produced. There is a large number of small
Chnoubis gems, convex on both sides, which are of light
translucent green stones, such as prase, green agate, moss
agate, green chalcedony, or olivine. One could suspect that
they had been issued by a limited number of workshops in the
2nd and 3rd centuries ad, and in a limited number of provinces,
as is suggested by the uniformity of the products. Their colour
is similar to that of gastric juices, and therefore it is possible to
suppose that they were used to give health to the stomach. In
the case of several stomach diseases, such as pylorus hernia,
the stomach can regurgitate clear juices, which could explain
the choice of a transparent stone such as rock crystal.
Plates 11ab Serpentine with Chnoubis and the inscription: Keep the
stomach of Proklos healthy!. Paris, Cabinet des mdailles
Intestinal juices
We have seen that several gems favouring the digestion are
made of dark stones. Intestinal or gastric diseases such as
bleeding ulcers produce black juices, which can be seen in the
faeces, and this may be a possible reason for the choice of black
stones. Obviously we are proposing solutions which are
sometimes hypothetical. The difficulty and complexity of this
matter, however, should not induce us to label the choice of
stones as arbitrary or casual. Lapidary books, for example the
Kyranides or the Orphic Lithika, make it clear that rules in this
choice had to be followed. Unfortunately the surviving amulets
are rarely described in these books. In the case of medical
amulets the colour of human organs and secretions provides us
with traces of a taxonomy.
Milk
Milk is white and Chnoubis protected breast-feeding activities.
The treatise on stones by Socrates and Dionysios prescribes:
Another onyx stone, completely black. It is useful to pregnant
women and to those who are breast-feeding. On it one should
engrave a three-headed Chnoubis.68 Two black obsidian stones
depicting Chnoubis have survived,69 but only one gem with a
three-headed snake is known,70 and it is made of white
Gems of Heaven | 65
Mastrocinque
chalcedony; the inscription on the reverse mentions Chnoubis,
even if the snake has no lions heads. For a milk amulet a white
chalcedony is very appropriate. The archaeological evidence
shows that Chnoubis was often represented on milky
chalcedony. Also many small gems of the same material with
the Chnoubis sign are known. The lapis galactitis was a light
stone which was useful for breast-feeding.71 When pulverized,
it was able to colour water white.72 Therefore it is possible that
Socrates and Dionysios spoke of dark stones for pregnancy,
whereas the colour of breast-feeding amulets was another, i.e.
white. Chnoubis is often represented on uterine amulets, at the
centre of three or more Egyptian gods, who are placed over the
female organ (Pl. 9a). All or almost all of these gods are
concerned with conception, pregnancy, and breast-feeding, as
is the case for Isis, Harpocrates and Osiris. The colour of those
gems is always dark and the stone is always haematite,73 which
could explain Socrates and Dionysius recipe which speaks of a
black stone.
Conclusion
The long-lasting production of magical gems, the plurality of
workshops and of religious traditions, the nave ancient
imitations, not to speak of modern fakes, prevent us from
making simple and unproblematic classifications. Moreover,
these problems can lead us to assume that the choice of stones
was an arbitrary or casual factor. Our ignorance should not
however be the reason for denying the existence of rules and of
a logic with regard to these choices. Only a few stones have
been studied for their alleged properties and their documented
use as amulets. The preceding discussion on haematite and
other stones has shown that there was a supposed similarity or
a sort of kinship between these stones and certain bodily
functions. Haematite shared the nature of blood, aetites
(eagle-stone) the nature of a pregnant body, galactitis the
nature of milk. Practitioners pulverized galactitis, mixed it
with water and obtained a liquid which appeared to be milk;
the same occurred with haematite, which resembled
coagulated blood, but when pulverized assumed the colour of
living blood. Lapidary books and other texts by eastern
astrologists and magicians explored the connections between
stones, plants, stars, and parts of the human body. It would
have been illogical if these learned men had not taken into
account the colour of stones. On the contrary, the tradition of
Near Eastern treatises shows that colour was important.
The series of gems discussed above show that haematite
(and its reddish-brown variety, i.e. limonite) was used to
protect red-brown organs, such as the liver and kidney, and
that natural pieces of this stone actually have the shape and
gloss of these organs. The inscriptions on several gems confirm
that they were amulets for the liver. Moreover the Syrian god
Adad was known for his stone kidney, and a Syrian haematite
intaglio is shaped like a kidney. The colour and properties of
stones were supposed to be syntonic with the world of the gods.
My argument is furthered by presenting an experimental
study on Chnoubis gems. They are relatively numerous and it is
possible to single out a few groups according to their colour.
Ancient authors and inscriptions on magical gems explain that
the Chnoubis gems were used to treat diseases or to prevent
them. Stomach or intestinal diseases, pregnancy and the
wombs other functions, and breast-feeding were dealt with
66 | Gems of Heaven
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Gems of Heaven | 69
Dasen
Similarly, the physician Galen uses sphragis as a synonym for
collyrium (eye-salve): For inflammed eyelids, apply a collyrium
mixed with water, that some call a sphragis.13
An oculist stamp from Reims in France confirms that the
word sphragis could designate a remedy: it names the
impressed dried salve stick not collyrium, as expected, but
sfragis in Latin transliteration, demonstrating that the Greek
term was well understood in 2nd3rd century ad Roman
Gaul:14
d galli (s)fragis ad aspritudin(em).
d galli (s)fragis ad impet(um) lippit(udinis)
Sphragis of Decimus Gallus Sestus for trachoma
Sphragis of Decimus Gallus Sestus at the onset of inflammation
Terra Lemnia
The analogy between stamped pills and stone gems extends far
beyond the common use of the word sphragis. Like gems, pills
could bear pictures, some of them being very similar to those
found on medical magical gems. The most famous, and the
most ancient, sphragis of classical antiquity was sealed clay,
made of earth collected on the island of Lemnos in northeastern Greece. Lemnian earth was highly reputed as an
antidote with wide-ranging healing properties, from eyediseases to stomach pains and the bites of venomous animals.
The pill was characterised by its reddish colour and by a
stamped image. Pliny defines the earth as a red ochre, rubrica
Lemnia:
In medicine it is a substance ranked very high. Used as a liniment
round the eyes it relieves defluxions and pains, and checks the
discharge from eye-tumours; it is given in vinegar as a draught in
cases of vomiting or spitting blood. It is also taken as a draught for
troubles of the spleen and kidneys and for excessive menstruation;
and likewise as a remedy for poisons and snake bites and the sting
of sea serpents; hence it is in common use for all antidotes.15
On the spot, the enigma was soon solved: All who heard this
question of mine laughed.25 No goats blood was added, the red
colour was natural. As we know thanks to Hallas and PhotosJones, it is due to the presence of haematite. A book providing a
respected medical authority was brought to Galen:
I got a book from one of them, written by a former native, in which
all the uses of the Lemnian earth were set forth. Therefore I had no
hesitation myself in testing the medicine, and I took away twenty
thousand seals.26
Medical sphragides
How widespread were medical sphragides, apart from the
Lemnian one, and do other magical gems look like them? A
number of remedies with pictures can be traced, some
presenting images also found on magical gems.
Galen reports a remedy from a lost treatise of Asclepiades
the Younger (1st century ad): The yellow remedy of Antigonos,
called little lion because it was printed with the image of a
lion.37 In the same treatise, Asclepiades also mentions a crow
seal, korakin sphragis, a remedy good for mouth or throat
troubles;38 the name may refer to its black colour or to the
image of a crow. Another example occurs in a 1st-century ad
Egyptian papyrus where Servilius explains to Nemesion, a
wealthy man from Philadelphia, that he bought for him a
stone (litharion) of silphium, printed with the image of
Harpocrates;39 a very common iconographic type on magical
gems.40 In the same period, the Pliny the Elder tells us that:
Now indeed men also are beginning to wear on their fingers
Harpocrates and figures of Egyptian deities.41
Remedies prepared in a magical context could also be
stamped, like normal drugs, with an image, but this time
explicitly magical. One of the Greek Magical Papyri offers a
description of the preparation of a collyrium made of animal
and plant material (field mouse, dappled goat, dog-faced
baboon, ibis, river crab, moon beetle, wormwood, and a clove
of garlic), duly stamped, like regular remedies, but with a ring
bearing the image of Hecate and a magical name:
Blend with vinegar. Make pills, kolluria, and stamp them with a
completely iron ring, completely tempered, with a Hecate and the
name Barzou Pherba.42
Gems of Heaven | 71
Dasen
72 | Gems of Heaven
Sphragis Theou
The word sphragis occurs not only on regular medical stamped
pills or collyria, but is carved on magical gems. We find it on
the well-known 4th5th century ad series of so-called
Solomon gems. The type depicts on one side a horseman,
often labelled Solomon, spearing a prostrate female figure (Pl.
8a). The reverse usually bears the inscription sphragis theou,
Seal of God (Pl. 8b).52 The motif of the rider may derive from
Horus stabbing a crocodile personifying evil, or the hunting
emperor struck on coins, though Solomon is not in military
costume.53 The device is nearly always carved on haematite, a
choice so far unclear.
The expression sphragis theou is traditionally interpreted as
referring to the magic seal-ring which Solomon received from
Iahweh to repel the vampire-like demons assaulting him
during the construction of the Temple of Jerusalem. The gems
are usually explained as depicting how Solomon masters a
female demon harmful to women and children, present in all
Mediterranean folklores. Different names are proposed for the
woman, such as Gello, Gylou, or Abyzou.54 The role of Solomon,
however, was not limited to women and childrens protection;
as Spier points out, he controlled all evils.55 Thus, the reverse of
a haematite in the British Museum is carved with the
inscription stomachou designating his power over pains of the
belly (Pl. 9b),56 which fits well with the haematites potency for
or against internal bleeding, like Lemnian earth.
The double meaning of the word sphragis introduces a new
reading of the Solomon series which could explain the
preference for haematites: sphragis theou could also mean the
medicine of god. Solomon haematites are often found broken,
most likely because they were used as a drug, as we saw above.
One may guess that, like pills, the broken part of the gem was
pulverized and drunk mixed with a liquid.57
It may be noted that the iconography of the horseman
subduing the female demon appears when the figure of
Heracles mastering the lion disappears. Solomon seems to have
taken over the capacity of the hero. Like Heracles, who
controlled the roaming of the womb (compared with a wild
animal), variants depict Solomon with the hystera formula.58
Solomon had power over all diseases inflicted by demons,59
including the fear of poisoning, mastered by haematites, like
the red Lemnian earth.60
11
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Gems of Heaven | 73
Dasen
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74 | Gems of Heaven
Introduction
Today, research on magical gems is characterised by a strange
duality: it is both flourishing and stagnant. Much has certainly
changed in recent years. Following the publication in 1950 of
Campbell Bonners aere perennius work, Studies in Magical
Amulets, decades passed before any significant leaps forward
were made. Around the turn of the millenium, however,
magical gems are more topical than ever. To mention only a
few examples from this year (2009): the Getty Colloquium in
February,1 the present conference, and the establishment of an
international research group connected with the exhibition of
magical gems scheduled to open in Budapest in December 2011.
Notwithstanding the renewed large-scale exploration of
the sources, this revival of interest is essentially confined to the
discipline of comparative and historical religion, where it has
provided many new interpretations.2 Classical archaeology,
however, remains largely untouched by it. Richard Gordon tells
a story that shows just how untouched. A few years ago, one of
the most distinguished archaeological institutes immediately
refused to invite a scholar on hearing that he was planning to
deliver a lecture on magical gems. Such things do not form
part of Classical archaeology ran their summary reasoning.3
It is worth stopping for a moment and (instead of easy
tabloid moralising) consider the moral of the story, since this
attitude points to a fundamental problem. Even though
magical gems (the surviving ones number 40005000 pieces)
constitute a large source-group within the material remains of
Classical antiquity, they have not been fully integrated into the
scholarly record. I believe that the most important task for us
today is to accomplish that integration. Magical gems should be
considered a simple genre of material culture, like Chalcidian
vases, Samnite bronzes, or Attic sarcophagi.
In my opinion there are three main reasons for Classical
scholarships instinctive rejection of magical gems. They are
considered to be ugly, magical, and since they have no
workshops, chronology or context unfathomable for the
archaeologist. These reasons stand in the path of research like
three increasingly massive barricades. My paper aims to tackle
them one by one.
1. Magical gems are ugly
This problem is easily dealt with. The ugliness of magical
gems is by now only a diminishing theme in a centuries-old
trial symbolically opened by the founding father of Classical
archaeology, Johann Joachim Winckelmann, when he
relegated magical gems beyond the frontier of ancient art.
They are, he wrote nicht wrdig, in Absicht der Kunst, in
Betrachtung gezogen zu werden.4 It is in the spirit of
Winckelmanns anathema that his spiritual heirs, who consider
the study of ancient art the primary task of Classical
archaeology, aim to place magical gems, sometimes quite
Nagy
Plates 1ab Nicolo gem. St Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum, Inv. no. .1517
Plates 4ab Jasper gem. St Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum, Inv. no.
.6673
76 | Gems of Heaven
Plate 6 Blackish green jasper gem, 13 x 11 x 3mm. The Hague, Royal Coin
Cabinet, Inv. no. 1049
Gems of Heaven | 77
Nagy
Plates 7ab Dark green jasper gem, 26 x 22.4 x 4.4mm. Paris, Bibliothque
Nationale, Cabinet des mdailles, Inv. no. 2175
Plates 8ab Dark green jasper gem. St Petersburg, The State Hermitage
Museum, Inv. no. .6742
78 | Gems of Heaven
Gems of Heaven | 79
Nagy
I believe that these archaeological methods offer
possibilities as yet unexploited for studying magical gems. As
mentioned before, both were developed by Campbell Bonner,
and perhaps this fact may also support their validity. A magical
papyrus would have recommended them as follows: tested
methods for studying magical gems invented by the greatest
symmagos.
15
16
17
Acknowledgements
18
19
Notes
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21
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14
80 | Gems of Heaven
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Gems of Heaven | 81
82 | Gems of Heaven
von Dungern
Plate 7 Diagram of the Dodekaoros after Teukros and the Daressy Zodiac
Gems of Heaven | 85
von Dungern
Plate 13 Chalcedony. Ann Arbor,
Kelsey Museum
86 | Gems of Heaven
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Grylloi1
Kenneth Lapatin
Grylloi
Gems of Heaven | 89
Lapatin
catalogue of the collection of Baron von Stosch.15 Most of the
gems we would call grylloi are listed in his seventh class,
Animals, under the sub-heading Animaux Chimriques,16 but
five are placed earlier, in his second class: Sacred Mythology:
667. Jaspe rouge. Un Amour mont sur une espce de Chimre, ou
de Grylle, compos des parties de differents animaux & dun grand
masque. Selon Pline, Antiphile fut linventeur de ces sortes de
monstres que limagination avoir invents dans la peinture des
anciens: Antiphilus. iocoso nomine Gryllum ridiculi habitus
pinxit, unde hoc genus picturae Grylli vocantur.
interpretation can sometimes seem quite simple: on a mid-1stcentury bc carnelian in Vienna,11 for example, an eagle with a
crown in its beak might symbolise Victory; a silen mask joyous
festivals; rams head and ear of wheat plentiful meat and bread;
a caduceus success. Some have explained the silens as a form of
protective oscillum, and cocks as solar symbols. Thus one
possible interpretative path for the glyptic grylloi is to read
them rather like those gems carved with unconnected luck
symbols, such as a slightly later carnelian, also in Vienna.12 But
can the images present on glyptic grylloi all be explained so
simplistically? What about others, such as elephant heads and
mice; bells and phalloi; or different combinations?
Some scholars13 have adduced a remark of Plutarch about
the active power of vision in regard to the Evil Eye:
What I have said shows why the so-called amulets (
) are thought to be a protection
against malice. The strange look of them (
) attracts the gaze, so that it exerts less pressure upon its
victim (Quaestiones conviviales, 5.7.681F).14
Grylloi
Plate 16 Sard intaglio of a gryllo carrying
two baskets past a sundial mounted on a
pillar in Gori (n. 23): pl. 96, no. 4
Plate 17 Plaster impressions of 12 gems depicting grasshoppers and crickets, some engaged in human activities, included in James Tassie and Erich Raspe, A
Descriptive Catalogue of a General Collection of Ancient and Modern Engraved Gems, Cameos and Intaglios, Taken from the Most Celebrated Cabinets in Europe,
London 1791, 1434, 7056, nos 190611, 133416
Gems of Heaven | 91
Lapatin
Kaufmann has suggested that Arcimboldo was familiar
with Rudolph IIs collection of ancient gems,31 and Boschs
composite creatures are in many ways similar to hybrid glyptic
grylloi, but I have found no evidence of the term gryllos applied
to ancient gems depicting hybrids, rather than caricatures,
before the 18th century. When Abraham van Goorle first
published his collection of engraved gems and finger rings in
Antwerp in 1601 two of his intaglios (nos 46 and 186, Pl. 22),
which we would call grylloi, were not categorised. Later
publishers of his collection, in Latin (1707) and French (1778),
however, do describe and interpret these gems. In Jacob
Gronovius Latin edition, number 46 is called Fascinum ex
duobus humanis vultibus & elephantino, cuius proboscide
tenetur tridens, forsan contra pericula maris: modo singula bene
sint expressa, while in the later French edition it is merely
Figures Maritimes.32 Number 186 is described in 1707 as
Fascinum ex senili & equino capite, caudaque & pedibus
gallinacei with further references to Jean Chifflets
monograph on Socrates (on which see below), while in 1778 it is
characterised as Ttes de vieillard & de cheval, pieds & queue
de coq.33 Other early authors call grylloi Chimeras, as did
Mariette and Winckelmann, but Leonardo Agostini, writing c.
1667, separated one out from the crowd, cleverly identifying it
as Meleager on account of conjoined human and boars heads
(Pl. 23).34 This identification is repeated by several authors,
including Paolo Alessandro Maffei,35 who does not follow his
predecessor indiscriminately, however. He calls one of the
grylloi Agostini labled a Chimera an Abraxas (cf. Pls 2425).36
Likewise Johann Jakob Baer37 questions the identification of
this figure as a chimaera, as it does not conform to ancient
descriptions of that beast as having a lions body, a goat coming
from its torso, and a serpent tail; he proposes instead that it be
called an amulet or Abraxas:
Plate 22 Left: agate with conjoined heads of two bearded males and an
elephant holding a trident in its trunk; Right: sard with conjoined heads of a
silen and horse with a sheaf of wheat in its mouth on bird legs; both in Abraham
van Goorle, Dactyliotheca, seu, Annulorum sigillarium quorum apud priscos
tam Graecos quam Romanos usus e ferro, aere, argento & auro promptvarivm:
accesserunt variarum gemmarvm quibus antiquitas in sigillando uti solita
scalptvrae, Antwerp, 1601, nos 46 and 186
Plate 26 Plate 6 and title page of J. Chifflet, Socrates, sive, De Gemmis euis
imagine coelatis iudicium, Antwerp, 1662
Grylloi
Reliquae vero Gemmae aenigmaticae in eadem Tabula expressae, & in sequentibus quae huic Classi finem imponunt, quae,
ut aiunt, Gryllos, & Griphos, seu imagines monstrosas humanorum capitum vel Socratis, vel feminarum brutis animalibus vel
aeris, vel terrestribus, vel marinis, sive aquatilibus implexas
praeferunt, alio pertinent; atque, ut pereruditi viri sententia est, ab aliquo virorum, fortassis superstitiosorum, Phratrio,
sive Secta originem habuere, quae portentosis hisce symplegmatibus ostendere voluit varios hominum affectus, virtutes, & vitia
quae proxime bestiis accedunt. Neque vero id erit suasu difficile, quum omens sciant Aesopum suis confictis Fabulis Philosophiae moralis dogmata tradidisse. Hos vero portentorum au-
Gems of Heaven | 93
Lapatin
ctores Aegyptios imitatos fuisse facile credam, quibus hic belluarum, & hominum complexus familiaris fuit ad exprimendas
virtutes, & vitia; quod prae aliis docet eximius locus apud
Porphyrium, quem laudat summus vir Spanhemius in Dissertatione V. de Prestantia, & Vsu Numismatum antiquorum; qui
etiam duos nummos Nicomediensium adfert,in quibus dracones cum humano capite sculpti sunt. Adeundus, si quis plura cupiat, Ioannes Chifletius in Socrate, qui recondita haec aenigmaticarum Gemmarum emblemata illustrat.
Grylloi
Gems of Heaven | 95
Lapatin
could not only protect, but also, perhaps, impart a special
charisma to those who deployed them.56 Indeed, although both
Vitruvius and Horaces narrator object to such images, they
recognise their potency, the ability of these apparitions to
beguile.57 For Vitruvius, they are monstra not monsters in the
modern sense, but something beyond nature. And for Horace,
they are like a sick mans dream (uelut aegri somnia). We see
the powerful, mystical if that is the right word associations
of such hybrids perhaps nowhere better than in the so-called
Aula dellOrante on the Caelian Hill beneath the Church of SS
Giovanni and Paolo, where they appear in 3rd-century ad wallpaintings alongside the image of a praying man.58 Here they are
explicitly linked to some power beyond that of our world.
Hanging from cords, associated with Christian imagery
adding to, or even overloading that imagery they are highly
resistant to conventional reductive interpretations and this in
the very same period of the greatest popularity of glyptic
grylloi.
Taking a step back in time, it is interesting to note that the
potentiality inherent in hybrids as being unfixed is also
present in one of the earliest literary references to them, where
they are viewed not so much as the opposite of nature, as the
origins of species. The Presocratic Sicilian philosopher
Empedocles of Acragas explored theories of mechanism vs.
teleology in the formation of animals and suggested that in
early times animal parts, such as heads and limbs, were
generated separately and then eventually combined into more
integrated organisms. He held that such independent body
parts were alive and sentient on their own, but when combined
into organisms only those that formed stable and successful
animals survived. In fact, Empedocles reputedly said that some
of the animals were like dream images, with the parts growing
together59 perhaps influencing the formulation of Horace.
In any case, Empedocles fragment 57 (RP 173a) mentions
many heads sprung up without necks and arms wandering
bare and bereft of shoulders. Fragment 57 (RP 173b) recounts
that many creatures with faces and breasts looking in different
directions were born; some, offspring of oxen with faces of
men, while others, again, arose as offspring of men with the
heads of oxen, and creatures in whom the nature of women and
men was mingled. Empedocles was renowned for his
penetrating knowledge of nature and gained a reputation for
marvelous powers, including curing diseases, averting
epidemics, and raising the dead (e.g., Diogenes Laertius 8.58
61, 6770). He was later considered a magician who could
control storms, defeat evil, and overcome old age, and his ideas
must have had some appeal, for centuries after his death the
Roman poet Lucretius took pains to dispute them in De rerum
natura, denying the existence ever of hybrids:
sed neque Centauri fuerunt, nec tempore in ullo / esse queunt
duplici natura et corpore bino / ex alienigenis membris compacta;
But neither were there centaurs, nor at any time can there be
animals of twofold nature and double body, put together of limbs
of alien birth, (5.87880);60
aut rabidis canibus succinctas semimarinis / corporibus Scyllas et
cetera de genere horum, / inter se quorum discordia membra
videmus;
or Scyllas either, with bodies half of sea-monsters, girt about with
ravening dogs, or any other beasts of their kind, whose limbs we
see cannot agree one with another, (5.8924);61
96 | Gems of Heaven
Grylloi
2
3
4
5
6
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
E.g. K.A. Bttiger, Journal des Luxus und der Mode 78 (1804)
(reprinted in K.A. Bttiger, Kleine Schriften archologischen und
antiquarischen Inhalts II, Dresden, 1838, 4601); M. MaaskantKleibrink, Classification of Ancient Engraved Gems, Leiden, 1975,
242; M. Henig and M. Whiting, Engraved Gems from Gadara in
Jordan: the Sad Collection of Intaglios and Cameos (Oxford
University Committee for Archaeology Monograph no. 6), Oxford,
1987, 31.
See for example, M. Iozzo et al., The Chimaera of Arezzo, Florence,
2009.
J. Boardman, Disguise and exchange in Eastern imagery, in
T. Potts, M. Roaf and D. Stein (eds), Culture through Objects:
Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Honour of P.R.S. Moorey,
Cambridge, 2003, 12331; A. Roes, New light on the Grylli, Journal
of Hellenic Studies 55 (1935), 2325; A. Blanchet, Recherches sur les
Grylles. A propos dune pierre grave, trouve en Alsace, Revue
des tudes anciennes 23 (1921), 4351, at 50; A. Furtwngler, Die
antiken Gemmen: Geschichte der Steinschneidekunst im klassischen
Altertum, Leipzig and Berlin, 1900, 11314, 3523.
See G. Hafner, Neue Mischwesen des 4. Jahrhunderts, Wiener
Jahreshefte 32 (1940), 2534.
G. Sauron, Le monstres, au coeur des conflits esthtiques Rome
au Ier sicle avant J.-C., Revue de lArt 90 (1990), 3545; S. Yerkes,
Vitruvius monstra, Journal of Roman Archaeology 13 (2000), 234
51; V. Platt, Where the wild things are: locating the marvellous in
Augustan wall painting, in P. Hardie (ed.), Paradox and the
Marvellous in Augustan Literature and Culture, Oxford, 2009,
4174.
I have not been able to consult S. Verberk, Grylloi en Kombinaties op
Romeinse Ringstenen (Doctoraalscriptie Klassieke Archeologie
Universiteit van Amsterdam) [unpublished doctoral thesis
submitted August 27, 1993].
I.e. Gordon, Faraone, Mastrocinque, Dasen, Nagy, Michel.
E. Zwierlein-Diehl, Antike Gemmen und ihr Nachleben, Berlin,
2007, 142.
E.g., Bttiger (n. 2); Blanchet (n. 4), 44.
E. Zwierlein-Diehl, Die antiken Gemmen des Kunsthistorischen
Museums in Wien, III, Munich, 1991, no. 2112 = Zwierlein-Diehl (n.
9), 142, fig. 590.
Ibid., fig. 591.
E.g., G.M.A. Richter, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Catalogue of
Engraved Gems: Greek, Etruscan, and Roman, Rome, 1956, 114.
Plutarch, Quaestiones conviviales, trans. P.A. Clement and H.B.
Hoffleit, Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, MA, 1969.
J.J. Winckelmann, Description des pierres graves du feu Baron de
Stosch, Florence, 1760, (anastatic reprint Baden-Baden 1970), 130,
no. 667.
Ibid., 55962, nos 20751.
P.M. Fraser and E. Matthews et al. (eds), A Lexicon of Greek Personal
Names, Oxford, 1987, I.111, II.97, IIIb.94.
P. Zanker, The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus, Ann Arbor,
1988, 209, pl. 162.
H.G. Liddell and R. Scott, A Greek English Lexicon9, Oxford, 1996,
391; P. Chantraine, Dictionnaire tymologique de la langue grecque,
Paris, 1999, 238; Blanchet (n. 4); E. Lobel and C. Roberts, Verses on
the Labours of Heracles, Oxyrhynchus Papyri 22 (1954), no. 2331
and pl. XI; W. Binsfeld, Grylloi; ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der
antiken Karikatur, diss. Cologne, 1956; idem, , RE Suppl.
IX (1962), 768; D. Page, P.Oxy. 2331 and Others, Classical Review
7 (1957), 18992; P. Maas, The GRULLOS Papyrus, Greece and
Rome 5 (1958), 1713; G. Becatti, Grylloi, Enciclopeda dellArte
Antica 3 (1960), 10656; H. Bartels, Grylloi, in E. Kunze (ed.),
Olympia Bericht VIII, Berlin, 1967, 25062. F. Perpillou-Thomas,
P.Sorb. inv. 2381: , Zeitschrift fr
Papyrologie und Epigraphik 78 (1989), 1535; S. Pfisterer-Haas, Die
bronzene Zwergentnzer, in G. Hellenkemper Salies et al. (eds),
Das Wrack: Der antike Schiffsfund von Mahdia, Bonn, 1994, 483
504; J. Hammerstaedt, Gryllos. Die antike Bedeutung eines
modernen archologischen Begriffs, Zeitschrift fr Papyrologie
und Epigraphik 129 (2000), 2946; L. Herchenroeder,
; Plutarchs Gryllus and the so-called
Grylloi, American Journal of Philology 129 (2008), 34779, esp.
3508.
O.A. Bayardi (ed.), Le Antichit di Ercolano Esposte, I, Le pitture
antiche di Ercolano e contorni, incise con qualche spiegazione,
Naples, 1757, 2457.
Gems of Heaven | 97
Lapatin
43 J. M. Hurwit, The Art and Culture of Early Greece, 1100480 bc,
Cornell, 1985, 18890.
44 Vitruvius, De Architectura, trans. F. Granger, Loeb Classical
Library, Cambridge, MA, 1970.
45 See for example: Sauron (n. 6); Yerkes (n. 6); M. Citroni, Horaces
Ars Poetica and the marvellous, in Hardie (ed.) (n. 6), 3140, at 38;
Platt (n. 6); M.F. Nichols, Vitruvius and the Rhetoric of Display
(Ph.D. thesis, University of Cambridge, 2009).
46 Horace, Ars Poetica, trans. H. Rushton Fairclough, Loeb Classical
Library no. 194, Cambridge, MA, 1999 (repr.).
47 B. Frischer, Shifting Paradigms: New Approaches to Horaces Ars
Poetica (American Philological Association, American Classical
Studies, no. 27), Atlanta, 1991, 68ff.; cf. Citroni (n. 45), 40, n. 42.
48 See n. 46.
49 Frischer (n. 47), 701.
50 Citroni (n. 45), 1920; Platt (n. 6).
51 Sauron (n. 6); M.R. Sanzi Di Mino et al., La Villa della Farnesina in
Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Rome, 1998; I. Iacopi, La Casa di
Augusto: Le Pitture, Rome, 2007; Platt (n. 6).
52 Citroni (n. 45), 256; Platt (n. 6).
53 Although Horaces very precise description of a hybrid creature in
the proem of the Ars Poetica sounds like a gryllos, I have
encountered no such creature depicted on an engraved gem or in
any other medium. The absence of such imagery in ancient art may
be attributed to the conventional, if varied nature of the glyptic
grylloi. The fact that no post-antique gem engraver appears to have
realised Horaces creature is perhaps due to the proscriptive power
of the poets emphatic negative assessment of the image he so
vividly describes.
54 Platt (n. 6), 44.
55 P. Hardie, Introduction, in Hardie (ed.) (n. 6), 118, at 9, 14.
56 Platt (n. 6), 445.
57 For other links between Horace and Vitruvius see M.F. Nichols,
Social status and the authorial personae of Horace and Vitruvius,
in L.B.T. Houghton and M. Wyke (eds), Perceptions of Horace: a
Roman poet and his readers, Cambridge, 2010, 10922.
58 A. Englen et al., Case romane e Antiquarium sotto la Basilica dei SS.
Giovanni e Paolo al Celio, Rome, 2004, 11; see also: P.C. Finney, The
Invisible God. The Earliest Christians on Art, Oxford, 1994, 222, on
such imagery in the Callistus catacomb.
59 B. Inwood, The Poem of Empedocles: A Text and Translation with an
Introduction, Toronto, 2001, 188.
60 Lucretius, De rerum natura, ed. and trans. C. Bailey, Oxford, 1947.
61 Ibid.
62 Ibid.
63 See, for example, Herchenroeder (n. 19); I have not had the
opportunity to consult two recent collections: I. Boehm and P.
Luccioni (eds), Le mdecin initi par lanimal: animaux et mdecine
dans lAntiquit grecque et latine. Actes du colloque international
tenu la Maison de lOrient de la Mditerrane-Jean Pouilloux les 26
et 27 octobre 2006. Collection de la maison de lorient et de la
Mditerrane 39. Srie littraire et philosophique 1, Lyon, 2008;
M. Fansa (ed.), Tierisch moralisch. Die Welt der Fabel in Orient und
Okzident. Begleitschrift zur Sonderausstellung des Landesmuseums
Natur und Mensch Oldenburg vom 22. Februar bis zum 01. Juni 2009.
(Schriftenreihe des Landesmuseums Natur und Mensch, Heft 63),
Wiesbaden, 2009.
64 Boardman (n. 27), 2345, 322; Boardman (n. 4); A. Invernizzi et al.,
Seleucia al Tigri. Le impronte di sigillo dagli Archivi, Alexandria,
2004; cf. Maaskant-Kleibrink (n. 2), 242.
65 Blanchet (n. 4), 4850.
66 E.g. M. Henig, A Corpus of Roman Engraved Gemstones from British
Sites, Oxford, 1974, 546, nos 37385; G. Dembski, Die antiken
Gemmen und Kameen aus Carnuntum, Vienna, 2005, 1084, 1089,
10967, 1104.
67 G. Sena Chiesa, Gemme del Museo Nazionale di Aquileia, Aquileia,
1966, 3423, nos 1005, 100910; Henig and Whiting (n. 2), 312, nos
30910, 313.
98 | Gems of Heaven
Addendum
Another early appearance of a glyptic gryllos is an agate
intaglio published by M. Antoine Le Pois, councillor and
physician to the Duke of Lorraine in 1579. It features three
heads (of a bearded humanoid, a ram, and a horse with branch
in mouth) atop a cocks legs, and is explained as representing a
journey to the three parts of the world, i.e., Africa, Asia, and
Europe, represented, respectively, by the horse, ram, and
human head. For the horse, we are told, appears on some
ancient African coins, and Europe is the region plus polie,
ornee, civile & humaine que les deux autres. Of course, Autres
ay-ie ouy interpreter autrement & bien differemment ceste
figure.
Plate 1 Silver ring set with a haematite intaglio bearing the image of Abrasax
found at Kefar Othnay. 16 x 11mm
Gems of Heaven | 99
deity that was common on gems and amulets during the 3rd
and 4th centuries ad.11 He appears with the head of a cockerel,
the body of a cuirassed Roman officer, and serpent-like legs
perhaps in turn symbols of the upper air, the earth and the
underworld. In his right hand he grasps what appears to be a
club (though the flail is his more customary attribute),12 and in
his left is a round shield, depicted in a somewhat obscure
fashion.13
The identification of this figure with Abrasax is based on an
abundance of amulets from museum collections and
archaeological sites, mainly in Egypt and Syria, bearing his
image alongside an engraving of his name.14 The name was
related in the past to the Gnostic doctrine of Basilides, an early
2nd century ad Christian religious teacher in Alexandria.15 Yet
objections have been raised concerning this interpretation and
Abrasax gems are now regarded as pagan amulets and
instruments of magic, following the deciphering of Egyptian
magical papyri, in which many of the unintelligible names of
the Abrasax gems reappear, alongside directions for making
and using gems with similar figures and formulas for magical
purposes.16 Still, the frequent appearance of Abrasax in Jewish
magical texts demonstrates its assimilation into the Jewish
magical tradition. In these texts Abrasax is conceived of as the
name of a very powerful angel or celestial power that was not
only incorporated into the Jewish magical tradition, but in
some cases even seems to have been entirely Judaised in the
process.17 The fact that the figure of Abrasax survived both on
kabbalistic amulets and in Christian circles during medieval
times seems to indicate that its use was common amongst Jews,
Christians and pagans alike.18
Beside the Abrasax silver ring, about 20 copper-alloy rings
were found in different areas of the excavation (Pl. 2). The
rings differ in section and diameter and although some of them
might have had a variety of functions, at least 13 circular rings
with diameters of 1622mm, seem to have been originally used
as finger-rings. These rings could either have been used as
100| Gems of Heaven
Plate 9 Iron ring set with a carnelian depicting a schematized Tyche-Fortuna (?) and its
impression, Kibbutz Givat Oz collection. 11 x 7.5mm
(Pl. 8). She is raising the bow with her right outstretched arm
and with her left hand she is reaching for an arrow in the
quiver on her back. At her feet is a hound. Such depictions are
very common on gemstones and close parallels have been
found in Caesarea, Gadara and elsewhere.31 Together with the
armed Venus Victrix the hunting Artemis would have been a
suitable device for the rings of Roman soldiers.
A carnelian of a lesser quality, and probably of a later date
in the 3rd century ad, depicts a goddess dressed in a long
chiton, perhaps a schematised Tyche-Fortuna (Pl. 9). The stone
is still set in its iron bezel. A nicolo intaglio depicts a bust of
Zeus facing right (Pl. 10). Zeus appears bearded and crowned
with a laurel wreath that ends in projecting leaves above the
forehead.
An intaglio that was most certainly owned by a woman
rather than a male soldier is a carnelian engraved with the
name Ziala in positive (Pl. 11). Similar names, and especially
Zoila (), were very common in the eastern Mediterranean
during the Hellenistic and Roman periods, up until the 4th
century ad. The name Zoila appears on an inscription from the
Jewish cemetery at Beth Shearim and in other sites from
Roman Palestine.32 It seems likely that the gem was originally
set in a ring of a Jewish woman from Kefar Othnay or
Maximianopolis.
Another intaglio that might have originated from a fingerring of one of the Jewish residents of the area is a translucent
white chalcedony with a convex profile engraved with a simple
chalice or cup (skyphos), from which issues a vertical stem (Pl.
Gems of Heaven | 101
Plate 10 Nicolo intaglio depicting a bust of Zeus and its impression, Kibbutz
Givat Oz collection. 11 x 9.2mm
Plate 11 Carnelian engraved with the name Ziala in positive, Kibbutz Givat Oz
collection. 7.9 x 9.9mm
Aelia Capitolina
The Temple Mount Excavations conducted by Benjamin Mazar
between 1968 and 1978, on behalf of the Institute of
Archaeology at the Hebrew University, took place at the foot of
the southern and western retaining walls of the Temple Mount.
During the excavations a dozen Roman intaglios were found in
various areas. The area south and south-west of the Temple
Mount was not, until recent years, regarded by scholars as
being of much importance with regard to the urban plan of
Jerusalem during the 2nd to 4th centuries ad.39 It was even
claimed that this area was outside the boundaries of Aelia
Plate 13 Copper-alloy setting for a ring with the image of Harpokrates and its
impression, Kibbutz Givat Oz collection. 13 x 9.5mm
Conclusions
The Abrasax intaglio found during the excavations on the
Megiddo Police Station Hill seems to have belonged to a Jewish
resident of or a passer-by at Kefar Othnay, while the various
copper-alloy rings were in the possession of either Jewish
women or of men and women from other ethnic and religious
groups residing at the site. The intaglios and cameos in the
collection of Kibbutz Givat Oz probably originate from the
finger-rings of soldiers stationed at the Roman military camp
and also from civilians male and female, Jewish and pagan
who inhabited the nearby vicus adjacent to the Roman
legionary camp, the city of Maximianopolis and Kefar Othnay.
In the case of the intaglios from Aelia Capitolina regardless of
whether the camp of the Legio X was situated at the area where
the intaglios were found they seem to point, together with
other finds, to the presence of Roman soldiers and veterans
either stationed nearby or just passing through on their way to
the bathhouse or bakery.
Gemstones have been found throughout the entire Roman
Empire and portray all aspects of life. Despite their minute size,
they are rich illustrations of life in the Roman world, and in
particular provide evidence of individual, unofficial cults.
Although it is impossible, of course, to write the social history
of Aelia Capitolina or Legio based on these small finds, there
can be no doubt that, gemstones, alongside sculpture and
mosaics, reflect the religious diversity of the population of both
sites at that time.
Notes
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Introduction
This paper is primarily concerned with gems from excavated,
stratified tombs, with a few parallels from other stratified
locations. The chosen gems were in use by the local population
in Late Hellenistic to Early Byzantine Palestine. Several
hundred glyptic items have been excavated in Israel, many of
which are still awaiting publication. Less than 30 have been
found in tombs, and we discuss here only those pieces that have
been published.
Certain excavated sites dating from our period yielded
gems in substantial numbers, others only a few to single gems.
The best example is Roman-Byzantine Caesarea Maritima,
although none of the gems from this large harbour city come
from unequivocal burial contexts. The tombs represent
different burial types, customs and traditions: burial caves,
rock-cut tombs, single burials, mausoleums, cemeteries; burial
in stone ossuaries, clay, wood and lead coffins.
As opposed to gems found during excavations at Masada,
Gamla and other places where the majority of recovered
glyptics belonged to Roman soldiers, the gems discussed here
were in use by the local population from the 1st century bc to
the 4th century ad. Some gems were found without their
mounts, but a considerable number were unearthed in their
settings, principally iron and copper-alloy rings. Only
established and affluent people could afford burial in ossuaries
or coffins placed within caves or rock-cut tombs. Therefore, at
least in Roman Palestine, pagans and Jews buried with iron
rings set with intaglios also belonged to the middle to upper
economic strata of the population.
Plate 1 Stone ossuary from Tomb Two, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem. Israel
Antiquities Authority (hereafter IAA)
Plate 2 Stone ossuary from Tomb Two, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem. IAA
Plate 3 Red glass intaglio (and impression) with a bust of Harpocrates from
Tomb One, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem
from Israeli and nearby sites, some dating from the late 1st
century ad and most from the 2nd to 3rd century ad.3 However,
the sub-type of a Harpocrates bust is not a frequent one. The
only known parallel, from a neighbouring site, is a 1st-century
ad nicolo from Gadara (Pl. 4).4 The second intaglio from Mount
Scopus, a carnelian, depicts another solar deity: the bust of
young Apollo in profile to left, with short hair held by a thin
diadem (a bay laurel?), and the slight remains of a diagonal
branch rising from his shoulder (Pl. 5).5 This subject in diverse
engraving styles is a very common motif on gems dating in the
main from the Hellenistic period up to the 2nd century ad.
However, these Apollo bust gems usually do not originate in
unequivocal Jewish contexts. For example, the two specimens
found at Masada probably belonged to Roman soldiers (Pls
Plate 10 Intaglio (with impression) with a grape vine from Gamla. IAA
dating from the 1st century bc to the Late Roman period three
bear devices with solar significance (the two pre-ad 70
Jerusalem specimens and the Beit Shearim gem), two are
magical amulets (the Tiberais and Beit Shearim gems), and all
depict motifs used by the general local population.
Gems from pagan tombs
Due to their fairly large number we only discuss here examples
from burial sites in the Galilee and the Jerusalem area, during
the Hellenistic to Late Roman periods.
Examples from burial sites in Galilee
Kibbutz Hagoshrim (upper northern Galilee)
The site is situated below the Golan Heights, on the bank of the
river Dan, a tributary of the river Jordan. Three gems were
unearthed in one burial cave which had acted as a burial
ground for pagans from Late Hellenistic to Early Roman times.
Nails and iron carrying-loops? show the deceased were usually
buried in wooden coffins with their jewellery, dating the burial
activity in the cave up to the second half of the 1st century ad.12
Four rings were found of which three are broken iron rings set
with gems and one a copper-alloy example without a gem. The
gems are two agates and a glass intaglio (all of type F2) and
they depict three typical early Roman subjects. The agates
portray an Athena-Minerva of the Parthenos type, standing to
right and holding a small Nike (Pl. 17), and a hound chasing a
hare (Pl. 18). The engraving style of these two agates dates
them to the 1st century ad, but not necessarily to the same
workshop. Athena in diverse sub-types is one of the most
popular subjects depicted on Late Hellenistic and Roman
glyptics in our region. The scene of the dog leaping after a hare
probably reflects actual hunting practices. The lush natural
Plate 22 Contents from a copper-alloy jewellery box and tomb from Qadesh. IAA
Plate 23 Copper-alloy ring with intaglio with star and crescent from Qadesh. IAA
Plate 24 ab Red jasper intaglio with olive tree and Greek inscription from
Nahariyyah. IAA
Plate 27 Black jasper intaglio with pantheistic goddess from Binyane Hauma,
Jerusalem. IAA
Plates 30 a-b Gold ring with nicolo intaglio with a shrimp from Manahat,
Jerusalem. IAA
of the site by the Legio X from the 1st century ad to the early 3rd
century ad, its owner could well have been a Roman soldier.
Manahat (near Holyland, on the western outskirts of
Jerusalem)
A single intaglio set in a typical Roman gold ring (Pl. 30a) was
discovered on the left little finger of a young male (25 years
old) buried with an older male (35 years old) in a lead coffin
decorated with erotes at the base of a Roman rock-cut shaft
tomb. The lead coffin, the burial of two males in one coffin
within a short period, the gold-embroidered outer garment
which clad the elder male, the jewellery and other finds in the
coffin date the grave up to ad 240, and identify the men as
Romans who probably settled on the outskirts of Jerusalem,
and were possibly connected with the caravan cities to the
north of Israel, perhaps Palmyra or Dura.27
The gem, which is a nicolo (type F2), depicts a decapod
crustacean, probably a shrimp rather than a prawn (Pl. 30b).
The shrimp (Palaemon squilla) is a familiar Roman gem motif
found on other intaglios from Israel and nearby regions such as
Caesarea and Gadara.28
Nahal Raqafot (western outskirts of Jerusalem)
At this burial site were found three intaglios set respectively in
two gold rings and a gold brooch. Two rock-cut tombs were
unearthed, each with a single wood cast lead coffin
strengthened with wooden uprights. One of the coffins
contained the skeletal remains of two males, presumably
Roman soldiers stationed in Jerusalem, buried with rich gold
jewellery and gold-ornamented leather fabric.29 The two gold
rings were discovered near the left hand and hip of the same
male placed in this coffin. The first is a 2nd-century ad type
solid gold ring with a nicolo depicting a cuirassed elephant
walking to left with raised trunk representing a parade
elephant (Pl. 31). Coin and gem depictions of elephants from
the public shows at Rome are known, but to date this is the only
glyptic example of the motif found at an Israeli site. The
Plate 31 Gold ring with nicolo intaglio with elephant from Nahal Raqafot,
Jerusalem. IAA
Plate 32 Glass intaglio with goatherd milking a goat from Nahal Raqafot,
Jerusalem. IAA
Plate 33 Intaglio with goatherd milking a goat from Bab el Hawa. IAA
Plate 34 Gold brooch set with an onyx cameo with Athena from Nahal Raqafot,
Jerusalem. IAA
2
3
4
5
6
8
9
10
11
12
We wish to express our gratitude to Uzi Dahari, the IAA Deputy for
permission to use the material; to Adi Ziv, Curator of the IAA BetShemesh Late Periods Store Rooms for her help and advice in
locating the gems; and to Clara Amit, an IAA photographer for
taking new photographs of some of the gems for this article.
L.Y. Rahmani, Jewish Rock-Cut Tombs on Mount Scopus, Atiqot
14 (1980), 4954, mistakenly identified as Fortuna.
Caesarea: A. Hamburger, Gems from Caesarea Maritima, Atiqot 8
(1968), 138, nos 11617; S. Amorai-Stark, Engraved Gems and Seals
from Two Collections in Jerusalem: The Studium Biblicum
Franciscanum Museum Gem Collection (SBF) and the Pontifical
Institute Museum Gem Collection (PBI), Jerusalem, 1993, SBF, no.
129; Gadara: M. Henig and M. Whiting, Engraved Gems from
Gadara in Jordan. The Sad Collection of Intaglios and Cameos,
Oxford, 1987, no. 217; Carmel Area: S. Amorai-Stark and M.
Hershkovitz, A Roman Ring depicting Hermes Psychopompos
from the Carmel Area, forthcoming.
Henig and Whiting (n.3), no. 218.
V. Sussman, A Jewish Burial Cave on Mount Scopus, in H. Geva
(ed.), Ancient Jerusalem Revealed, Jerusalem, 2000, 22630.
M. Hershkovitz and S. Amorai-Stark, The Gems from Masada, in
J. Aviram, G. Foerster, E. Netzer and G.D. Stiebel (eds), Masada
VIII: The Yigael Yadin Excavations 19631965, Final Reports,
Jerusalem, 2007, 21728, nos 45, 1st century bc1st century ad
Gamla: S. Amorai-Stark and M. Hershkovitz, The Gems and
Jewellery from Gamla, in D. Syon (ed.), Gamla, Final Report (IAA),
Jerusalem, forthcoming; Masada: eadem (n. 6), nos 1213. See
also, M. Hershkovitz, Gemstones, in H. Geva (ed.), Jewish Quarter
Excavations in the Old City of Jerusalem Conducted by Nahman
Avigad, 19691982. II: The Finds from Areas A, W and X-2. Final
Report, Jerusalem, 2003, 296301, at 299300.
F. Vitto, A Jewish Mausoleum of the Roman Period at Qiryat
Shemuel, Tiberias, Atiqot 58 (2008), 729.
Cf. ibid., 22.
A. Mokary, Iksel, Hadashot Arkheologiyot 115 (2003), 27 (in
Hebrew).
For an example of a glass pendant amulet from a tomb at Hirbet
Kenes, Galilee, see: L. Porat, Quarry and Burial Caves at H. Kenes
(Karmiel), Atiqot 33 (1997), 819, pl. 3:6 (in Hebrew); also,
E. Brown, C. Dauphin and G. Hadas, A Rock-Cut Tomb at Sajur,
Atiqot 25 (1994), 112.
R. Ovadia, A Burial Cave of the Hellenistic and Early Roman
Introduction
The gem corpus from present-day Portugal, discussed by Graa
Cravinho in her forthcoming doctoral thesis, totals more than
920 glyptic items; rings and other related objects bring the
number of finds to over 1,000 pieces. The majority of these
finds are Roman gems (440 items) and rings. The total of
engraved gems dating from the Late Antique period is around
110 pieces (i.e. c. 12.2% of the corpus); intaglios and rings
dating from the same period include specimens depicting
motifs of Roman and barbarian origin engraved in differing
styles. The majority of these are not discussed in this paper.
This paper focuses on selected examples from within this
group of 3rd to 7th century ad finds. They come from various
Portuguese locations and regions, all with diverse historical,
political and geographic backgrounds. In order to stress the
context, we present gems and related material from seven
excavated sites (moving from north to south in modern
Portugal) as well as a few incontestably Christian intaglios
from illegal excavations. The majority of these selected
examples may have been used by Christians, but this is far from
certain. Allocating Christian ownership and meaning to most
examples is problematic due to two major problems typical of
glyptic and finger-rings dating from Late Antiquity, but
especially to the early centuries within the above time frame in
which various other finds are also encountered which come
from different regions of the Late Roman and Early Byzantine
Empires.
Many common Roman motifs, such as fish, dolphins, hares,
birds, palm-branches and simple geometric motifs such as V,
X or crosses, were engraved on the Portuguese specimens and
continued to be employed in both the 3rd and 4th centuries ad.
Christians adopted most of the above-mentioned motifs and
gave them a Christian meaning. However, in general, Christian
symbolism before the Constantinian period was often
deliberately ambiguous, and this ambiguity sometimes
persisted well into the 4th century ad, or these motifs
continued to be then used by pagans. For instance, because the
fish and the dolphin had many different levels of meaning for
pagans, Christians and Jews alike, ranging from generic
everyday meanings to diverse layers of religious-theological
symbolic significance, we cannot assign any of the noninscribed single fish or dolphin gems from Portugal to
members of one religion or to an explicit group of peoples.
Since these motifs fall within the larger range of ambiguous
themes chosen by Christians we prefer to call them ambiguous
or neutral motifs, that is motifs engraved on gems which
might have been used by persons of various beliefs in these
periods. When, as is the case of the majority of finds from
Portugal discussed in this paper, the finds depict these
ambiguous or neutral motifs without additional evidence for
unquestionable Christian motifs, symbols, monograms, scripts
114 | Gems of Heaven
Cravinho
important for our discussion being the Sueves and Visigoths.
The Sueves became Christians during their occupation of the
peninsula, first as Arians and then as Catholics; the Visigoths
arrived in the peninsula as Christians. Both had local Christian
kingdoms. The south of Portugal continued under Byzantine
rule until the 7th century ad (Pl. 4). From the beginning of the
8th century (ad 711) Portugal was gradually conquered from
the south by North African Muslims; by the mid-8th century ad
all of Portugal was under Muslim rule. Their influence was
strongest in the areas to the south of Coimbra, because the
northern areas had been intentionally devastated and
depopulated by the Visigoths in order to prevent the total
occupation of the peninsula by the Muslims.
Plate 2 Map of Portugal showing cities under Roman rule until the early 5th
century AD
Plate 10 Nicolo with fish/shark from Alentejo, 2nd3rd century AD. Formerly
in the Barreto Collection
Plate 11 Carnelian with fish from Alentejo, 3rd4th century AD. Formerly in
the Barreto Collection
Roman city 40km from the sea. Pls 811 illustrate four further
intaglios three carnelians16 and one nicolo17 from illegal
excavations which until recently belonged to the now dispersed
Barreto Collection; they are said to have come from different
sites in the interior of the Alentejo region.18 Of these, the
carnelian shown in Pl. 8 was found near Borba or Estremoz
(Alentejo), probably in Veiros.19 Veiros is located to the northeast of Estremoz, to the south of Civitas Ammaiensis and
connected to Merida by an important road network. Its
economy probably depended on the agricultural products
coming from the rich villae of the surrounding area (for
instance, Silveirona and Santa Vitria do Ameixial), the raising
of horses (mainly attested in the Torre de Palma villa)20 and
probably on the marble trade which is attested in all the
surrounding areas (the so-called marble triangle: EstremozBorba-Vila Viosa).21
These seven fish gems date from the 2nd to the 4th
centuries ad. Thus, the single fish/dolphin device is one of the
most common ambiguous gem motifs found on intaglios from
Roman or Early Christian Portugal. Taking into account the
importance of fishing in the ancient economy this is perhaps
not surprising. It is interesting to note that these seven gems
are made either from a blue glass imitating nicolo (3), which is
Gems of Heaven | 117
Cravinho
Plates 13ab Carnelian (and impression) with a dove on a column, two fish
flanking an altar, a globe, crescent and star; unknown provenance, 3rd4th
century AD. Private collection
Plate 14 Gold ring set with nicolo from Lancobriga, 3rd4th century AD.
Private collection
Cravinho
Plate 22 Bronze stamp with chi-rho from Conimbriga, 4th6th century AD.
Conimbriga, MMC
set in a gold ring (Pl. 26) engraved with the figure of a bird/
parrot before a small branch: a well-known pagan motif
adapted to Christian use. Because on the Conimbriga example
another branch a palm branch, a further motif with pagan,
Jewish and Christian symbolic significance is engraved on
the rings upper shoulder (Pl. 26), it is not clear whether this
ring and its gem with their seemingly neutral motifs belonged
to a Christian. For example some of the copper-alloy rings
found in Conimbriga bear similar or identical devices to those
ornamenting the shoulders of the gold ring under discussion,
that is the palm branch, which appears on the bezels of simple
metal rings of a common Roman ring-type found at the city
(Pls 19 and 21) which might well date from the 2nd to 3rd
century ad.53 Even the basic cross motif engraved on a ring
found at Conimbriga is of a common type which circulated
during the 2nd to 6th centuries ad (Pl. 18). If it comes from the
earlier centuries within this range, it might represent the
simple geometric cross encountered at times on Roman copperalloy rings of this type and on other simple ring-types.54
However, the gold ring-type (Pl. 26) and its excavation context
allows for the possibility that its owner was indeed a Christian.
This late 3rd-4th century ring was excavated in 1995 in the
course of a research programme in the garden of the peristilum
under a mosaic in the largest private house discovered in
Conimbriga, the Casa de Cantaber, which is situated near the
inner city wall and is adjacent to the 4th6th century ad
Christian basilica. According to the excavator, Virglio Correia
(who is the Director of the citys museum) the gold ring with
parrot intaglio (Pl. 26) seems to have been intentionally hidden
within the underlayer of the mosaic. The intentional
concealment of the ring makes sense only if it was made before
the house was first abandoned, that is in the second half of the
5th century ad, just before the Sueves invaded the city.55
Occasionally rings of this type or similarly shaped gold rings
with plant-decorated shoulders are set with gems engraved
with Christian motifs.56
Plate 23 Bronze handle with inscription from Conimbriga, 6th century AD.
Conimbriga, MMC
Two other gems with different versions of this basic birdand-branch motif set in common RomanLate Roman and Late
RomanEarly Byzantine type gold rings, likewise without a
clear-cut Christian symbol, monogram, etc., were collected
from other local Portuguese sites in the course of archaeological excavations (Pls 2728). Whether these rings were
owned by pagans or Christians is unclear. Typologically the
earliest ring (Pls 27ab) is a basic Roman ring-type, whose subtype, as represented by our ring, was widespread during the
1st2nd century ad, a date which would therefore favour a
pagan patron. We include it here as evidence for the existence
of the common Roman bird-and-branch motif on gold rings
coming from Portugal dating from before the 3rd century ad.
Such gems and rings presumably influenced the continued
popularity of this motif on late 3rd4th century gems set in
gold rings (Pl. 26) and, at least in Portugal, also on 4th5th
century gold rings such as Pl. 28. Rings of the same basic type
as this second, more elaborate ring were in use above all during
the 4th5th century ad. Thus the probability that this specimen
(Pl. 28), like the Conimbriga ring (Pl. 26), belonged to a
Christian is fairly high.
Cravinho
Plate 29a Bronze ring with chi-rho from Ribas castrum, late 4th5th century
AD. Vila Real, Museu de Arqueologia e Numismtica de Vila Real
Pl. 29b Detail of Pl. 29a
Plate 35 Gold ring set with a garnet from Alcochete, 6th7th century AD.
Location unknown
Cravinho
Plates 37a-c Chalcedony with standing figure holding a cross and inscribed, 6th7th century AD.
Private collection
Plates 39ab Amber bead with a bearded male in profile on one side, stylised
standing figures at least one of which topped with a human head on the other;
from Alentejo, 6th7th century AD. Private collection
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
Cravinho
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
Guiraud
Plates 67 Glass/nicolo pastes from the Eauze (Gers) treasure. Eauze, Muse
archologique, no. 865801
Intaglios and Cameos from Gaul in the 3rd and 4th Centuries AD
The craftsmen who made these intaglios and cameos, in
stone or glass, are little known, as they were in preceding
periods. To date, glyptic workshops have not been found in
Gaul, just traces of mounting at the workshop of a jeweller or
bronze-smith.17 If the centre of Aquileia was still producing
engraved gems at the beginning of the 3rd century ad, then the
Rhine and the rich and busy centres of Cologne and Trier
should be looked at. The distribution of moulded replicas
seems to connect the glass/nicolo pastes of France to these
regions of Germania. If on occasion some gems resemble others
distributed along the Rhine, some amongst the Eauze treasure
for example, the same affiliation cannot, however, be claimed
for the intaglios.18
To conclude, can one establish a source for the production
of glyptics in 3rd- to 4th-century Gaul ad? Not for material or
motifs. As far as findspots are concerned, Gaul stands out from
neighbouring regions in the large number of 3rd century ad
hoards; it is in these, but not exclusively, which are found the
earliest intaglios and cameos, amassed and certainly re-used.
In addition, the number of cameos, especially from hoards or
from rich villas, is significant: representing half of the cameos
known from Gaul, most date from this period and they amount
to 11% of the glyptic objects (as against 4% of the total number
of objects listed from Gaul). This significant figure is not
however restricted to Gaul as at the same time many cameos
are known from the middle Danube.19 As in the Rhine or Italy,
glyptics declined from the 3rd century ad, and from then on
intaglios are only present as re-utilised objects in the burials of
the 5th to 7th centuries ad.
Notes
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
Nardelli
Plate 7
Notes
1 The collection has an ancient history: the gems were acquired by
the Archaeological Museum, as deliberate policy, from the time of
its foundation in 1820. From the second issue of the Bullettino di
Archeologia e Storia Dalmata onwards (from 1879 until 1926) a list
of acquired gems (without photos) was published by Mons. Frane
Buli, who dedicated particular attention to this kind of
archaeological material: B. Nardelli, Sulle gemme di Salona, in E.
Marin (ed.), Longae Salonae, Split, 2002, 20514, at 205.
2 The group of gemstones kept in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford
were acquired by Sir Arthur J. Evans during his visit to Dalmatia:
S.H. Middleton, Engraved Gems from Dalmatia. From the
Collections of Sir John Gardner Wilkinson and Sir Arthur Evans in
Harrow School, at Oxford and Elsewhere, Oxford, 1991, 61, no. 68;
82, no. 121; 94, no. 153; 116, no. 209; 120, no. 217; A. Brown, Before
Knossos... Arthur Evans Travels in the Balkans and Crete, Oxford,
1993, 1929.
3 Andenterium (present day Mu) was the home of the Cohors VIII
Voluntariorum: J.J. Wilkes, Dalmatia, London, 1969, 139, 170, 176,
184, 221, 347, 453. For gems displayed in the Ashmolean Museum
see: Middleton (n. 2), nos 129, 166, 171. Burnum (present day
Nardelli
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
chalcedonies
agate
chalcedony
carnelian
carneol
onyx
plasma
sardonyx
63
12
6
93
quartzes
aquamarine
alabaster
amber
aragonite
ivory
coral
olivine
jasper
fluorite
jet
garnet
lapis lazuli
steatite
turquoise
chalcedonies
1 9
2 9
14
1
10
18
138
45
26
5
macrocrystalline quartzes
22
69
78
amethyst
rock crystal
200
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
174
122
41
14
portraits
Table 2 Subjects attested for the
precious sculptures
divinities
images
related to
military
victory
intellectuals
'opera
nobilia'
genre
scenes
48
incerta
Gagetti
Male
portraits
Female
portraits
Infantile
portraits
Hellenistic
rulers
Roman
emperors
Portraits
with no name
17
29
24
13
13
17
puffy bags the iris is outlined by a carved line and the pupil
is rendered by a very small drill hole.
If we look at the front of the head, there can be little doubt
that we are facing a well-known portrait type (Pl. 3: 34.Le):
over the mid-forehead, but slightly to the left of the exact
centre, there is a fork, and two small pincer locks are over the
temple. On the left and right of the fork, the hair is parted into
three main, further parted locks, curved toward the temple. All
the locks are of the same length, so that they form a kind of
upper rectilinear delimitation of the forehead. The outer arms
of the pincer locks are longer than the inner ones. The cluster
of all these features can be found in one of the latest types of
Tiberius portrait, referred to differently in the typologies,21
and named respectively by Dietrich Boschung and John Pollini
as the Chiaramonti type22 and the Second Princeps type.23
The former is considered to have been created in the late
Augustan age24 and replicated throughout his life as well as in
posthumous portraits;25 the latter type dates from ad 3134,
and likewise was used long after Tiberius death.26 In the
corpus of Tiberian portraits, the closest parallel to the front
view of our small chalcedony head, owing to the wideness of
the forehead, seems to be the portrait at Woburn Abbey (Pl. 4).27
But two features do not match the Chiaramonti/Second
Princeps type. First, the youthful look of the face of the small
head in the Cabinet des mdailles, as already pointed out:28 it is
very smooth with no trace of nasolabial folds, which can be
found in the portrait type in question. Secondly, from the side
view, the hair too does not match the Chiaramonti/Second
Princeps type: in fact the locks are not all combed forward, but
between the temple and the ear, the hair is arranged in locks
running one into another from the face toward the back of the
head. Only in front of the ear are the locks combed forward.
Such an element is to be found in another portrait type of
Tiberius (Pl. 3: 30.La), characterised by a fork over the inner
corner of the left eye, from which two pincer locks depart:
one, on the left, reaches the temple; the other, on the right side,
comes over the mid-eye. But what is interesting here is the
profile view: on both sides of the face the hair is combed
backwards, but the short side-whiskers are formed by hooked
locks arranged toward the cheeks. Moreover, over the ears and
on the nape the hair is done in wavy locks combed forward (in
a double layer on the nape). Both Boschung and Pollini agree
on the fact that this is the first of Tiberius portrait types,
created in the 20s of the 1st century bc,29 or, more precisely, in
19 bc:30 the early dating (Tiberius, born in 42 bc, would not
have been portrayed in this type older than a 23-year-old)
would be, in this case, the actual reason for Tiberius youthful
look. Among the known sculptural replicas, the best
comparison for the small chalcedony head is offered by a
marble bust from Luni (Pl. 5):31 here, the locks on the temples
are long enough to allow the reworking of the hair over the
forehead into a short, rectilinear fringe, without holes in its
corners.
Gagetti
Plates 9a-b Marble bust of Sabina said to have come from an aristocratic villa
in the ager Tiburtinus
Gagetti
the long hair was parted into two plaits, superimposed onto
each other and surrounding (in opposite directions) the head.
The remaining long, straight hair under the crown formed by
the two plaits was bent upward in an S-shape, leaving visible
the earlobe only, and fixed on the nape, passing under the twoplait crown. The coiffure seems to have been adorned by
jewelled pins (?) piercing the hair crown.68
Such a hairstyle was very voluminous and to achieve it
from an older portrait involved the addition of a stone toupet.
This kind of reworking is attested, for instance, on one of
Helenas most famous portraits, the seated statue in the Museo
Capitolino,69 reworked, according to various scholars, from a
portrait of an Antonine empress, Faustina the Younger or
Lucilla.70 The lower part of the wavy frontal locks was
maintained, while the two surrounding plaits were created in
the upper part; all the back, worked apart and now lost, was
added, as we can infer from the rough surface of the skullcap.
The placement of a hairpiece under the crown is clearly
revealed by two holes on the neck, under the ears, still
preserving parts of the ancient iron studs, clearly the traces of
the obliteration of the original coiffure.71
The Venice Sabina, or better Helena, should have worn a
toupe, but of gold, partly due to the high value of the material
of the precious portrait, but largely because an addition in such
a transparent hardstone would have been simply impossible.
The scheme of reworking was different, as different as was the
starting coiffure. The scheme of the transformation can be
exemplified by another head, as the series of Sabinas portraits
wearing the Venice hair-dress is not yet complete. A portrait
(Pls 16ab),72 surely reworked into the portrait of a young
woman,73 shows over the forehead, immediately behind the
wavy frontal and on the nape traces of the hairstyle under
discussion, while the skullcap is very similar in its present
Gagetti
Plates 19ab Marble bust of Claudius in his Kassel type. Kassel, Staatliche
Kunstsammlung
temporal region. In the Kassel type the hair over the forehead,
rather voluminous and compact, shows a fork over the mid-eye
on the right, and another one in the left corner of the forehead,
following immediately a closed pincer lock. The upper layer of
locks is brushed wholly towards the right. In almost all of the
replicas of the Kassel type, Claudius face appears youthful
and smooth. A comparison with coin portraits of the emperor
finds a perfect parallel in the second type of his first year as
ruler, in ad 41.82
Returning to our comparison, the main facial features, like
the lower edge of the hair over the forehead, the eyebrows, the
outer corners of the eyes and the gap between the lower lip and
the chin, are in the same position on both faces. Also some of
the details are very similar, such as the lines of the lower eyelid
and the design of the mouth. Moreover, the disposition of the
lowest layer of the locks over the forehead, with a fork over the
centre of the right eye and another one on the left temple (a
slight movement of the locks over the outer corner of the left
eye can be the trace of a previous pincer lock) is similar. Also
the ears of the agate head, traces of which are on the right side
of the head, must have been rather large, like those of Claudius.
But the style is quite different. As it appears today, the head
in London reminds us of Claudius, but it is not Claudius. The
London face appears dried and further smoothed. Dried in
the treatment of the eyelids, the cheeks and the lips, not so
fleshy as in the Kassel head; the nose is quite straight, while
Claudius usually slightly widens in the middle. Smoothed
because, even if in the Kassel type Claudius is young looking,
the London face has no furrows at all, and looks like an icy,
sharp-featured mask. The most interesting stylistic detail is the
Gagetti
elements. Although now partly faded, these seem to be three
busts, an unusual but not unattested number: three busts are,
for example, reproduced on the sceptre on the diptychs of the
Emperor Anastasius (Constantinople, ad 517).104 The three-bust
sceptre in the hand of Christ at Lavaudieu can be interpreted as
the symbol of the power exerted by the Son in the name of the
Trinity, one and trine.105 This is, I suppose, the best
demonstration of the more general iconographic meaning of
the idiom created by Sena Chiesa to denominate the passage of
glyptic specimens from the pagan to the Christian world: from
the imperial to the heavenly court.106
Conclusion
The case studies examined here point out different strategies
and different epochs in the reworking of imperial glyptic
portraits in the round. With regard to the time of the
reworking, it can be done either in the same cultural climate in
which the portrait was first realised, that is not after Late
Antiquity, or in a wholly different epoch such as the Medieval
period.
In the first case, the strategies of reworking are three.
(1) Updating a portrait type of the same individual, possibly
during his lifetime. This is the case of the Paris head of Tiberius
(second degree of separation).
(2) Transformation of the portrayed person into another
one, very similar in his/her facial features which then remain
untouched, changing other characterising details, such as the
hairstyle. This strategy seems to have been applied at a
distance of at least some generations. Within this category
comes the Venice head of Sabina transformed into Helena
(third degree of separation).
(3) Transformation of the original portrait into another,
due to the similarity of macro-characters only, like the
triangular shape of Claudius face, fitting both the London
prince and, in the field of cameos, the Rothschild Honorius
(again, the third degree of separation). The source of precious
sculptures would have been the imperial treasury,107 at least if
one wants to read la lettre Claudians verses:
Iam munera nuptae / praeparat et pulchros, Mariae sed luce
minores, / eligit ornatus, quidquid venerabilis olim / Livia
divorumque nurus gessere superbae.108
wore the venerable Livia and the haughty daughters-in-law of the
divine emperors.
2
3
4
5
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
Gagetti
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
and pls 34. The adoption of a youthful portrait on coins from the
beginning of his reign by the 50-year-old Claudius (born 10 bc)
follows Tiberius portrait strategy (ibid., 263).
Cortile, inv. no. 2882: Fittschen and Zanker (n. 25), 1, 1567, no.
125, pl. 156 (with literature and discussion of chronology and
identification).
Museo Capitolino, Galleria, inv. no. 494: Fittschen and Zanker (n.
25), 15961, no. 127, pl. 158 (with literature and a discussion of the
chronology and identification with Honorius ante ad 393, as he
wears no diadem; this was reworked from a more ancient portrait).
Berlin, Staatliche Museen, inv. no. R 122: Fittschen and Zanker (n.
25), 161, no. 3 to no. 127 (with literature); J. Meischner, Studien zur
sptantike Kaiserikonographie, Jahrbuch des Deutschen
Archologischen Instituts (1995), 43146, at 441, 4446 (Honorius,
on the occasion of his first wedding in ad 398), pls 11 and 15 (with
further literature).
Fittschen and Zanker (n. 25), 1601 and n. 9.
The cameo still belongs to the Rothschild family. Diam. 16cm. Its
provenance is unknown, though when it was purchased in Paris in
1889 it was supplied with the following data: un came antique en
pierre dure entour dun cadre byzantin, travail hispano-arabe en
argent dor (E. Coche de la Fert, Le came Rothschild. Un chef
doeuvre du IVe sicle aprs J.-C., Paris, 1957, 57, n. 1); this is the
reason why the cameo is said to have come from Spain. The
literature on this glyptic masterpiece, first mentioned in
E. Babelon, La gravure en pierres fines, Paris, 1894, and first
published by S. Reinach (Gazette des beaux-arts 1 [1926], 185 ff.), is
extensive. See: Coche de la Fert ibid., 578, n. 1; J. Meischner, Der
Hochzeitkameo des Honorius, Archologischer Anzeiger (1993),
61219, at 613, n. 1; S. Sande, The iconography and style of the
Rothschild Cameo, in J. Fleischer, J. Lund and M. Nelsen (eds),
Late Antiquity. Art in Context [Acta hyperborea. Danish Studies in
Classical Archaeology 8], Copenhagen, 2001, 14558, at 153, n. 1;
E. Zwierlein-Diehl, Antike Gemmen und ihr Nachleben, Berlin
New York, 2007, 455, no. 756.
The portrait of Honorius is still problematic. His only other certain
representation is his depiction on both leaves of the ivory diptych
of the consul Probus (ad 406), now in the Cathedral of Aosta (R.
Delbrueck, Die Consulardiptychen und verwandte Denkmler
[Studien zur sptantike Kunstgeschichte, 2], BerlinLeipzig, 1929,
no. 1), where Honorius, cuirassed and wearing a diadem, appears
with an oblong, triangular face, a compact fringe over the low
forehead, and side-whiskers. All these characteristics can be found
on a marble head in Trier, also considered to be a portrait of
Honorius in his adult years (A. Giuliano, Ritratti di Onorio, in G.
Sena Chiesa and E.A. Arslan (eds), Felix temporis reparatio, Milan,
1992, 7386, at 76; Meischner (n. 85), 441, 4446, pls 12 and 16). On
Honorius portrait in general: Giuliano ibid.
Different identifications have been proposed: Constantius II with
his cousin, whose name is unknown; Theodosius I with Aelia
Flaccilla; Honorius with his first wife Maria (ad 398) or his second
wife Thermantia (ad 404), Justinian with Theodora.
See Boschung (n. 22), 71, Vc, Skizze 58.Vb. The chronology is
debated: see also, on numismatic grounds, Salzmann (n. 82), 263.
Paris, Bibliothque Nationale de France, Cabinet des mdailles et
des antiques. H. 9.5cm. Gagetti (n. 1), 21821, no. A42 (with
literature, cui adde Paolucci (n. 6), 934, no. 28).
M. Bergmann and P. Zanker, Damnatio memoriae.
Umgearbeitete Nero- und Domitians-portrts. Zur Ikonographie
der flavischen Kaiser und Nerva, Jahrbuch des Deutschen
Archologischen Instituts 96 (1981), 317412, at 40910, no. 48, pls
65ab.
To Type III (see Bergmann and Zanker [n. 92], 3668. It was in use
from the beginning of Domitians reign until his death [ad 8196])
belong the two rows of curls on the nape, oriented from the centre
of the head towards the ears; typical of Type II (see Bergmann and
Zanker ibid., 3606. Its chronological range is much narrower and
the type was created before Domitian became emperor [ad
7580]) are instead the pattern of the vortex at the top of the head
and the row of falcated locks below.
None of the typical facial features of Constantine, which also
always occur on those of his portraits which have been reworked
from other ancient emperors, appears here. Instead, we have a
straight line forehead-nose; the nose is not as aquiline as
Constantines; the upper lip is too straight; the lower one is too
fleshy; the chin does not project enough. Finally, the curly locks
Gagetti
95
96
97
98
Zwierlein-Diehl
Plate 4 Cat. no. 4B, Pupienus, Balbinus and Gordian III, red jasper. Munich,
Staatliche Mnzsammlung
the Ficoroni stone (C no. 2, see p. 159 below; Pl. 6), but it is a
17th-century copy, probably based on a cast of the Ficoroni gem
and coin portraits. Balbinus is beardless, so the beard may not
have been clear on the model. As is usual in this century the
engraving is not very close to the antique style.
A sardonyx in St Petersburg engraved in a cursory style
shows the facing busts of the same two emperors and the
frontal bust of Gordian III Caesar between them (Cat. no. 5; Pl.
7). A horizontally striped sardonyx from the Stosch collection
in Berlin has a bust of Balbinus with a somewhat slenderer
head than on the coins and the Ficoroni jasper, but with the
typical fat cheeks and double chin (Cat. no. 6; Pl. 8). A bust in
the round of blue chalcedony in the Museo degli Argenti in
Florence (Cat. no. 7), according to Elisabetta Gagetti, resembles
the portrait of Balbinus on his sarcophagus.5 This person wears
a corselet with a Medusa head, but no wreath. The precious
150 | Gems of Heaven
Plate 5 Cat. no. 4A, the Capitoline Trias. Munich, Staatliche Mnzsammlung
Plate 12 Cat. no. 11, Gordian III, nicolo, impression, St Petersburg, Hermitage
Plate 13 Cat. no. 12, Philip I and II, carnelian, impression, lost
Plate 14 Cat. no. 13, Philip I and II (?), red jasper. Cologne, RmischGermanisches Museum
Zwierlein-Diehl
Plate 16 Septimius Severus and sons, bronze ring, impression. Derek J. Content
Collection
Plate 17 Cat. no. 14, Philip I and II and Otacilia, carnelian (?), impression, lost
the gem must have been worn by its owner as a sign of loyalty
to this emperor.
The authenticity of another portrait of Decius has been
rightly suspected by Furtwngler (C no. 3, see below p. 159). It
is a bust with radiate crown on a lost stone (nicolo or
carnelian). Its close similarity to the bust on double sestertii33
and the fact that the bust is larger than usual for ringstones but
exactly as high as the one on the sestertii, as well as the
addition of a senseless loop at the right shoulder, lead one to
the conclusion that it is a modern copy.
Trebonianus Gallus, his son Volusian and Aemilianus
Decius and his son Herennius Etruscus fell in battle against the
Goths near the mouth of the Danube, probably betrayed by
their general, the governor of Moesia, Trebonianus Gallus. As
expected, Gallus was proclaimed emperor by the troops (June
[?] ad 251August [?] ad 253). Having made a humiliating
peace with the Goths, Gallus went to Rome where the Senate
confirmed the armys choice. His son Volusian (June [?] ad 251
August [?] ad 253), who was about 21 years old, was called
imperator together with his father. He was appointed Caesar
and Augustus in the same year ad 251. The characteristics of a
portrait in green agate in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore
(Cat. no. 19, Pl. 23), correspond with coins showing the young
Augustus with a long slightly curved nose under a more or less
protruding brow, with a rounded angle between the frontal
and temporal hairline and a short full beard.34 He wears tunica
and paludamentum, the dress of an emperor or prince who is
Zwierlein-Diehl
left from the middle of the forehead and from there is combed
to the angles at both temples.37 But there are coins where the
hairline goes in a gentle curve38 and there are tetradrachmai
minted in Alexandria in the first and second year of Valerians
reign (ad 2535) showing a full row of hair fringes in a
continuous curve.39 So it seems probable that the gem dates
from the beginning of Valerians reign.
The facing portrait busts of two emperors on a carnelian in
Naples, in spite of the rough linear style, show the
characteristics of Gallienus with a rectangular head and a
beard growing down the neck in the type of co-emperor,40 and
Valerian with a broad face without a beard.41 The frontal bust of
the boy between them is Saloninus the younger son of
Gallienus (Cat. no. 22, Pl. 26). The gem can be dated between
ad 258 and 260, that is after the death of Gallienus older son
Valerian II and before that of Saloninus. Gallienus overtook the
command at the Danube and the Rhine, while his father led his
army against Persia as had Gordian III and Philip I before him.
Valerian was defeated by the Sasanid king Shapur I (ad 241
72), who in his victory inscription at Naqsh-e Rustam boasts of
having captured the Roman emperor with his own hands.42 The
capture is shown on a large cameo in the Cabinet des
mdailles, Paris, made perhaps by a Roman in Sasanian service
(Cat. no. 23, Pl. 27). The two rulers ride at a flying gallop
towards each other, Shapur in rich Persian dress, Valerian in
Roman cuirass and paludamentum. In a victorious gesture
Shapur grasps the wrist of his enemy.
A large amethyst intaglio in the British Museum has the
portrait of Gallienus with radiate crown in cuirass and
paludamentum (Cat. no. 24, Pls 2830). It was acquired in 1925
from the Cook Collection, so too late for Walters to include it in
his catalogue. The surface is convex on both sides, somewhat
higher on the back than on the front (Pl. 30). The form is
similar to the biconvex amethyst with a portrait of Constantine
the Great in Berlin, with an even higher convex back.43 The fine
violet colour is darkest in the area of the neck, where the stone
is thickest. Amethyst, especially dark amethyst, has the colour
of purple and therefore is a favourite stone for ruler portraits.44
Gallienus has long hair and a beard growing down the neck but
leaving the chin free. It is the portrait type of his sole
rulership.45 The crown is a circlet with thin rays and a ribbon
wrapped crosswise around it which ends in a loop and floating
ends at the nape of the neck. On coins the radiate crown has a
broad band and broad rays as usual in this time. The thin rays
may refer to Gallienus assimilation with Sol, which is
documented by a double aureus with Gallienus-Sol and
Salonina-Luna as well as sestertii with Gallienus-Genius PR.46
The hair on the gem is combed downwards from the crown of
the hair as on coins with a laurel wreath, not parallel to the
band in the unnatural but easy-to-make way of most coins with
radiate crowns. A circlet similar to that on the gem, with seven
holes into which thin rays were inserted, occurs on a marble
portrait of Gallienus in Copenhagen; there is no ribbon, but it
could have been painted on.47
Saloninus, the younger son of Gallienus, was Caesar in ad
258 and took the title of Augustus in Cologne in the autumn of
ad 260. We do not know when he was born; coins show him as
a child. In ad 259 his father had set off for the Danube frontier
and left him in Cologne under the guardianship of the
praetorian prefect Silvanus. When in ad 260 the usurper
Postumus marched towards Cologne, the city surrendered and
handed over the young Augustus and Silvanus to Postumus,
who had them killed. Postumus founded the Gallic Empire
which lasted from ad 260 to 274.
A bust of a boy in toga contabulata of opaque blue, lapis
lazuli-coloured glass has been found in Cologne (Cat. no. 25,
Pls 312). As the modelling of the back shows, it was originally
fastened to an object, perhaps a ceremonial bowl, a clipeus or a
priestly crown. In any case such a setting points to the fact that
the person is of princely rank. Most authors date the bust to the
early 4th century ad and, following Jrgen Bracker, identify it
with Constantius II (b. ad 317, Caesar ad 324, Augustus ad 337)
But Hans Jucker in a short note argued that the style of the bust
and the treatment of the hair contradict a Constantinian date.
Dieter Salzmann explained in detail that the form of the toga
and the hairstyle belong to the 3rd century ad and recognised
Saloninus Caesar on the basis of his characteristic double chin,
the round head, roundish cheeks, small projecting nose, large
eyes with heavy eyelids and full lips. He remarks that Tetricus
II (ad 2734) and Nigrinianus (ad +284/85), who could be
taken into consideration, have no double chin and longer hair.48
In contrast to the coins the hair on the forehead is combed to
the left. Salzmann supposes that this may be due to the
provincial manufacture of the glass bust. It may also be that,
working in the round, the artisan did not feel bound by the
coins, which always show the profile from the right.49
A cameo portrait of white and grey sardonyx in Munich
shows a very young emperor with laurel wreath and
paludamentum (Cat. no. 26, Pl. 33). The tip of the nose and the
forepart of the wreath are missing. He has been tentatively
identified as Philip iunior; but Philip was nine to ten years old
when he was proclaimed Augustus and represented laureate on
coins. He has lean cheeks and a firm chin.50 The characteristics
described above allow one to identify this boy as Saloninus.
The chin is less baby-like than on the coins of the Caesar; this
Zwierlein-Diehl
Plate 34 Cat. no. 27, Claudius
Gothicus, carnelian. London, British
Museum, GR 1867,0507.322
Museum has his bust facing that of his wife Ulpia Severina
(Cat. no. 28, Pls 3637). The iconographic type of the capita
opposita has been studied by Gertrud Platz-Horster.55 The
emperor wears a lamellar cuirass. The furrowed forehead,
straight nose and slim neck are typical of him. For the evenly
concave curve of the front hair we may compare coins of his
last issue of ad 274/5.56 Severina wears the stola of the Roman
matron and the stephane of the empress. The hair is combed to
the neck, leaving the ear visible, plaits are laid from the nape
over the top of the head to the forehead and turned back there;
this Scheitelzopf projects beyond the contour of the forehead
as it does on coins.57 The plaits are rendered by strokes of a
small flat bouterolle. In ad 274 Aurelian was consul and
celebrated his triumph over Tetricus, the last emperor of the
Gallic empire. In the same year Severina was raised to Augusta.
These events may have been a motif to engrave on gems too.
The same pair with inverted positions can be seen on a lost
nicolo (Cat. no. 29, Pl. 38). Aurelian wears the lamellar cuirass
and a piece of paludamentum on the left shoulder. Severina is
clothed with tunica and pallium; her hair is more carefully
represented than on the red jasper. Behind the bust appears a
crescent moon, assimilating her to Luna as on several coins.
The comparison of the empress with the moon goddess is
analogous to that of the emperor with the sun god.58 The pair
on the red jasper was identified as Carinus and Magnia Urbica
by Walters, but Carinus has a thicker neck, a fuller beard
growing down the neck and mostly a smooth forehead.59 It has
also been suggested that the pair represent Diocletian and his
wife Prisca or his daughter Galeria Valeria, but the curve of the
hair differs from the angular course of the hairline on
Diocletians portraits.60 A carnelian in the Hermitage, St
Petersburg, with busts identified as Galerius and Valeria is a
copy of the lost nicolo Cat. no. 29 (C no. 4, see p. 159 below).
The hair coming down to the nape is not connected with the
plait. The drapery of Ulpia Severinas bust shows knowledge of
Cat. no. 28 too, but the stola has been misunderstood for a male
paludamentum. A carnelian in the Thorvaldsens Museum,
Copenhagen, has a bust of Aurelian, laureate and wearing
cuirass and paludamentum (Cat. no. 30, Pl. 39). Ivana Popovi
suggests that an emperors portrait with radiate crown on a
yellow glass cameo from Viminacium in Belgrade is probably
Aurelian (Cat. no. 31). This cannot be judged from the
published photograph.
Florian
Aurelian was murdered near Byzantium in the autumn of ad
275 on his march to Persia, not because the army was
discontent with its successful leader but because a member of
his staff wanted to escape severe punishment. As the troops
declined to nominate an emperor, the Senate elected the 75
year-old Tacitus (end of ad 275mid-ad 276), who was followed
by his brother or half-brother Florian (mid-autumn ad 276). A
nicolo in the Cabinet des mdailles, Paris, has the portrait of an
emperor with a square head, a short nose with rounded tip, and
a beard growing deep down the neck (Cat. no. 32, Pl. 40). He is
probably Florian, who reigned for 88 days in ad 276. Aurei from
the mint of Rome show a similar nose with round tip and the
beard growing down the neck.61 There is a marked angle in the
hairline at the left temple, but as intagli are made to be looked
at in the impression we should compare coins with the right
profile, where the line goes in a more gentle curve.62 The
emperor on the nicolo has also been called Marius, who
reigned in the Gallic Empire in ad 269, but his head is more
elongated. A third suggestion is the identification with
Maximian Herculius (October/December ad 285c. July ad
310), co-emperor with Diocletian. But his beard, if growing
down the neck, has only a neat single row of hair and there is a
sharp angle between the hair of the forehead and at the
temples on both sides.63
Probus
The troops of the East did not accept Florian and chose their
general Probus instead. The two armies met at Tarsus, but it
did not come to a battle because Florian was murdered. Probus
was 44 years old when he became emperor of the Roman
Empire (summer ad 276autumn ad 282). A Roman medallion
of ad 281 shows the characteristics of his features:64 a vertical,
Zwierlein-Diehl
cropped hair cut with the strokes of a small sharp wheel. In the
same manner a beard is engraved on the cheek. As fortunately
the profile of Tiberius was left untouched, the later emperor
cannot be identified.
Catalogue
No. 1 (Pls 12): Maximin Thrax (February/March ad 235mid-April
[?] ad 238).
Intaglio, carnelian, 23.6 x 18mm. Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum.71
No. 2 (Pl. 3): Maximin and Maximus Caesar.
Intaglio, jasper, 15.0 x 12.8mm. Florence, Museo Archeologico.72
No. 3: Maximus Caesar.
Intaglio, grey quartz, 14mm. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts. 62.1158.73
No. 4 (Pls 45): Pupienus (January/February [?]beginning of May ad
238), Balbinus (January/February[?]-May [?] ad 238) and Gordian III
Caesar.
Intaglio, red jasper, 20.5 x 14mm, side B (side A: Capitoline Trias).
Munich, Staatliche Mnzsammlung, from the collection of Francesco
Ficoroni.74
No. 5 (Pl. 7): Pupienus, Balbinus and Gordian III Caesar.
Intaglio, sardonyx, 18 x 12mm, St Petersburg, Hermitage.75
No. 6 (Pl. 8): Balbinus.
Intaglio, sardonyx, 16 x 13mm, Berlin, Antikensammlung.76
No. 7: Balbinus?
Bust, chalcedony, H. 60mm. Florence, Museo degli Argenti.77
No. 8 (Pl. 9): Gordian III (9 [?] May or 6/7 June ad 238early ad 244).
Intaglio, carnelian, 12.1 x 14mm, lost.78
No. 9 (Pls 1011): Gordian III.
Intaglio, carnelian, 28 x 25mm, side B. (side A: Victoria and Fortuna).
Midzyrzecz Museum (Midzyrzecz, Poland).79
No. 10: Gordian III.
Intaglio, onyx, 12 x 11mm. St Petersburg, Hermitage.80
No. 11 (Pl. 12): Gordian III.
Intaglio, nicolo, lower part missing, diam. 14mm. St Petersburg,
Hermitage.81
No. 12 (Pl. 13): Philip I (beginning of ad 244September/October ad
249) and Philip iunior (b. ad 237 or 238, Caesar ad 244, Augustus ad
247, murdered ad 249 in Rome).
Intaglio, carnelian, lost.82
No. 13 (Pls 1415): Philip I and Philip iunior?
Intaglio, red jasper, 19.5 x 13mm. Cologne, Rmisch-Germanisches
Museum.83
No. 14 (Pl. 17): Philip I with Otacilia Severa and Philip iunior.
Intaglio, chalcedony (Lippert, Tassie) or carnelian (Furtwngler),
31 x 23mm, lost.84
Misidentified
No. 16 (Pls 1920): Philip I with Otacilia Severa and Philip iunior.
Intaglio, carnelian, 17 x 12.5mm. Collection of Derek J. Content.
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Notes
1
Zwierlein-Diehl
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
Zwierlein-Diehl
92 R. Gyselen, Catalogue des sceaux, cames et bulles sassanides de la
Bibliothque nationale I, Paris, 1993, 198; Vollenweider and
Avisseau-Broustet (n. 17), no. 257; Zwierlein-Diehl 2007 (n. 43),
2056, 455, pl. 758.
93 C.H. Smith and C.A. Hutton, Catalogue of the Antiquities ... in the
Collection of the late Wyndham Francis Cook, Esquire, London,
1908, 23, no. 80, pl. 4, from the A. Morrison (no. 200) and Robinson
Collections (Gallienus not Postumus); Delbrueck (n. 2), App. 4 to
110, fig. 11, 236; Felletti Maj (n. 5), 234, no. 316, pl. 43,142.
94 J. Bracker, Zur Ikonographie Constantins und seiner Shne,
Klner Jahrbuch fr Vor- und Frhgeschichte 8 (1965/6), 1223, at
13, fig. 1, 1820, pl. 7,9; H. Jucker, Trajanstudien. Zu einem
Chalzedonbstchen im Antikenmuseum, Jahrbuch der Berliner
Museen 26 (1984), 1778, at 69, n. 103 (Zu erwgen wre z. B. Philip
iunior); Salzmann (n. 48), 20912, no. 19 (Saloninus); K. Dahmen,
Untersuchungen zu Form und Funktion kleinformatiger Portrts der
rmischen Kaiserzeit, Paderborn, 2001, Anh. 10,6 (Saloninus?); F.
Paolucci, Piccole sculture preziose dell Impero romano, Modena,
2006, 923, no. 27, pl. 27 (principe tardo antico); H. Hellenkemper
in A. Demandt and J. Engemann (eds), Konstantin der Grosse (exh.
cat., Trier), 2007, Mainz, no. 1.9.28 (imperial prince, second half of
3rd/first half of 4th century ad).
95 H. Kthmann, Staatliche Mnzsammlung, Mnchner Jahrbuch
3.F.20 (1969), 2412, no. 11 (probably Philip iunior); Brandt et al. (n.
74), no. 2815 (Philip iunior?); Marsden (n. 71), cameos no. 8 (Philip
II); Spier (n. 9), 218, n. 22 (Philip II as emperor? Caracalla or
Geta?).
96 Walters (n. 87), no. 2029 (Claudius Gothicus as Heracles); Felletti
Maj (n. 5), 263, no. 355 (Claudius Gothicus?); Richter (n. 20), no.
590 (Claudius Gothicus? or Postumus); Marsden (n. 71), intaglios
no. 35 (Postumus).
97 Cades Rom IV C 614 (Aurelian with Severina); Cades Auswahl
Bonn cl. 13, III 31, 423; Walters (n. 87), no. 2031, pl. 25 (Carinus and
Magnia Urbica); R. Delbrueck, Antike Porphyrwerke, Berlin, 1932,
121, pl. 57b (Diocletian and his wife Prisca or his daughter Galeria
Valeria); Felletti Maj (n. 5), 2845, no. 384 (not Carinus and
Magnia Urbica); Richter (n. 20), no. 592 (Carinus and Magnia
Urbica?); R. Calza, Iconografia romana imperiale da Carausio a
Giuliano (287363 d. C), Rome, 1972, 116, no. 23 = 118, no. 27, pl.
20,49 (Diocletian and Prisca); Marsden (n. 71), intaglios no. 44
(Carinus and Magnia Urbica); Spier (n. 9), 18 with n. 25 (Aurelian
and Severina).
98 Tassie and Raspe (n. 72), no. 12104 (nicolo, Aurelian and Severina);
Cades Rom IV C 615 (onice [sc. nicolo], Aurelian with Severina);
Cades Auswahl Bonn cl. 13, III 31, 424; J.J. Bernoulli, Rmische
Ikonographie II/3, Berlin, 1894, 184, n. 1 (Aurelian and Severina);
Delbrueck (n. 97), 121, pl. 57c (Diocletian and his wife Prisca or his
daughter Galeria Valeria); Felletti Maj (n. 5), 268, no. 361
(Acquamarina [erroneously], collezione privata? Aureliano);
Marsden (n. 71), intaglios no. 45 (Carinus and Magnia Urbica).
99 P.M.A. Fossing, Catalogue of the Antique Engraved Gems and
Cameos. The Thorvaldsen Museum, Copenhagen, 1929, no. 1787, pl.
20; Marsden (n. 71), intaglios no. 41.
100 I. Popovi, Les cames romains au muse national de Beograd,
Belgrade, 1989, no. 51 (probably Aurelian); Marsden (n. 71),
cameos no. 10 (Aurelian).
101 Lippert1 I 2, 1755, 443; Lippert2 II 1767, 859 (Flavius Valerius
Severus); Tassie and Raspe (n. 72), no. 12115 (Constantius Chlorus,
erroneously identified with Lippert2 II 858); Richter (n. 20), no. 589
(Marius); Zwierlein-Diehl 1986 (n. 31), no. 798 (Florian); Marsden
(n. 71), intaglios no. 37 (Marius); Vollenweider and AvisseauBroustet (n. 17), no. 258 (Maximian Herculius).
102 Cades Rom IV C 625 (Diocletian); Cades Auswahl Bonn cl. 13, III 31,
432; Delbrueck (n. 97), 121, pl. 57a (Diocletian); Felleti Maj (n. 5),
279, no. 375, pl. 55,197 (Probus); Calza (n. 97), 116, no. 22, pl. 20,50
(Diocletian); Richter (n. 20), no. 593 (Diocletian). For the triple
leaf-like loop, see Gnecchi (n. 3), II, pls 10,4 and 121,5.6.8.9, with
corkscrew ribbons on pl. 121,1.3 (Probus), earlier e.g. pls 106,8
(Gordian III), 107,3 (Philip I), 118,10 (Florian).
Overtones of Olympus
Roman Imperial Portrait Gems, Medallions and Coins in the 3rd Century AD
Adrian Marsden
Introduction
In a previous paper published some ten years ago I briefly
discussed 3rd-century ad imperial portrait gems and their
relationship to the numismatic media. This paper seeks to
expand on some of the points addressed there and is perhaps
above all a corrective to some of the attributions made in that
article, since I now believe a number of the gems listed there as
authentic are, in fact, more recent fabrications. This is an
important question, deserving of discussion, for without
serious consideration of what are genuine Roman gems and
what are not, many questions of why these gems were
produced and how they related to objects in other artistic
media cannot be answered.
Coins and medallions offer, of course, a safe starting point.
They bear portraits allied with inscriptions and, with the
exception of forgeries which are generally easy to spot, there is
no doubt of their authenticity. Their portraits form a corpus of
images by which it should be easy to identify and validate
portraits in other media, particularly portraits on engraved
gems which are, on many levels, so similar. However, there are
a number of difficulties.
Engraving a gem is a very different art from cutting a coin
die. Although good engraving in either medium will produce a
likeness that is clearly recognisable, the more schematic
treatment that one can encounter on some gems renders
certain portraits rather awkward. Just as the so-called
barbarous radiates, irregular copies of the 3rd-century ad
antoninianus coinage, can carry portraits that are not
recognisable as those of particular emperors, so certain glyptic
portraits can provide problems.
There are also many gems that are clearly, on the basis of
their subject matter and stylistic considerations, not Roman.
Here, it is irrelevant whether a portrait resembles those
encountered on the coins and medallions of a particular
emperor if the gem is a modern creation. Admittedly, a group
of intaglios from Pompeii offer a rather worrying corrective to
arguments centring on stylistic analysis of gem engraving as a
method of distinguishing genuine Roman intaglios from later
examples. Four gems published by Professor John Boardman in
an illuminating paper appear at first sight to be late copies after
classical subjects.1 That all were found in stratified contexts
proves beyond reasonable doubt their authenticity. However,
despite this warning, many gems are false and we should not
allow the Pompeii specimens to push these more modern
examples into the corpus of authentic intaglios.
Portrait gems
Portrait gems depicting rulers had a long history, their origins
going back long before the Roman Empire to the days of the
Hellenistic kingdoms. Many magnificent examples of Roman
date exist from the 1st and 2nd centuries ad and new specimens
Marsden
Overtones of Olympus
Plate 5 Glass cameo
depicting Drusus
and his children, D.
38mm. Colchester
Castle Museum
Marsden
Overtones of Olympus
Plate 13a (left) Carnelian intaglio of
Septimius Severus, 31 x 14mm.
Hanover, Kestner-Museum
Caracalla (Pl. 13b). This was clearly a dynastic piece and its
iconography is strikingly comparable to certain coin and
medallion issues of the period.34 The apparent ages of the
portraits puts its production in the last years of Severus life
and the absence of any bust of Geta suggests a date of perhaps
ad 2089. The size of the piece would have made it too large for
use as a ringstone; it would have been more suitable as a
pendant with the consequent display of both sides being thus
made possible.
Another gem, a carnelian in Vienna, combines a bust of
Maximinus on one side (Pl. 14a) with a full-length depiction of
a Hercules, who appears to have the facial features of the
emperor, wrestling with the Nemean lion on the other (Pl.
14b).35 The third example, engraved in red jasper and in
Munich (see Zwierlein-Diehl, this volume, Pls 4 and 5), shows
the busts of Balbinus, Pupienus and Gordian III; the reverse
face features the Capitoline Triad, Jupiter, Juno and Minerva.36
On both of these examples, the reverse images form an
iconographic programme of their own, extending and building
upon the obverse portrait in the same manner as occurs on
coins and medallions. Hercules strangling the Nemean lion is
an apt artistic metaphor for Maximinus defeat and subjugation
of the barbarians who threaten the Empires stability; this use
of Hercules as a model for the emperors struggles against
chaos is very common on coins although none occur on those of
Maximinus. The image on the Munich gem implies the renewal
Double-sided intaglios
The group of so-called biface intaglios where engraving
occupies both faces of the gem deserves especial mention.
These integrate, on a basic level, features of both medallions
and intaglios in that both sides carry an image. This pairing of
what might be termed obverse and reverse types has its nearest
parallel in coins and medallions where a portrait bust of an
imperial personage is coupled with a reverse showing another
design. There are four examples from the 3rd century ad; in
each case the gem is of an exceptional standard in terms of its
quality and style of engraving.
The earliest 3rd-century ad gem in this category is a
carnelian fragment in Hanover.33 The obverse is carved with a
likeness of Septimius Severus (Pl. 13a) whilst the reverse is
engraved with the confronted busts of Julia Domna and
Marsden
Plates 15ab Carnelian with a helmeted male bust on one side, a diademed
female on the other, 14 x 8mm. Geneva, Muse dArt et dHistoire
Overtones of Olympus
Plate 18 Glass paste from a jasper of Laelian of postmedieval date, 17 x 16mm. MVWM
Marsden
Plate 19 Chalcedony intaglio (cast) showing Balbinus, Pupienus and Gordian III of
post-medieval date, 28mm x 19.6mm. Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale
Plate 20 Carnelian intaglio (cast) showing Philip I, Philip II and Otacilia Severa of
post-medieval date, 31.8mm x 24mm. Formerly in Berlin
Overtones of Olympus
Plates 27a-b Carnelian intaglio of Postumus (with cast) of post-medieval date, 15mm x 12mm. London,
British Museum, GR 1867,0507.322
Marsden
Overtones of Olympus
Medallions
A moving towards imperial gifts with an intrinsic value is
surely implied by the production of gold and silver medallions
and it is most noteworthy that these objects both began to carry
images of the imperial family that had previously been
confined to the realms of cameos and silver plate and began to
appear in the period when imperial portrait cameos were dying
out.
Indeed, an increasing blurring of the boundaries between
certain categories of the minor arts is suggested by particular
objects such as two thin silver discs in the Bibliothque
nationale, Paris, embossed with repouss portraits of Gordian
III and set within bronze frames.69 These strange items
represent what is best described as a hybrid between
medallions and silver plate. Examples of identical 2nd-century
ad bronze medallions are known where one medallion has
been set into a large bronze frame and the other has not, such
as two specimens of Antoninus Pius struck from the same pair
of dies (Pl. 33).70 True medallions from the 3rd century ad blur
the boundaries even further.
Many of these medallions are in bronze but with elaborate,
quasi-divine portraits which implies they were intended to
function as gifts, albeit gifts with no great intrinsic value. Their
images recall those on the earlier Staatskameen whilst the fact
that they were struck from the same dies used to produce
examples in gold and silver strongly suggests that they were
distributed at the same ceremonies where their more valuable
counterparts were handed out. Here we have what might be
Marsden
Overtones of Olympus
similar case (Pl. 41). Once again, the viewer is reminded of the
cameo portraits of an earlier age.
Some of the reverses of these pieces depict Postumus/
Hercules in the course of the 12 labours; coins, unlike a cameo,
have two sides and can extend upon the message of one face in
a way that most engraved gems cannot (Pl. 42). It might be
speculated that this was yet another reason for the death of the
imperial portrait cameo; quite apart from the cost of producing
engraved gemstones, discs of metal stamped between two dies
could not only be used as bullion but could tell a much longer
tale. The juxtaposition of Postumus with Hercules on the
obverse or Postumus dressed as Hercules was then combined
with a reiteration of one of the labours of Hercules on the
reverse. The implicit statement on one side of the coin was
reinforced by an explicit image on the other.
What need, indeed, for finely engraved cameos as gifts to
loyal supporters of the Gallic emperors when their gold
coinages and accompanying medallic issues were so gem-like
in their imagery and had two sides to boot?
Nor was this trend confined to the gold coinage. We have
seen how medallions began to usurp the images hitherto
confined to cameos. It was not long before the radiate coinages
of Gallienus, Postumus and their successors began in their turn
to usurp the iconography that had relatively recently appeared
on medallions and issues in gold.
Early examples of this phenomenon appeared on the base
silver issues of Gallienus and Postumus where the lionskin-clad
and club-wielding portraits that had not long before been seen
on medallions began to filter down onto the coins that formed
the lowest value issues produced by official mints (Pl. 43).78 By
the ad 270s the coinages of Probus were not only showing him
Marsden
Overtones of Olympus
Poringland ring and others like it, such as an example in the
British Museum set with an aureus of Diocletian,81 might be
seen as privately-commissioned anticipations of the later
system where rings did form one sort of gift within the realm of
imperial donativa.
Here we might also mention other gifts that contain coinlike settings such as the series of dishes produced for the Licinii
on the occasion of particular anniversaries.82 Those carrying
portraits of Licinius II, for example, issued to celebrate the
princes Quinquennalia, bear facing, coin-like images that are
identical to those found on that emperors gold coins (Pl. 46).
They were produced in the same workshops as those gold coins
and for a very similar group of recipients.
To return to the Poringland ring. Displaying a gold coin in
ones ring was an understandable feature of the time and one
which now, when the price of gold is higher (at the time of
writing this article) than ever, we should certainly appreciate.
It seems that, by the second half of the 3rd century ad, this was
a more appropriate way of displaying the imperial image than
by carrying a signet ring bearing the emperors portrait
engraved upon it. Gold had a value that pieces of semi-precious
stone did not; by setting a gold coin into a ring one could not
only continually appreciate the fact that one was important
enough, like Titus Sennius Sollemnis, to be paid in gold, but
could also advertise that fact to everyone one came across. In
the increasingly showy epoch of the later Roman Empire this
was surely what mattered. That the trend was recognised and
was soon crystallised in the issue of strikingly similar objects a
few years later, objects that were part of a rigidly-produced
system of imperial gift-giving, must surely demonstrate the fact
that emperors had got the message. There are no 4th-century
ad ringstones because they were no longer appropriate. There
are so few, if any, from the second half of the 3rd century ad
because, in this instance, there was an anticipation of the
coming era when fashions and cold realities would run hand in
hand. The age of the imperial portrait gem, whether executed
in cameo or intaglio, had gone; imperial portraits now came
stamped on discs of metal, to furnish the pay of those whose
support the emperor sought.
Notes
33
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
Marsden
Dactyliotheca III, Leipzig, 1787, no. 343.
46 Walters (n. 7), no. 2039, pl. XXVI, and B.M. Felleti-Maj,
Iconographia Romana Imperiale 222285, Rome, 1958, 255.
47 Zwierlein-Diehl (n. 45), 264, no. 794.
48 Lippert (n. 45), II, no. 838.
49 U. Pannuti, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli. La Collezione
Glittica, Rome, 1994, 2523, no. 213; Tassie and Raspe (n. 26), no.
12075 and Lippert (n. 45), II, no. 845.
50 Cades no. 597 (The Cades Collection of casts in the German
Archaeological Institute, Rome).
51 Furtwngler (n. 27), 231, no. 31, pl. XLVIII; Tassie and Raspe (n. 26),
no. 12082; Lippert (n. 45), II, no. 848.
52 R. Delbrueck, Die Munzbildnisse von Maximinus bis Carinus,
Berlin, 1940, 110.
53 M.-L. Vollenweider and M. Avisseau-Broustet, Cames et intailles.
Tome II : Les portraits romains du Cabinet des mdailles: catalogue
raisonn, Paris, 2003, no. 2097 (Commodus) and no. 2101
(Caracalla).
54 Lippert (n. 45), III, no. 333; Zwierlein-Diehl (n. 45), 263, no. 793.
55 Vollenweider and Avisseau-Broustet (n. 53), no. 206 (Septimius
Severus).
56 F. Gnecchi, I Medaglioni Romani II, Milan, 1912, 75, nos 201, pls
93.910.
57 Christies, Ancient Jewelry, New York, 8/12/1999, 52, no. 119.
58 B. Schulte, Die Goldprgung der Gallischen Kaiser von Postumus bis
Tetricus, Aarau, Frankfurt and Salzburg, 1983, 101, no. 104a, and
112, no. 138a.
59 Richter (n. 23), 119, no. 589.
60 Walters (n. 7), 212, no. 2029; Richter (n. 23), 119, no. 590. For a
differing opinion on this intaglio,see Zwierlein-Diehl, this volume,
Pl. 34, who considers it to be genuine.
61 A.B. Marsden, Some sing of Alexander and some of Hercules:
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
Plate 1 Three-layer sardonyx cameo of the young Emperor Nero, laureate. 1st
century ad, 30.3 x 28.0 x 5.2mm. Content I, no. 59
Plate 2 Two-layer sardonyx cameo of Leda and the swan. 3rd/4th century ad,
24.3 x 18.0 x 11.5mm. Content II
Plate 10 Two-layer sardonyx cameo of the legend Plate 11 Two-layer sardonyx cameo of clasped
within a raised border. Early 3rd century ad, in
hands above the legend within a raised
contemporary gold ring. Cameo: 5.0 x 9.5mm. Content II border. 3rd century ad, in contemporary gold
ring. Cameo: 12.0 x 10.5mm. Content II
Plate 23 Two-layer sardonyx cameo of double facing male and female busts.
3rd century AD, 24.3 x 12.2 x 7.4mm. Content II
2
3
4
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
Krug
on the tip of the triangle to give the rider a more level position
and therefore has concluded a pelta-like shape.13 Jeffrey Spier
went a step farther and recognised the fragment as part of a
large oval plate.14 The original size and shape of the cameo
cannot easily be inferred from this irregular fragment. Most
scholars have seen the Grand Came de France15 as the closest
parallel for its size and shape as an irregular rectangle with
rounded corners. Irregular variations of circular forms are by
no means rare among cameos since the raw material here
again enforced its limitations. But, with the background of the
Grand Came (Pl. 9) it is immediately clear that the horseman
cannot be the central figure of the completed cameo and
therefore the key figure for the picture; he and the other
warriors are reduced to mere marginal figures. Moreover, the
Belgrade fragment cannot easily be placed in an outline
comparable to the Grand Came. With a slight tilt the rider is
galloping more level and has the appearance of a central
figure, but the resulting rectangle is standing on one of its
corners. The tiny trace of another object above the horseman is
an indication of an extension of the cameo, but reduces the
rider and battle even more to a marginal frieze. On closer
inspection it becomes clear that the irregularly rounded corner
is formed by a series of short straight lines. The outermost lines
meet at an angle of exactly 96, i.e. they form a slightly inexact
right angle (cf. Pl. 4). Thereby at least the shape, though not the
size of the cameo before destruction, is given as a rectangle
with slightly rounded corners.
Amongst the large silver plates which offer the best
parallels for the decorated rim, plates with four or more
corners are not very frequent.16 Like the use of the wheel in
pottery the use of the lathe favours circular shapes in metal
work. But traces of the lathe on the reverse of the octagonal
Krug
wares of imperial times and later African Red Slip ware of the
4th and 5th centuries ad.26 A close parallel to the Risley Park
Lanx is a large silver plate found in Trier in 1628 but melted
down together with the rest of the enormous treasure.
Contemporary reports27 of that find do not give a very clear
description of a very large square silver plate with a rim
decorated with hunting scenes (figuras venationis/venatio) and
a central picture with mythological figures (figuras dearum/
simulacra fabulosa). With a weight of libras XIII28 it should
come close to the Corbridge Lanx (libras XIIII).
Further considerations can only be hypothetical but they
should be mentioned if only summarily. A large plate made of
sardonyx, sketched on the model of the Risley Park Lanx with
one of its corners preserved, produces a lanx of far more than
50cm width (Pl. 11). Through its weight alone such a lanx is an
unwieldy piece of luxury. Maybe its breaking up at a later time
is understandable as an effort to reduce it to usable pieces. A
circular bowl of agate in Vienna has a circular foot made from
the same piece of agate.29 A foot of rectangular shape can be
observed on both the Corbridge Lanx and the sigillata
imitations of a lanx quadrata, and such a foot is to be expected
on the cameo lanx of Belgrade. The preserved fragment of the
cameo-plate depicts the detail of a battle. More battle scenes
and warriors who are smaller than the rider may have
continued along the rim on all four sides like the frieze with
scenes of the life of Achilleus on the Achilleus plate or the
bucolic pictures on the Risley Park Lanx. But they are unlikely
to refer to an actual, historically fixed battle. It was the
foremost duty of kings and emperors to protect the people
living in their empire against the menace from outside the
empire of barbarians.30 As indicated by the small relief
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
Krug
14 J. Spier, Late Antique Cameos c. A.D. 250600, in M. Henig and
M. Vickers (eds), Cameos in Context. The Benjamin Zucker Lectures
1990, Oxford and Houlton, 1993, 4354, at 44; idem, Late Antique
and Early Christian Gems, Wiesbaden, 2007, 130.
15 Paris, Cabinet des Mdailles: M.-L. Vollenweider and M. AvisseauBroustet, Cames et intailles II. Les Portraits romains du Cabinet des
Mdailles, Paris, 2003, no. 275, with comprehensive bibliography.
16 S. Knzl, Rmisches Tafelsilber Formen und Verwendung, in
H.-H. von Prittwitz und Gaffron and H. Mielsch (eds), Das Haus
lacht vor Silber. Die Prunkplatte von Bizerta und das rmische
Tafelgeschirr (Kataloge Rhein. Landesmus. Bonn 8), CologneBonn, 1997, 930, esp. 24.
17 A. Mutz, Die Kunst des Metalldrehens bei den Rmern, Basel, 1972,
33, fig. 45: H.A. Cahn and A. Kaufmann-Heinimann (eds), Der
sptrmische Silberschatz von Kaiseraugst, Derendingen, 1984, 282
f. (V. von Gonzenbach); 371 f. (E. Foltz).
18 W. Hilgers, Rmische Gefnamen, Beihefte der Bonner
Jahrbcher 31 (1969), 65, 20609, no. 209.
19 A.O. Curle, The Treasure of Traprain, Glasgow, 1923, 40, no. 34,
pl. 22.
20 L. Pirzio Biroli Stefanelli, I Tesori di argenteria rinvenuti in Gran
Bretagna, Archeologia Classica 17 (1965), 96, no. 3, pl. 32,1.
21 Cahn and Kaufmann-Heinimann (n. 17), 194205, no. 61 (F.
Baratte): size 41.5 x 35cm.
22 London, British Museum, property of the Duke of
Northumberland. L. Pirzio Biroli Stefanelli, Largento dei Romani,
Rome, 1991, no. 177, fig. 244: size 48.26 x 38.1cm.
23 W. Grnhagen, Der Schatzfund von Gro Bodungen (RmischGermanische Forschungen, vol. 21), Berlin, 1954, 41 f. pl. 4; Cahn
and Kaufmann-Heinimann (n. 17), 199.
24 D. E. Strong, Greek and Roman Gold and Silver Plate, London, 1966,
1856; C. Johns, The Risley Park Silver Lanx: a Lost Antiquity from
Roman Britain, The Antiquaries Journal 61 (1981), 5372, pls 7 and
9; G. Fischer-Heetfeld, Studien zu sptantikem Silber: Die Risley
Lanx, Athenische Mitteilungen 98 (1983), 23963, pls 47, 4951;
J.M.C. Toynbee and K.S. Painter, Silver Picture Plates of Late
Antiquity: ad 300 to 700, Archaeologia 108 (1986), 41 f., no. 50,
pl. 20c; M.A. Guggisberg (ed.) (with A. Kaufmann-Heinimann),
Der sptrmische Silberschatz von Kaiseraugst, die neuen Funde:
Silber im Spannungsfeld von Geschichte, Politik und Gesellschaft der
Sptantike (Forschungen in Augst, Vol. 34), Augst, 2003, 33346;
341 HF 62 (M. Guggisberg). Found in 1729, tentative size 20 x 15
inches (51 x 38cm).
25 W. Stukeley, An account of a large silver plate of antique basso
relievo, Roman workmanship, found in Derbyshire, 1729, London,
1736.
26 Johns (n. 24), 63, pl. 8; N. Franken, Imitationen rmischer
Silbertabletts in Ton, in von Prittwitz und Gaffron and Mielsch
(n. 16), 3140, at 34 f., fig. 5.
27 W. Binsfeld, Der 1628 in Trier gefundene rmische Silberschatz,
Trierer Zeitschrift 42 (1979), 11327; 115, no. 1 / 2; 120; no. 1 / 2. The
Latin of the reports leaves many questions open as to the shape of
the rim: M(asen): paropsides 2 quadratae formae, in crepidine
sine limbis habentes diversas figuras venationis, W(iltheim):
Nona quadrata et oblonga, omnigenam in or venationem
28 Binsfeld (n. 27), 114, has reckoned with a pound in the scale of two
Klner Mark = 467.7g, leading to a weight of close to 6kg, that is
much heavier than the Corbridge Lanx.
29 R. Egger, Die Trierer Achatschale a.d. Weltlichen Schatzkammer
der Wiener Hofburg, Trierer Zeitschrift 22 (1953), 21718; R. Noll,
Zur Achatschale ("Hl. Gral") in der Wiener Schatzkammer,
Anzeiger Phil.-Hist. Klasse sterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften 118 (1981), 1346, pl. 1.2; W. Oberleitner, Geschnittene
Steine. Die Prunkkameen der Wiener Antikensammlung, Vienna,
1985, 64 with col. pl.; H. Fillitz, Die Schatzkammer in Wien, Vienna/
Salzburg, 1986, 202, pl. 42, col. pl. 48.
30 J. Engemann, Konstantins Sicherung der Grenzen des rmischen
Reiches, in Demandt and Engemann (n. 12), 1559.
31 Demandt and Engemann (n. 12), 205, fig. 14.
32 Cf. n. 29.
33 Cf. also M. Vickers, Skeuomorphismus oder die Kunst, aus wenig viel
zu machen (Trierer Winckelmannsprogramm, 16), Mainz, 1998,
206.
34 Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale. For the numerous
publications see, E. La Rocca, Let doro di Cleopatra. Indagine
sulla Tazza Farnese (Documenti e Ricerche dArte Alessandrina),
The study Late Antique and Early Christian Gems was intended
to offer as complete a corpus as possible,1 listing just over 1000
gems and cameos, but in the five years or so that have passed
since its completion nearly 100 additional gems have been
brought to my attention, increasing the number of recorded
examples by nearly 10%. The new discoveries do not alter the
general picture of gem engraving in the Late Antique and Early
Byzantine periods (the mid-3rd to early 7th centuries ad) but
do provide some new and interesting varieties. The present
article will present a brief overview of the various categories
already established with a discussion of some of the new
material and a summary catalogue of the additional gems.
Late Antique portraits
Tens of thousands of Roman gems from the Imperial period
survive, but only a small number of these can be attributed to
the years following the collapse of the Severan dynasty at the
death of Severus Alexander in ad 235 and the onset of political
anarchy in the Roman Empire. It is clear that there was a
dramatic decrease in the production of engraved gems and
cameos of all sorts, although whether for economic reasons or
merely as a result of a changing taste in fashion is uncertain.
Rings of the later 3rd and 4th centuries ad tend to re-use older
intaglios or employ unengraved stones, or to have solid,
engraved bezels, or bezels set with coins. Gems engraved with
imperial or private portraits of the second half of the 3rd
century ad are very rare, as the study of imperial portraits on
gems by Erika Zwierlein-Diehl in this volume suggests,2 and the
lack of such gems is another indication of the rapid decline of
the art of gem engraving. There is a dramatic revival of gem
engraving, including the use of large amethysts and sapphires
of fine style, under Constantine the Great in the 4th century ad,
but such gems are very rare and appear to be the products of a
very small number of workshops associated with the imperial
court.3 Similarly, in the 5th century ad the production of
Plate 1 (Add. 1) Silver disc, diademed busts of Constans and Constantius II (?),
crowned by Victory, DD NN. Ex-auction
Plate 2 (Add. 2) Silver disc with facing emperor in crested helmet. Munich,
Collection C.S., no. 2175
Spier
Plates 17ab (Add. 23) Carnelian, F3, in silver ring. ihcoy. Munich, Collection
C.S., no. 2365
Plate 15 (Add. 21) Carnelian in gold
mount. Seated Constantinople,
holding a cross on globe. Derek
Content Collection
Spier
Plates 19ab (Add. 26) Carnelian, F3, cut octagonally, in a gold ring. xpictoy. Munich,
Collection C.S., no. 2345
Plates 26ab (Add. 36) Carnelian, F3, in silver ring. Two fish flank an anchor;
above, IAW IH in wreath. Munich, Collection C.S., no. 2145; from Bulgaria?
Plates 27ab (Add. 45) Nicolo in a heavy gold ring. The Good Shepherd
stands with a sheep over his shoulders
Plates 30ab (Add. 50) Black obsidian, F1, fragmentary, with nearly half
lost; length: 34mm. Both sides are engraved: a: the Good Shepherd, sheep
at feet; around, C C. b: two fish flank an anchor; around,
CW. Private collection
Spier
Plates 39ab (Add. 61) Brown glass in a bronze frame, probably from a belt
buckle. Greek box-type monogram between two crosses. Private collection
Plate 40 (Add. 63) The Crucifixion with the Virgin and John flanking the cross,
once set in the Annoschrein, Abbey of St Michael, Siegburg, Germany. Rock
crystal (?), cut down to about half the original size, c. 19 x 15mm
Plate 41 (Add. 66) Rock crystal. Christ healing the Blind Man: Christ stands,
raising his hand, while the blind man leans on his staff; border of thick lines.
Munich, Collection C.S., no. 2323
Spier
Plate 46a-b (Add. 71) Sardonyx (white), set in gold ring with dolphin head terminals; the bezel is
a circular box resting on an openwork base. Eros sits fishing; a fish dangles from his line. Derek
Content Collection
Plate 47 (Add. 72) Four sardonyx cameos, all damaged by burning, from the
Vsthgen mound in Gamla Uppsala, Sweden. The tomb is of a 6th7th
century AD date. The images include an Eros blowing a horn; a fisherman (?);
a bull (part of a sacrificial scene?); and an unidentifiable scene
Plate 48 (Add. 73) Sardonyx cameo, bust of Christ, before which two angels
bow; around, C, C, C, kc. 55 x 46mm. St Petersburg, State
Hermitage, inv. no. 373
Spier
Plates 49ab (Add. 76) Rock crystal stamp seal of conoid shape; pierced with gold mount in
the form of a simple hoop with knob handle. Cross within hatched border. Private collection
Catalogue
Additions to J. Spier, Late Antique and Early Christian Gems,
Wiesbaden, 2007
Portraits
Add. 1 (Pl. 1): Gorny & Mosch. Giessener Mnzhandlung, Munich,
Auktion 168, 24 June 2008, lot 156. Silver disc, diademed busts of
Constans and Constantius II(?), crowned by Victory, dd nn.
Add. 2 (Pl. 2): Munich, Collection C.S., no. 2175. Silver disc with facing
emperor in crested helmet.
Add. 3: Munich, Collection C.S., no. 2212. Silver disc with male bust
wearing short beard and military dress, lic cons. A. Demandt and J.
Engemann (eds), Konstantin der Grosse, Trier, 2007, cat. no. I.7.10.
Add. 4 (Pl. 3): Munich, Collection C.S., no. 2229. Silver disc with facing
busts of man and woman, viva. Demandt and Engemann ibid., cat. no.
II.1.74.
Add. 5 (Pl. 4): Munich, Collection C.S., no. 2751. Silver disc with facing
busts of a man and woman, uncertain inscription.
Add. 6 (Pl. 5): Munich, Collection C.S., no. 2122. Silver disc with busts of
a man, woman, and child, vivatis in deo. Demandt and Engemann
ibid., cat. no. II.1.53.
Add. 7: Gorny & Mosch. Giessener Mnzhandlung, Munich, Auktion 150,
11 July 2006, lot 280. Silver disc with busts of a man and woman,
lavrentialionis.
Add. 8: Gorny & Mosch. Giessener Mnzhandlung, Munich, Auktion 163,
14 December 2007, lot 219. Silver disc with bust of a man and woman,
cercvs et vebica v.
Add. 9: Munich, Collection C.S., no. 1369. Silver disc with facing bust of
woman, vivas in deo. Demandt and Engemann ibid., cat. no. II.1.58.
Add. 10 (Pl. 6): Munich, Collection C.S. no. 2169. Silver disc with male
bust, fibula on shoulder, C []C. Demandt and Engemann ibid., cat.
no. II.1.69.
Add. 11 (Pl. 7): Munich, Collection C.S., no. 2171. Silver disc with male
bust, anastasi vivas. Demandt and Engemann ibid., cat. no. II.1.71.
Add. 12 (Pl. 8): Munich, Collection C.S., no. 2172. Silver disc with facing
male bust, iovine vivas. Demandt and Engemann ibid., cat. no. II.1.72.
Add. 13: Sirmium excavations, found in the public bath. Silver disc with
frontally facing male bust, zosime vivas. F. Baratte, Un mdaillon
dargent du bas-empire Sirmium, Mlanges de lcole Franaise de
Rome 87 (1975), 41318.
Add. 14 (Pl. 9): Harlan J. Berk, Ltd., Chicago, Auction 158, February 2008,
lot 371. Silver disc with male bust, dalmativs.
Add. 15 (Pl. 10): Private collection; eBay 200309627340, 19 February
2009. Lead sealing, 13mm, impressed from a silver disc or ring of
similar style. Male bust, e vivas.
Spier
Add. 16: Munich, Collection C.S., no. 2237. Silver disc with chi-rho in
wreath, CON. Demandt and Engemann ibid., cat. no. II.1.77.
Add. 17 (Pl. 11): Munich, Collection C.S., no. 2182. Silver disc with
standing Victory and kneeling Genius, vivas in deo. Demandt and
Engemann ibid., cat. no. II.1.73.
Add. 18 (Pl. 12): Munich, Collection C.S., no. 2336. Silver disc with the
Sacrifice of Isaac. Demandt and Engemann ibid., cat. no. II.1.76.
Add. 19 (Pl. 13): Munich, Collection C.S., no. 2142.Silver disc with
Daniel in the Lions Den and the Sacrifice of Isaac. Demandt and
Engemann ibid., cat. no. II.1.47.
Add. 20 (Pl. 14): Munich, Collection C.S., no. 2631. Amethyst. Portrait of
bearded man, fibula on shoulder, cross above, CC,
Satornilous.
Add. 21 (Pl. 15): Derek Content Collection. Carnelian in gold mount.
Seated Constantinople, holding a cross on globe.
Add. 22 (Pl. 16): Munich, Collection C.S., no. 2671. Green chalcedony.
Seated Constantinople holding a cross on globe.
Ancient Jewelry, 8 December 2005, lot 105. Nicolo in a heavy gold ring.
The Good Shepherd stands with a sheep over his shoulders.
Add. 46: Gorny & Mosch, Giessener Mnzhandlung, Munich, Kunst der
Antike, Auction 189, 23 June 2010, lot 141. Nicolo in silver ring. The Good
Shepherd.
Add. 47: Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, inv. no. 2003.108. Red jasper, F1,
re-used and engraved on both sides. Side A is older, engraved with a
ship. Side B: the Good Shepherd, one sheep at feet, with uncertain
Latin inscription, nekasre. M. Henig and A. MacGregor, Catalogue of
the Engraved Gems and Finger-Rings in the Ashmolean Museum, II.
Roman, Oxford, 2004, 131, no. 14.20.
Add. 48 (Pl. 28): Munich, Collection C.S., no. 2673. Carnelian, F3,
octagonal, broken. The Good Shepherd with staff.
Add. 49 (Pl. 29): Derek Content Collection. Carnelian, F23. The Good
Shepherd.
Add. 50 (Pls 30ab): Private collection. Black obsidian, F1, fragmentary,
with nearly half lost; length: 34mm. Both sides are engraved. Side A:
the Good Shepherd, sheep at feet; around, C C. Side B: two
fish flank an anchor; around, CW .
Gradec near Velika Strmica. Garnet. Dove, set in a gold ring with
granulation on the shoulders. Nestorovi ibid., 34, no. 58.
Add. 53 (Pl. 32): Munich, Collection C.S., no. 2136. Garnet, broken in
half. An angel, holding a long cross. M. Fansa and B. Bollmann (eds),
Die Kunst der frhen Christen in Syrien. Zeichen, Bilder und Symbole
vom 4. bis 7. Jahrhundert, Mainz, 2008, no. 152.
Add. 54 (Pl. 33): Mnzenhandlung Gerhard Hirsch Nachfolger, Munich,
Auction 262, 2226 September, 2009, lot 1389. Garnet. Cross.
Add. 55 (Pl. 34): Munich, Collection C.S., no. 2500. Garnet. Box-type
Greek monogram, cross above.
Add. 56 (Pl. 35): Munich, Collection C.S., no. 2299; said to be from
Spain. Garnet set in a fragmentary gilt-bronze collar (from a buckle?).
Probably from a Visigothic workshop.
Add. 57 (Pl. 36): Munich, Collection C.S., no. 2189. Garnet. Cross on
steps. Fansa and Bollmann ibid., no. 151.
Add. 58 (Pl. 37): Munich, Collection C.S., no. 2847. Garnet, strongly
convex. Cross on steps.
Add. 59 (Pl. 38): Saltwood, Kent, from Anglo-Saxon grave 4699 [156].
Brown glass. The Virgin stands frontally, arms raised in prayer.
Publication by Penelope Rogers is forthcoming.
Add. 60: Corning, New York, Corning Museum of Glass, inv. no.
59.1.288; formerly Smith collection. Brown glass. Two doves flank a
cross. D. Whitehouse, Roman Glass in the Corning Museum of Glass, vol.
3, Corning, New York, 2003, 69, no. 1007.
Add. 61 (Pl. 39): Private collection. Brown glass in a bronze frame,
probably from a belt buckle. Greek box-type monogram between two
crosses.
Cameos
Add. 68 (Pl. 43): Derek Content Collection. Sardonyx in modern ring.
Apollo stands before Daphne, who transforms into a tree. The god
leans on a column on which a lyre rests, and a goose stands before him.
Add. 69 (Pl. 44): Derek Content Collection. Sardonyx in gold frame.
Herakles, wearing a lion skin and a quiver over his shoulder, shoots a
bow; to the right a bird (one of the Stymphalian birds).
Add. 70 (Pl. 45): Derek Content Collection. Sardonyx in gold frame.
Herakles, a lion skin around his neck, grasps the head of the Cretan
Bull.
Add. 71 (Pls 46ab): Derek Content Collection. Sardonyx (white), set in
gold ring with dolphin head terminals; the bezel is a circular box
resting on an openwork base. Eros sits fishing; a fish dangles from his
line.
Add 72 (Pl. 47): Four sardonyx cameos, all damaged by burnings, from
the Vsthgen mound in Gamla Uppsala, Sweden. The tomb is of a
6th-7th century ad date. The images include an Eros blowing a horn; a
fisherman (?); a bull (part of a sacrificial scene?); and an unidentifiable
scene. B. Arrhenius, Regalia in Svealand in Early Medieval Times, Tor
27 (1995), 3215.
Add. 73 (Pl. 48): St Petersburg, State Hermitage, inv. no. 373; from the
collection of Catherine the Great. Sardonyx cameo. 55 x 46mm. Bust of
Christ, before which two angels bow; around, C, C, C, KC.
Zalesskaia, in F. Althaus and M. Sutcliffe (eds), The Road to Byzantium,
London, 2006, 165, no. 102 (who suggests a 12th-century ad date).
Add. 74: Jonathan P. Rosen collection. Haematite, 12.8 x 11.3mm. The
Sacrifice of Isaac, with the hand of God above. Friedenberg (n. 53),
356, no. 15.
Add. 75: Jonathan P. Rosen collection. Banded agate, 17.4 x 12.7mm.
The Sacrifice of Isaac, abbreviated (without Isaac). Friedenberg (n. 53),
38, no. 20.
Add. 76 (Pls 49ab): Private collection. Rock crystal stamp seal of
conoid shape; pierced with gold mount in the form of a simple hoop
with knob handle. Cross within hatched border.
Add. 77 (Pl. 50): Munich, C.S. collection, no. 2814. Rock crystal stamp
seal, similar to the previous but without mount.
Add. 78: Christies, New York, Ancient Jewelry, 6 December 2007, lot 479.
Another, similar to previous.
Add. 79: Derek Content Collection. Another, similar.
Jewish seals
Add. 85: Lisbon. Nicolo. Menorah, lulav, etrog, and shofar. G. Cravinho
Engraved rings
Numerous rings with Christian images or inscriptions, primarily of
4th- and 5th-century ad date continue to appear. The following are a
selection of special interest:
Add. 101: For bronze rings with chi-rho, probably from Rome, in the
Vettori collection in the late 18th century ad , see F. Vettori, Nummus
aereus veterum christianorum, Rome, 1737, 52.
Add. 102: For a large selection of Early Christian rings, see Demandt
and Engemann ibid., cat. nos II.1.10-II.1.78 and II.1.1245.
Spier
Plates 58ab (Add. 109)
Sardonyx cameo set in a
heavily encrusted silver ring
with circular box-bezel and
cylindrical hoop. Aphrodite
Kallipygos turns to a swan with
raised wings. Derek Content
Collection
Plate 57 (Add. 108) The Adoration. The three Magi with Phrygian caps
approach the seated Virgin, who holds the nimbate Christ child on her lap; a
cross is above. Rock crystal, inlaid with gold and sandwiched with another in a
silver pendant with beaded wire frame. Ex-Gorny & Mosch, Munich
Bronze ring. Ship and chi-rho. Berger (n. 47), 5051, fig. 19.
Add. 104: Jet ring engraved with staurogram. T. Graham, A Rho-cross
engraved on a jet finger-ring from Bagshot, Surrey, Oxford Journal of
Archaeology 21 (2002), 21116.
Add. 105: Brussels, Muses Royaux dArt et dHistoire, inv. B.1766. A
gold ring, the hoop engraved vtere felix and chi-rho, set with an older
nicolo with Bonus Eventus. K. Sas and H. Thoen (eds), Schone Schijn.
Brillance et Prestige, Leuven, 2002, 243, no. 231.
Add. 110: Sasanian Christian seal impressions with Daniel in the Lions
Lead sealings
Add. 106: Trier, Rheinisches Landesmuseum, inv. no. EV 1994,185e (PK
1306). The Good Shepherd. Demandt and Engemann ibid., cat. no.
I.13.111.
Add. 107: Trier, Rheinisches Landesmuseum, inv. no. EV 1994,257 (PK
809). Noah in the ark. H.-J. Leukel, Rmische Plomben aus Trierer
Funden 19952001, Trier, 2002, no. 161; Demandt and Engemann ibid.,
cat. no. I.13.112.
Further additions
Add. 108 (Pl. 57): Gorny & Mosch, Giessener Mnzhandlung, Munich,
Kunst der Antike, Auction 189, 23 June 2010, lot 161. Rock crystal, inlaid
with gold and sandwiched with another in a silver pendant with
beaded wire frame. The Adoration. The three Magi with Phrygian caps
approach the seated Virgin, who holds the nimbate Christ child on her
lap; a cross is above.
The rock crystal pendant depicting the Adoration is similar to two
others published previously (Spier 2007, nos 6678). The mount is the
only recorded example in silver of a type well represented in gold.
Add. 109 (Pl. 58): Derek Content Collection. Sardonyx cameo set in a
heavily encrusted silver ring with circular box-bezel and cylindrical
hoop. Aphrodite Kallipygos turns to a swan with raised wings. The
cameo is another deriving from the Mythological Group. Aphrodite
Kallipygos is named for a famous statue type of 5th century bc date.60
Interest in classical mythological themes is characteristic of the
workshop. The cameo cutter again displays his liking for swans and
geese, which appear on several others of his works. The ring in which
the cameo is set is an Early Byzantine variety, providing further
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
one of which is inscribed around the edge of the bezel, Holy, holy,
holy is the Lord of Hosts; see O. M. Dalton, Catalogue of Early
Christian Antiquities and Objects from the Christian East in the
Department of British and Mediaeval Antiquities and Ethnography
of the British Museum, London, 1901, 19 and 30, nos 120 and 189. For
a silver ring, see S. de Ricci, Catalogue of a Collection of Ancient
Rings formed by the late E. Guilhou, Paris, 1912, 97, no. 835, pl. 13.
For the gold plaque in Naples, see Y. Christe, La Vision de Matthieu
(Matth. XXIVXXV). Origines et dveloppement dune image de la
Second Parousie, Paris, 1973, 17, fig. 16.
A. Grabar, Ampoules de Terre Sainte (MonzaBobbio), Paris, 1958,
334, pl. 33.
Spier (n. 1), nos 80338.
Ibid., nos 83952.
Ibid., nos 90929.
Ibid., nos 9345.
L. Berger, Der Menora-Ring von Kaiseraugst. Jdische Zeugnisse
rmischer Zeit zwischen Britannien und Pannonien. The Kaiseraugst
Menorah Ring. Jewish Evidence from the Roman Period in the
Northern Provinces (Forschungen in Augst 36), Augst, 2005, esp.
8798 and 2456 for rings and gems with a menorah.
D. Scarisbrick, Rings. Jewelry of Power, Love and Loyalty, London,
2007, 22 and 355, no. 24.
For lead seals, see Spier (n. 1), 163, nn. 501. Additional examples
include one in the Schyen Collection in Oslo that I take to be of
4th-century ad date; see http://www.schoyencollection.com/
seals.htm#5160_1. For another, from Mertingen-Burghfe,
Germany, see Berger (n. 48), 84, no. B5, fig. 26; and an unpublished
example in a private collection (via eBay). Two-sided Byzantine
examples with menorah and various reverses include: Frank
Sternberg AG, Zurich, Auction 23, 3031 October 1995, lot 961; Triton
II (numismatic auction), New York, December 12, 1998, lot 1108;
Gorny & Mosch. Giessener Mnzhandlung, Munich, Auktion 163, 14
December 2007, lot 185; Archaeological Center, Tel Aviv, Auction 44,
13 April, 2009, lot 183; Amphora, New York, List 95 (2009), no. 482;
Amphora, New York, List 97 (2010), no. 114; and several others in
private collections.
See Spier (n. 1), 1678, nos 96697.
Ibid., no. 980.
See the recent study by D. M. Friedenberg, Sasanian Jewry and Its
Culture. A Lexicon of Jewish and Related Seals, Urbana and Chicago,
2009.
Spier (n. 1), 17182, nos X1144.
Ibid., no. X34.
I am very grateful to Claudia Wagner of the Beazley Archive in
Oxford for bringing these gems to my attention. For the originals
from which these were copied, see http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/
gems/styles/late-antique/agates.htm and http://www.beazley.
ox.ac.uk/gems/styles/late-antique/garnets.htm.
Spier (n. 1), no. 520.
Ibid., no. 573.
Ibid., no. 575.
Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, vol. 2, Zurich,
1984, 856, nos 76571, s.v. Aphrodite (Angelos Delivorrias, Gratia
Gerger-Doer, and Anneliese Kossatz-Deissmann).
I am grateful to Judith Lerner for bringing this information to my
attention. For her very informative review of Friedenberg (n. 53),
see: Journal of the American Oriental Society 129 (2009), 65364.
Today the greater part of the gems, which in the meantime have
reached Den Haag, are classified as works of the Renaissance.15
Engemann
Plate 12 Panel from a
sarcophagus with a
conglomeration of
scenes. Velletri, Museo
Civico
Plate 13 Sarcophagus with Adam and Eve. Arles, Muse de lArles antique
Plate 14 Detail from Adam and Eve sarcophagus. Moses receiving the law
Plate 16 Detail from the same sarcophagus as Plate 15 with St Peter holding a
scroll
Christ and St Peter on a sarcophagus in St Peters in Rome (Pls In 1981 I only had a vague idea of the number of gemstone
cutters active in Rome during the 19th century. In the
1516).20
meantime, making use of contemporaneous sources, more has
Corby Finney likewise strongly suspects that two of the
gems with vignettes in the British Museums collection are fakebeen published about their large numbers, mainly by Lucia
Pirzio Biroli Stefanelli.23 Some of the works produced by these
(Pls 78; 11).21 I quote here his statement regarding the art
trade in the 19th century:
artists and bought or ordered by collectors may have been
labelled antique. In his catalogue of the 1990 Fake? exhibition
by the late 1860s the market for all early Christian antiquities
(including cameos and intaglios) was heating up, and it became in the British Museum, Mark Jones entitled one chapter The
hotter as the century drew to an end. One of the by-products was 19th century: the great age of faking.24 In 1981 I was also
the manufacture and distribution of multiple fakes... .22
unaware of the degree of cooperation between collectors and
210 | Gems of Heaven
Engemann
2
3
Plate 22 Detail of the Rabbula Codex (folio 4v) with the Baptism of Christ.
Florence, Bibiloteca Mediceo Laurenziana
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
against the upright shaft of a tau cross, with his arms shown
outstretched and tied at the wrists to the patibulum or cross
bar. Given the inscription and specific iconographic features
outlined below, the identity of the man is without question:
Jesus. While his head and feet are turned to the viewers right
(and so shown in rather flat, two dimensional profile), some
modelling is attempted by the carver to indicate Jesus
anatomy. This is most notable in the rendering of the knees, the
demarcation of the waist and abdomen in the torso, along with
the shaping of the shoulders and the neckline. The sensitivity
shown in the articulation of these physical features makes it
clear that although not explicit, the figure is also
unambiguously nude. This fact is underscored by the carvers
very careful attempt to clothe the 12 male figures represented
half the size of Jesus and shown processing toward him, six on
either side. Diagonal cuts made at regular intervals across their
upright bodies indicate that they wear close-fitting mantles, or
pallia. As will be maintained here, in comparison with
established iconographic formulae for the depiction of the
Apostles either side of Jesus in the 4th century ad, a version of
which is directly replicated on this gem, the figures are clearly
representative of the twelve Apostles.
The use of semi-precious stones engraved with images or
monograms, and used as seals in finger-rings, was an integral
part of daily life through to the 3rd century ad when the use of
gems as seals began to diminish. Within this cultural and
economic context, Christianity struggled with a variety of
philosophical and theological issues pertaining to the
fundamental question of adornment of the body, as well as
with the thorny question of image-use upon such personal
items as jewellery. On facing the first issue, they were not
alone: in matters relating to clothing, physical embellishment
and even care of the body, males and females in the Roman
Plate 1 Constanza gem. Carnelian, flat, 13.5 x 10.5mm. Syria (?), mid-4th
century AD. Said to have been found in Constanza, Romania. London, British
Museum, PE 1895,1113.1
The Constanza Carnelian and the Development of Crucifixion Iconography in Late Antiquity
world negotiated a tenuous balance between the observation of
moral strictures, the necessary practicalities of daily life, and
the general pursuit of fashion. On facing the second issue,
Christians were in distinctively hazardous territory.
Clement of Alexandria (c. ad 150c. ad 215) provides clear
evidence that as early as the 2nd century ad, Christians had to
navigate their way very carefully through the already
established use of images to decorate finger-rings. In his oftcited Paedagogus, he indicates a small range of images
appropriate for Christian use upon rings. This includes a dove,
a fish, a ship in sail, a musical lyre, a ships anchor, and a
fisherman (Paed. 3.59).6 For although Clement is against luxury
and the ornamentation of the body (it is the Christian soul, he
writes, that is to be decorated with the ornament of goodness,
Paed. 2.3), he is explicit in permitting one finger-ring of gold.
For a woman, this ring is to be worn in the fulfilment of
domestic tasks only, namely protecting household goods (Paed.
3.57). For a man, this is to be worn at the base of the little finger
so that his hand is free to conduct business (Paed 3.589).
Hence the seal, or signet ring, is expressly permitted for
security purposes only, both commercial and domestic that
is, in order to mark ownership of property.
When gems produced specifically for Christian clients first
began to appear in the eastern Mediterranean soon after
Clements time, around the middle of the 3rd century ad they
are largely identical to other gems produced at the period in
shape, material (usually carnelian, agate or jasper) and
engraving style. The key features that distinguish them as
Christian are the inscriptions they carry, and the symbols they
bear, which are appropriate to Christian use and accord
directly with Clements specifications.7 Among the many extant
examples attesting to the use of these symbols in conjunction
with Christian inscriptions, the iconography of the Constanza
gem is highly unusual relative to Clements small catalogue of
approved images. Nonetheless, as Smith observed, a second
known example, almost identical in size, shape and design to
the Constanza gem, indicates that although remarkable, the
design was not a one-off.
Included by Raffaele Garrucci in his comprehensive Storia
dell arte cristiana nei primi otto secoli della chiesa, this second
example was purchased in Rome by the English collector, the
Rev. George Frederick Nott (17671841).8 Although its
whereabouts are presently unknown, a plaster impression
made in the 19th century (Pl. 2) testifies that the gem was
fractionally larger and more elongated in shape than the
Constanza gem, and that the pattern of a crucified Jesus amid
twelve Apostles appeared with only minor variations. In
Harley-McGowan
religious function. It can be argued that this is confirmed in the
iconography. The depiction of Jesus crucified in the presence of
the Apostles is extremely unusual by comparison to
developments in the representation of the subject in the 5th
and 6th centuries ad, where Jesus is customarily depicted
hanging on the cross in the presence of his mother and John
the Evangelist and often the two thieves. Nevertheless, when
seen within the broader context of Christian iconography at
this period, it can be linked directly with contemporary
pictorial trends for the representation of Jesus among his
Apostles.
In the course of the 4th and early 5th centuries ad, a range
of pictorial formats for the depiction of Jesus among his
Apostles was developed and popularised across a variety of
media in Christian art. Invariably explored within and
understood to be set in a celestial context, this theme placed
especial emphasis on Jesus authority as well as his victory over
death in the resurrection (Pl. 3). Hence Jesus could be
portrayed in one of a number of guises: teacher, thaumaturge,
heavenly King, philosopher or giver of the new law.14 Yet
regardless of the role he assumed, and whether he was
presented standing, seated or enthroned as he fulfilled that
role, Jesus was always shown at the centre of the composition,
presiding over the assembly of his Apostles who flanked him in
strictly symmetrical and hieratic compositions. The Apostles
themselves could be shown seated in discussion, or standing
and processing ceremonially towards Jesus sometimes with
one arm raised in a gesture of acclamation. In certain
iconographic formats, the iconic figure of Jesus was
complemented by the figure of a lamb beneath his feet (as
witnessed on the Nott gem). In other formats he was
substituted by an aniconic symbol: a throne (as on the front
panel of the Pola ivory casket, where it is combined with the
lamb as well as the four Rivers of Paradise);15 or the symbolic
monogram of the cross-trophy, containing the triumphant
cross of the Crucifixion surmounted by a victory wreath (Pl. 4).
Plate 3 Christ Teaching the Apostles / Giving the New Law, mosaic, probably late 4th century AD, Chapel of S. Aquilino, Basilica of S. Lorenzo, Milan
The Constanza Carnelian and the Development of Crucifixion Iconography in Late Antiquity
Plate 4 Acclamation sarcophagus,
4th century AD. Palazzo del Duc di
Ceri in Borgo Vecchio. Previously in
the Vatican, now lost
Plate 5 Star-and-Wreath
sarcophagus, c. AD 375400. Muse
de lArles Antique, Inv. no. FAN
92.002483 (casket), FAN 92.002484
(lid)
Harley-McGowan
Plate 7 Graffito with parody of the Crucifixion, scratched into plaster wall,
Imperial Palace, Palatine Hill, Rome (excavated 1856), early 3rd century ad,
H. 380mm, W. 330mm. Museo Palatino, Inv. no. 381403
the Saviour. His arms are stretched out beneath the horizontal
bar of the cross and attached to it by two short strips at the
wrists. His elbows and hands fall loosely as a result, and the
iconography in this detail recalls the Constanza gem, as does
the turning of the head sharply to the left, and the use of the
tau cross. Jesus upper body is also rigidly upright. His legs are
carefully carved and shown in profile, bent at the knee, and
hanging open loosely, as though he is seated on a bar or peg,
although none is shown. The starkness of the position,
emphasising Jesus nudity, is wholly antithetical to the
triumphal symbolism of the crucified Christ seen in the
Constanza gem and in subsequent Early Byzantine
representations of the subject. Nevertheless, from literary
accounts as well as archaeological evidence we know that
executioners placed victims in different positions on the cross,
including having the legs open rather than side by side.21 The
image does however share important, rudimentary visual
elements with another image of the Crucifixion in Late
Antiquity.
The flat, strictly frontal presentation of Jesus on the
magical gem, with erect carriage of the head and torso, is seen
in the more well-known crucified figure of the so-called
Alexamenos graffito (Pl. 7). The graffito, scratched into the
plastered wall of servants quarters in the Imperial Palace on
the Palatine Hill, Rome, and now in the antiquariam of the
Palatine, is dated to the early 3rd century ad.22 Customarily
interpreted as a satire of Christian belief in a crucified deity, it
shows the figure of a young man standing in the foreground,
saluting a second figure, tied to a cross and having the head of
a donkey. Unlike the magical gem, where the accompanying
218 | Gems of Heaven
The Constanza Carnelian and the Development of Crucifixion Iconography in Late Antiquity
Plate 8 Ivory plaque with the Crucifixion, Rome, AD 42030. 75 x 98mm. London,
British Museum, PE 1856,0623.5
Plate 9 Detail of wooden door panel with Crucifixion, Sta Sabina , Rome, c. AD 430
Harley-McGowan
The question of the rarity of images of the Crucifixion in
Late Antiquity is by no means solved by this brief assessment of
the evidence provided by engraved gems. Nevertheless, an
attempt has been made here to raise awareness of the evidence,
pointing out not only the 3rd century ad existence of
Crucifixion iconography, but manifestations of that existence
in art used in magical and Christian contexts. As HarcourtSmith presciently observed, the iconography preserved by the
Constanza and Nott gems contributes key evidence in the
broader history of the representation of the subject in Christian
art, and so deserves to be fully incorporated into a detailed
account of that iconographic development. And as Derchain
further demonstrated, in the process of charting this
development, the testimony of magical gems should be allowed
to sit alongside that of Christian gems. As a result, when
considering the rarity of Crucifixion images in Late Antiquity, a
wider range of evidence can be taken into account. The
connection between the visual and literary sources for the
reference to and invocation of Christ crucified as a source of
power, is just one step in directly challenging that persistent
belief that persecuted Christians were too scared or too
ashamed to name and depict the subject explicitly. Certainly,
the rarity of representations remains something of a mystery,
given the evident ability of artisans to depict the subject. Yet
alternative explanations beyond claims of avoidance of or
refusal to depict the image are now able to undergo further
consideration.
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
Acknowledgements
Notes
1
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
Seals in Transition
Their Change of Function and Value in Late Antiquity
Gertrud Platz-Horster
But was it only a fashion to use engraved gems set in fingerrings for sealing? Zwierlein-Diehl has suggested that primarily
a change in sealing practices may have been responsible. When
and why did this change from sealing with engraved gems to
the use of crude metal finger-rings or lead bullae occur, and
what was its cause? My paper will focus on these questions. I
will approach them by giving a selected overview of the
admittedly not very many archaeological contexts with
engraved gems in hoards or burials which attest to their
Platz-Horster
with rich grave goods which are unique to Xanten. Among local
ceramics and glass were the remains of a textile bag containing
a jet necklace, a gold pendant, a bronze finger-ring, a glass disk
and six unset gems; all but one of the gems are much older than
the burial. The most precious stone is an amethyst engraved
with the unfinished capita opposita of Nero and his mother
Agrippina the Younger, which can be dated by coins to ad 55/6.
Although the amethyst was damaged and unfinished, it was
kept for more than 200 years as an item of high value and
buried as such with the other gems ultimately not used either
for sealing or as an inlay for jewellery.
This is one of the last dated contexts with engraved gems in
Xanten. Beneath the cathedral of St Viktor, in graves of the late
4th century ad, only two gems set in finger-rings have been
found: a silver ring from a mans burial holds a 1st-century ad
carnelian depicting the goddess Nemesis;12 the second, found
in a boys burial, was a bronze ring with a glass gem imitating
nicolo, showing Orpheus among his herd.13 This is a wellknown scene on numerous glass gems found throughout the
Roman Rhineland, Trier, Gaul and Carnuntum. In 1902, during
the construction of the University Hospital in Bonn in the
canabae of the Roman legionary castle, a large complex of
cheap jewellery was discovered, including objects in pseudo-jet
(from the local brown coal, lignite), bronze and glass, dating to
the mid-3rd century ad.14 It preserved the contents of a
jewellers shop for the soldiers who lived nearby. Whereas the
bronze items seem to have been manufactured in Mainz, the
pseudo-jet and glass objects were presumably made in
Cologne, a centre of glass-making in the West especially the
mass-produced glass gems imitating nicolo which were spread
all over the northern provinces of the Roman Empire from the
Rhineland to Gaul as far as Noricum in the East. This complex
in Bonn also signifies a trend of the 3rd century ad: the
222 | Gems of Heaven
1/-/-
46
10
18 (1 K)/-
1/-
19/-
1/-
2/1
98
15050
70130 vC
nC
1
16
3-
10-
2-
5-
4-
4/-
--
1/-
--
--
1/-/-/1/-
30
18
50 vC0
2./3.
Jh. nC
46
11
10-
5-
2-
7-
5-
18 (1
-/3K)/-
--
4/2
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4-
--
98
21
augusteisch
Gesamt Mat.
41
172
5
20
5
19
2
11
19/47/3
3
15
6/2
2/1
6/2
1/2/1
80
337
57
1(?)
6/-
12
1/-
2/1
-/1/1
90
-/1/-
18
2070 nC
70130 nC
Sard
41
57
16
1(?)
16
Glas, uni
2/1
augusteisch
Datierung
2070 nC
10
6/-
12
-/1/1
2./3. Jh. nC
- Frstenberg/Vetera
-/3 n. Chr.)
- und Vetera
4/2
Tabelle 1 11Fundorte:
I (13/12
v.- Chr.69/70
II1/(71/72275
n. Chr.)
Seals in Transition
30
Gesamt Dat.
K-onyx/
Am/Be
Onyx schw.
Achat/Chalc.
4/-
Jaspis,
rot/grn
Nicolo
Nicolo-P.,
frh/spt
Glas,
gebndert
10
Lagenachat/
Sardonyx
131
Bandachat
50 vC0
Material
Gesamt
K-onyx
Am/Be
Onyx s
Achat/
Jaspis,
rot/gr
Nicolo
Nicolo
frh/sp
Glas,
gebnde
Glas, un
Lagenac
Sardony
Bandachat
Die antiken Gemmen aus Xanten. Teil III: Neufunde, Neuerwerbungen, Nachtrge und Auswertung
Karneol
15050 vC
Sard
Karneol
Datierung
80
90
21
172
20
16
10
19
11
47/3
15
6/2
6/2
1/2/1
337
-/-
1. Jh. nC
3/2 (1 K)
17
Karneol
Glas,
uni
2
-/1
Nicolo-P.,
frh/spt
-/17
2. Jh. nC
Material
Ende
2./3. Jh.
Datierung
nC
Sardonyx/
Lagenachat
1 (K)
100 vC20
nC
Gesamt
Mat.
368
31
106
1. Jh. nC
2. Jh. nC
Tabelle 2
8
17
5
16
Nicolo
-/1/-
-/1/-/-
16
-/2/2/-
29
Plasma
1/-/2/1
K-onyx/
Am/Be/
3/-/-/Cha
50
Gesamt
Dat.
30
10/2
Jaspis,
rot/grn
2/-
-/3/20
23-
-/13/2
3-
-/1/-/4/3/4/1
16
125
3/2 (1 K)
1/-
-/2/2/-
29
1/-/2/1
50
-/1
16
10/2
Fundorte: Colonia Ulpia Traiana (98/99275/276 n. Chr.) und Tricensimae(?) (Ende 3. Jh.Anfang 5. Jh.);
Ende2 2./3.
Jh. gems from Vetera Castra and Colonia Ulpia Traiana. Tables: find spot / material / dating / number
Plate
Xanten,
3
1 (K)
2
2
2/Grber
Viktorstrasse
und Dom
(3.4. -/17
Jh. n. Chr.) Material
: Datierung
: Anzahl. 3/-/-/nC
Gesamt Mat.
36
10
3/20
23
13/2
4/3/4/1
30
125
Platz-Horster
Plate 3 The Isny Treasure, Stuttgart
Seals in Transition
Plate 4 Twenty-two gold finger-rings from the Thetford Treasure. London, British Museum, PE 1981,0201.223
the seal was of wax.28 Wax impressions protected in sealboxes replaced sealing in clay due to the climate: this cera
sealing in easily melted beeswax was unsuitable for the hotter
zones of the Empire, where sealing in quick-drying creta (clay)
was an ancient tradition. A look at the distribution of
Nomophylakia archives with clay seal impressions preserved
by the accident of fire confirms this.
Roman lead seals
Around ad 100 another method of sealing appeared: struck in
lead, these seals as well fixed the knot of a string whose hole is
usually preserved. The earlier lead seals are impressed on one
side only, the reverse being bulbous or flat, although sometimes with the impression of the material to which they were
affixed. From the Constantinian era onwards, however,
double-sided lead seals, made by a pincer-shaped bulloterion,29
predominated.
A high percentage of the lead seals from Trier (2,500 items)
were found in the river Mosel near the Roman bridge and the
harbour, but also near the Late Antique palace. Most of them
served for sealing goods from all over the Empire which had
Trier as their destination. After authenticating and opening the
cargo, these lead seals were thrown into the river to avoid their
second usage. Trier at that time was not only the military and
administrative capital of the western Empire, but also an
economic and trading centre, especially for shipping. The lead
seals found in the river indicate the customs and taxes the
sender had to pay. The close correspondence of the finer seals
to coinage has led to the suggestion that their engravers
belonged to the state mint. These lead seals are spread all over
the Late Roman world (from Istanbul to Lyon) and continued in
use throughout the Byzantine era.
The re-use of Roman gems
The Thetford treasure, discovered in 1979 in East Anglia, is
presented here as one example of quite a number of very rich
4th-century ad hoards. It contained 83 items of precious
materials, among which were 22 gold finger-rings (Pl. 4).30 Five
of these rings are set with re-used earlier engraved gems of
Platz-Horster
Plate 5 Finger-rings in the Getty Hoard. Malibu, The J. Paul Getty Museum
most precious of their grave goods were often Roman gems set
into delicate gold finger-rings. In the necropolis of KrefeldGellep (grave no. 1782), the ring finger of the left hand of a
male skeleton, attributed by the excavators to the Frankish
duke Arpvar, buried around ad 52030, was adorned with a
fine gold ring set with an Augustan-period nicolo gem
depicting two satyrs, one playing the aulos (Pl. 6).36 This
phenomenon can be observed in quite a number of burials of
the 6th and 7th century ad from Anglo-Saxon England to
northern Italy. In any case ancient gems were highly prized as
settings for elaborate finger-rings.37
From the time of Justinian I in the mid- 6th century ad to
Justinian II in the second half of the 7th century ad, even in
Rome, engraved gemstones were re-used for contemporary
jewellery. Beneath the Crypta Balbi, amongst the material of a
jewellers workshop of that period, were found nine Roman
gems, partly broken, as well as two Etruscan scarabs,
fragments of old glass, bone and ivory, and precious stones
such as garnet, lapis lazuli and sapphire, coral and mother of
pearl.38
The crisis of the Imperium: a change in sealing custom
To sum up: already during the attacks of different Germanic
tribes in the mid-2nd century ad some valuable hoards were
being buried. The crisis of the Imperium in the second half of
the 3rd century ad resulted in the collapse of the Roman
borders and intensified the invasions of hostile troops in both
the west and the east of the Roman Empire. This upheaval
caused a concentration of Roman forces in a few locations, a
rapid inflation of the Roman currency through the constant
fresh minting of money for new troops, a reduction of the
alienated Roman population and their turn to real assets such
as gold and precious stones.
Seals in Transition
The following migration of peoples and the amalgamation
of the Roman population with the barbarians many of whom
became Roman citizens and climbed up the social ladder also
caused a drastic shift39 in the custom of sealing: in the western
Roman Empire, engraved gems and bronze seal capsules
disappeared at the same time around ad 280, as did clay seal
impressions in the East. Although the art of gem engraving did
not vanish and was continued also for daily life sealing, for
example, by the Sasanians at a high level the Romans in the
future only used lead seals struck by or for the administration
to raise taxes on trade goods.
Augustine in a letter from ad 402 described the device of
the seal he had used to be sure that it arrived undamaged;40 and
the pagan Roman senator Q. Aurelius Symmachus, who
probably died in the same year, asked his friend Virius
Nicomachus Flavianus to confirm the receipt of his letter by
describing its seal.41 Other than written testimonies like these,
the archaeological evidence contradicts the use of a personal
engraved gemstone for sealing letters or documents at that
time. But actually we do not know which kind of annulus
Augustine or Symmachus really used: an engraved gem or
perhaps a metal finger-ring, the latter surviving antiquity up to
the Middle Ages.42
The availability of precious stones
One additional reason for the decreasing numbers of
gemstones may have been the accessibility of the material
itself. It is obvious from excavated contexts that the superior
precious stones like emerald, garnet, amethyst, aquamarine or
even clear carnelian already during the 2nd century ad
diminish in burials and even in rich hoards.43 Less expensive
materials like impure carnelian or rock crystal, red and yellow
jasper, haematite or nicolo available from the Alps, the Balkans
or the low mountain ranges in Central Europe increasingly
dominate the engraved gems. This goes along with the
continued inflation and the unstable political situation which
constricted the trade in gemstones from distant countries, and
with the restriction of valuable materials like marble, gold,
silver or precious stones, which became accessible only to the
court and upper levels of the administration enforceable by
imperial decree from the 4th century ad at the latest.44 Finely
engraved gems with royal portraits such as Constantine I (r. ad
30637) in large intense amethyst, the Armenian princess
Warazadukta (c. ad 330) in garnet, the Visigoth king Alaric II
(r. ad 484507) in sapphire or his Ostrogothic antagonist
Theodoric (r. ad 493526) again in amethyst, confirm this
verdict but also the continuing ability of the craftsmanship.45
Returning to the introduction: at the end of the Roman
Empire, the use of gemstones for everyday sealing had already
ended almost 200 years before Romulus Augustulus was
displaced by Odoaker in August ad 476. Wearing a finger-ring
with an engraved seal stone in former times had been a normal
custom, as Cicero commented in the above cited oration Pro
Flacco in 63 bc: Everybody uses the impression on both public
and private letters. And in ad 69/70 during the battle of Castra
Vetera/Xanten, one in every seven of the Roman soldiers who
died against the Batavian forces, also lost his engraved gem.46
For Roman citizens sealing with gemstones was not only a
fashion, but rather a common right and custom. It became
redundant in the course of acculturation and amalgamation
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Platz-Horster
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
Myth Revisited
The Re-use of Mythological Cameos and Intaglios in Late Antiquity and the Early
Middle Ages
Gemma Sena Chiesa
Many of the classical gems which have come down to us were
re-used on objects in Late Antiquity or in the Middle Ages, most
of them on liturgical objects. Antique engraved gems were set
in gold together with smooth gemstones, and they made
reliquaries, crosses and gospel book-covers gleam with pomp
and beauty. The most well-known example is the famous
Gemma Augustea now kept in the Kunsthistorisches Museum,
Vienna (Pl. 1). This magnificent cameo of the Tiberian age, one
of the most important works of classical glyptic, has come
down to us because it was re-used in the 11th-century reliquary
of St Sernin in Toulouse.1 The re-use of ancient gems was a
constant practice also after the Middle Ages. In
commemoration of the precious gifts ornamented with gems
donated by Queen Theodelinda (7th century ad) to Monza
Cathedral, near Milan, the 15th-century painter, Bottega degli
Zavattari, depicted jewellers employed by the Lombard queen
dismantling ancient gem-set objects in order to create
reliquaries and gifts for Christian churches (Pl. 2).2
There have been many recent studies concerning the re-use
of gems.3 But numerous questions still remain as to the reasons
for such frequent re-use of classical engraved gems in the
period from the 4th to the 12th centuries ad. Already in the
Classical period gemstones were part of precious objects; they
were of great artistic value and kept for a long time, as we know
from the discovery in tombs of gemstones which were more
than a few centuries old. In addition to the customary use (and
therefore re-use) of engraved gemstones in Late Antiquity,
there was another reason. The production of engraved gems
apparently declined at the end of the 3rd century ad, probably
Sena Chiesa
Myth Revisited
Plate 9 Sardonyx cameo with
bust of Minerva (4th century AD).
Venice, Museo Archeologico
Nazionale
Plate 10 Book-cover of
Theodolindas gospel: sardonyx
cameo with bust of Minerva
wearing Attic helmet and peplum
and snake before the breast (4th
century AD, reworked in the 7th
century AD). Monza, Basilica di
S. Giovanni Battista
Sena Chiesa
Myth Revisited
Plate 19 Ivory relief with Apollo
and Daphne (late 5th century AD).
Ravenna, Museo Archeologico
Nazionale
Plate 20 Sardonyx cameo: crowning of Valentinian III (?) (5th century AD).
St Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum
Sena Chiesa
Plate 23a-b. Intaglio (and cast) depicting Leda and the swan (3rd century AD).
Dreiknigenschrein, Cologne, Dom
Myth Revisited
atmosphere of the papal court of that period. The gem was then
acquired by Lorenzo il Magnifico. As we will see later this gem
became famous in the Renaissance period and was the source
of inspiration for many works of art.
Plate 24 Leda receives the swan
Plate 25 Leda with the swan (Roman
A simplified copy is the two-layered agate cameo in the Leo
(Roman copy of a 4th century BC
copy of a Hellenistic sculpture). Venice,
Merz collection (Pl. 27).70 The rendition of the feathers on the
sculpture). Rome, Musei Capitolini
Museo Archeologico Nazionale
wings and the style of Ledas hair would date this work to
to their erotic significance but also because they were derived
around the end of the 2nd or 3rd century ad. A curious
from statues of great prestige.
grotesque gem, which I believe to be a unicum, studied by
The third version, in which Leda is shown lying down
Marianne Maaskant-Kleibrink and now kept in The Hague,
receiving the swan which wraps its wings around her, has
depicts Leda and the swan on a cart being pulled by the god
become well known from a gem in particular. This version may Pan (Pl. 28),71 a desecration of the myth which is already
derive from an original picture known also to Ovid, who
evident in the Imperial period and documented by the literary
65
appears to recall it in his description of the myth. He narrates
sources.
that Arachne, an Athenian girl envious of Athenas ability in
The gem on the Dreiknigenschrein is a fine example of
re-use in the Middle Ages of a composition linked to erotic
weaving, had embroidered the scene of Leda in a tapestry
Greek mythology which was disapproved of by the Fathers of
between the crimina Jovis (the amorous sins of Jupiter) and his
the Church for the scandalous behaviour of the gods,
simulationes (deceits):66 fecit et olorinis Ledam recumbare
sub alis (depicted Leda lying down under the wings of the
demonstrating the inconsistency of the Christian religion. In
swan). This depiction appears repeatedly on gems throughout
the 3rd century ad Clement of Alexandria found it immoral
the period of the Roman Empire, perhaps due to its closeness to that rings were still fitted with gems depicting the licentious
Ovids text, as well as for the amorous subject and its very
lovers as Jupiter and Leda.72 However, until at least the 5th
67
century ad, Coptic art uses the myth of Leda in its most sensual
attractive appearance. Moreover, due to its compact
elongated composition, it adapts well to the diminutive size
form, reopening the problem of the interpretation of pagan
and oblong shape of a gem.
mythology in a Christian context. On a Coptic stone relief in
I cite as one example the beautiful onyx in the Museo
the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford dated to the beginning of
Archeologico Nazionale in Naples (Pl. 26),68 a masterpiece in
the 5th century ad (Pl. 29),73 the depiction of the naked women
miniature relief, in which Ledas hair is curiously styled in
in the centre, caressing a large bird which follows her, is
ringlets (Melonenfrisur) recalling the Alexandrinian period:
thought to be Leda. In addition in the Middle Ages the
the decorative invention of the curve of the swans neck can be
archdeacon of Soissons had in his seal a gemstone depicting
clearly seen. The cameo described as cignus concubans cum
Leda lying down with the swan.74
Leda belonged to Cardinal Barbo who fitted it into a silver-gilt
table in the centre of four other cameos.69 This is therefore a
15th-century re-use, which testifies to the humanistic
Plate 26 Onyx cameo: Leda reclining with the swan (1st century BC). Naples,
Museo Archeologico Nazionale, formerly Barbo and then Medici Collection
Plate 29 Coptic relief: Leda and the swan (6th century AD). Oxford, Ashmolean
Museum
Sena Chiesa
Myth Revisited
to Christ the celestial emperor and to his church the same
homage of precious gems which decorated the imperial
crowns. A particular emphasis, equally symbolic, could have
come from the use of gemstones engraved by artists in the
Classical era. They were made even more precious by their
rarity and by their matchless engraving, which combined
technical virtuosity and great value in a multi-coloured effect.
Already Ambrose of Milan in the De Fide86 talked about
pagan mythology as poeticae fabulae which could, in this way,
be continuously appreciated. Between the 4th and 5th century
ad many Christian emperors ordered the eradication of the cult
of images of pagan divinities, but allowed them to be enjoyed
as works of art to be safeguarded and admired. It was ordered
that the statues of the gods (which were appreciated for their
artistic value rather than for their sacred nature) were to be
taken from their temples and arranged to decorate the city. A
similar artistic tolerance was also true for those pagan
depictions on luxury objects which could have (or should have)
therefore been re-used to glorify the Church and to celebrate
the sovereignty of Christ.
Notes
Sena Chiesa
36 V. Dasen, Le secret dOmphale, Revue Archologique 46 (2008/2),
26581.
37 Pompeii, Casa del Principe di Montenegro. Another fresco from
Pompeii (Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, inv. no. 8992)
depicts Hercules, standing with the distaff, and Omphale, wearing
the lion-skin. On the subjects: A. Coralini, Ercole e Onfale nella
pittura pompeiana. Problemi di iconografia, Ocnus 8 (2000),
6992.
38 Pompeii, Casa di Eracle (Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale,
inv. no. 9004): LIMC, VII, Omphale, no. 14.
39 M.-L. Vollenweider, Die Steinschneidekunst und ihre Knstler in
sptrepublikanischer und augusteischer Zeit, Baden-Baden, 1966,
pl. 32.35; LIMC (n. 38), nos 716 (J. Boardman); S. Toso, Le cattive
ragazze: le Amazzoni, Onfale, Medea, in I. Colpo, I. Favaretto and
F. Ghedini (eds), Iconografia 2001. Studi sullimmagine (Antenor
Quaderni, 1), Rome, 2002, 289307, at 290.
40 Propertius, Elegiae, 3.11.1720: Omphale in tantum formae processit
honorem, ed. L. Mueller, Sex. Propertii Elegiae, Leipzig, 1898.
41 Ibid., 3.11.4950 (woe betide if we should lie under a woman. But
celebrate, Rome, your triumph now that you are safe and invoke
long life for Augustus).
42 Dasen (n. 36).
43 Vollenweider (n. 39), pl. 37.45. Interesting is the gem with Apollo
and Marsia (C. Gasparri [ed.], Le Gemme Farnese, Naples, 1994, no.
89), in a Hellenistic taste for fables.
44 Vollenweider (n. 39), pl. 68.7; A. Furtwngler, Die Antiken
Gemmen, 3 vols, Leipzig-Berlin, 1900, III, pl. LVII.8.
45 See, for instance, a bronze mirror case with Hercules in New York
(Metropolitan Museum, inv. no. oo6.1228c): LIMC, IV, Heracles,
no. 1554.
46 E.g. on the Dionysian sarcophagus in Villa Albani (LIMC, V,
Heracles, no, 3262), on the sarcophagus at Bolsena (LIMC, V,
Heracles, no. 3264), on the small but interesting bronze vase in
Boston (LIMC, V, Heracles, no. 3267) and on a sarcophagus in the
Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples (P. Zanker and B.C.
Ewald, Mit Mythen leben. Die Bildenwelt der rmischen
Sarkophagen, Munich, 2004, pl. 125).
47 LIMC, VII, Omphale, no. 33 (London, British Museum, inv. no. M
2541).
48 Painter (n. 31).
49 Henig (n. 21), nos 91, 100, 119, 1235, 136; Spier (n. 21), 140.
50 Henig (n. 21), no. 149; Spier (n. 21), no. 767.
51 C. Rizzardi, L. Martini, C. Muscolino and E. Cristoferi (eds), Avori
bizantini e medioevali nel Museo Nazionale di Ravenna, Ravenna,
1990, no. 1, pl. I.
52 Paris, Muse National du Moyen Age, inv. no. Cl. 13135.
53 Paris, Bibliothque Nationale, Cabinet des Mdailles, The
Triumph of Licinius (Spier [n. 21], no. 718); St. Petersburg, State
Hermitage, Crowning of an Emperor (Spier [n. 21], no. 572).
54 On the meaning of above and under in Roman imperial art:
G.L. Grassigli, Il sotto, il sopra. Per una semantica della
composizione nellarte imperiale, in I. Colpo, I. Favaretto and F.
Ghedini (eds), Iconografia 2005. Immagini e immaginari
dallantichit classica al mondo moderno (Antenor Quaderni, 5),
Rome, 2005, 13344.
55 Sena Chiesa (n. 32); Sena Chiesa (n. 12); M. Cadario, La toilette di
Pegaso nella Croce di Desiderio a Brescia, ACME: Annali della
Facolt di Lettere e Filosofia dellUniversit degli Studi di Milano
52/2 (1999), 20118.
56 E. Zwierlein-Diehl, Interpretatio Christiana: Gems on the Shrine
of the Three Kings in Cologne, in C.M. Brown (ed.), Engraved
Gems: Survivals and Revivals, Washington DC, 1997, 6384, at 74;
eadem (n. 2), 344, no. 250; A. Dierichs, Leda Schwangruppen in
der Glyptik und ihre monumentalen Vorbilder, Boreas 13 (1990),
3750, pl. 6.
57 Propertius (n. 40), 1.13.30: gods change into animals not to upset
men, because of their glittering look.
58 Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 1.7.10; 3.10.57, trans. J.G. Frazer,
Cambridge, MA, and London, 1921; Hyginus, Fabulae, 77, trans.
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
Aubry
Inscriptions on Portrait Gems and Discs in Late Antiquity (3rd6th centuries AD)
Plate 13 Silver disc with confronted
male and female busts. Surrounding
legend in two parts (Type 2):
LVCIANE AVGVST-A V; 11.5 x
11.7mm; 4th century AD
Aubry
2. Related questions
The second part of this paper touches on various related
questions. I shall introduce some more complex figure types,
namely portraits of couples and families.
2.1. Monograms
Close to Type 3, a Gothic monarchs facing portrait on the
famous amethyst from the Merz Collection53 is identified by a
Latin monogram, whose form is typical of the late 5th century
ad (Pl. 16).54 Despite the fact that it has not yet been clearly
deciphered, various interpretations have been offered, one of
which is to read it as theodericvs for Theodoric the Great.55
However, the use of monograms to characterise a bust is
nothing new on Late Roman gems (Pl. 17).56
2.2. Christian symbols
Closely connected with monograms, we may address the use of
Christian symbols such as the cross,57 Christogram (Pl. 18),58
and staurogram59 on portraits. Used to indicate that the bearer
belongs to the Christian religion, they are also of a certain
importance in the configuration of the inscription. On a silver
disc of the 4th century ad featuring a couple,60 the meaning of
the Type 2 legend in the vocative case is subordinated to a
Christogram on each side of which there is an i and a n. It is a
wish: crescentine apule in ch(risto), implying in christo
vivatis. As on a 4th-century ad mosaic61 and other 4th- and
5th-century ad discs and gemstones, Christian symbols play a
part in the symmetrical arrangement and balance of the
epigraphical composition, either as a pivot (Pls 1920),62 or as
Inscriptions on Portrait Gems and Discs in Late Antiquity (3rd6th centuries AD)
3. Abbreviations and contractions
Plate 23 Banded agate intaglio with busts of a man, woman and child. Legend
(Type 6): C C CCCC
C / C -C | (Type 1) ; 31 x 24.5mm; 3rd century AD
Aubry
3.3. Type 7
Sometimes, as we have seen before with the 'Vestale'
medallion,114 the initials of the legend can be set parallel to the
ground line115 on both sides of the figure, as if gripping it. This
constitutes the seventh epigraphical configuration on gems
and discs in Late Antiquity (Type 7). Indeed, on a 4th-century
ad glass paste from Wrzburg (Pl. 30),116 the two letters H and
F define the bust as that of Horatius Flaccus, of whom another
portrait also exists on a cameo in Geneva with a Type 1
nominative inscription.117 Other earlier examples of such a
configuration can be mentioned, in particular a 3rd-century ad
nicolo in Vienna: the inscription on it marks it as the portrait of
Fulvia Plautilla, rendered as f(ulvia/ae) c(ai filia), daughter of
Caius Fulvius Plautianus and wife of Caracalla (Pl. 31).118 So, if
two Type 7 letters can constitute a formula like the senatus
consulto S C on coins with a portrait bust,119 they could also be
either the initials of the owner but the Type 7 configuration
implies that the portrait, too, is his or the first two letters of a
word, as with the mint on Roman provincial coinage.120 Indeed,
on a 5th-century ad jasper featuring a male bust a letter is
inscribed on each side of the figure, X and P.121 It is either the
name of the owner as duo nomina initials or signum
abbreviation122 or a metaphor implying Christian allegiance.
There would be no sense, however, in translating the X/P as a
Christogram, for two reasons. On the one hand, there is no link
with the figure, contrary to a 3rd-century ad carnelian123 or a
late 3rd-century ad bronze ring,124 both with I and X,
respectively for and , in a similar
epigraphic configuration (Types 6 and 7). Furthermore it
would have been much more appropriate to engrave a cross or
a staurogram to imply a Christian symbol.125 It is, however,
necessary to concede that the Type 7 initials are sometimes
intended to replace, even to complete, certain meaningful
Inscriptions on Portrait Gems and Discs in Late Antiquity (3rd6th centuries AD)
3
4
5
Aubry
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
characteristic of the 3rd century ad. See also CIL VIII, no. 2756
(Ennia Fructosa).
T. Cads, Impronte gemmarie dellIstituto, Rome, 1836, Collezione
Nott, no. 67 (silvane vivas cvm frvcco-sa). On CVM, see n. 87.
Silvanus: vocative in -E implies nominative in -VS (and vocative in
-I= nominative in -ivs).
Fructosa (cum + ablative).
U. Pannuti, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli. Catalogo della
collezione glittica II, Rome, 1994, no. 216 (with the legend:
AYPAIANH [Aurelia Papiana]YTYXI AN (sic) I
[Ampelius]).
Compared to the epigraphical tradition of the Roman West, the
imperative case of the verb is not contracted here; the
verb in Latin is declined in the standard vocative case. Seealso
E. Zwierlein-Diehl, Antike Gemmen des Kunsthistorischen
Museums in Wien, II, Vienna, 1979, no. 1200.
J. Reynolds, C. Rouech and G. Bodard, Inscriptions of Aphrodisias
(IAph 2007), available <http://insaph.kcl.ac.uk/iaph2007>,
12.631 and 12.101. The use of the letter N instead of M is an epigraphical subtlety already attested on a stone dating from the
same period (Pannuti [n. 27], no. 198). See also, IAph 2007, 2.19,
4.202 and 8.609.
M. Gramatopol, Les pierres graves du Cabinet numismatique de
lAcadmie Roumaine (Latomus 138), Brussels, 1974, no. 845 ([E]
IBIC EYTYXEI OLONA). The first word, eibis, relates to the
portrait, offered as a gift to Polona. There is a possibility, however,
that this gem is post-antique.
Zwierlein-Diehl (n. 9), no. 2159 (gelasivs/zosime vi/vas, A
laugher (wish): Zosimus, may you live (happy)!). E. ZwierleinDiehl had already demonstrated the etymology of Gelasius,
derived from , to laugh, and brought together other signa
on seals, such as Hilarius and Gaudentius, often associated with
vivas, and which represented wishes for a happy life. See, Henig (n.
19), no. 35 (YTYXI ACI, May you have luck and laughter! or
Good luck to you, Gelasios!). For the arbitrary hyphenation, see
also Zwierlein-Diehl (n. 9), no. 2154 see n. 15 above.
Henig (n. 19), no. 45 (TH KAH, To the beautiful girl). This legend
perhaps bears out the suggestion that partial nudity is meant to
indicate a compliment to the wearer as being like the goddess
Aphrodite (see ibid., 25, notes); consequently the cameo was
probably worn by a woman.
M.-L. Vollenweider, Muse dArt et dHistoire de Genve. Catalogue
raisonn des sceaux, cylindres, intailles et cames II. Les portraits, les
masques de thtre, les symboles politiques, Mainz am Rhein, 1979,
no. 272bis.
Spier (n. 3), no. 35 (septimi elia vivatis).
See n. 24 above.
It would be nonsense to transcribe the first missing letter as a as
Vollenweider thought instead of a G when the rest of the name is
in Latin.
Henig (n. 19), no. 47 (AKAKIN PHOPI [Innocent one, be
wakeful!]); see also,idem, no. 48.
Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae I, 63; 67 and CIL VI,
23997; 13406. Vollenweider, following M. Guarducci, transcribed
the name in Greek letters: a few other bilingual inscriptions on
gems and glass are attested (seen. 87 below or H.B. Walters,
Catalogue of the Engraved Gems, Greek, Etruscan and Roman, in the
British Museum, London, 1926, no. 2689 (YCIMAX/
OCLEPHORI).
The gesture of the left hand seems to indicate a Christian
influence: vivas could thus mean vivas in deo and be a metaphor of
aspirations to eternal life. See Vollenweider (n. 33), 262.
E. Babelon, Catalogue des cames antiques et modernes de la
Bibliothque nationale, Paris, 1897, no. 328; F. Buonarroti,
Osservazioni istoriche sopra alcuni medaglioni antichi allAltezza
Serenissima di Cosimo III, Granduca di Toscana, Rome, 1698, 406
11, pl. XXXVI/3, had read ner vir v (ner for neratia).
Buonarroti (n. 40), 40611, pl. XXXVI/1.
See L. Pirzio Biroli Stefanelli, I gioielli, in A. Salvioni (ed.), Il
tesoro di Via Alessandrina, Rome, 1990, 4175, at no. 5, epicrates
q/q (probably a tria nomina or a qualificative). See also, M.-L.
Vollenweider, Die Portrtgemmen der rmischen Republik, Mainz
am Rhein, 19724, no. 113/1; IGI IV, no. C178, L/L (portrait of
Licinius Lucullus; the dolphin holding an olive branch is perhaps
an allusion to the naval victory of Lucullus in Lemnos); A.
Furtwngler, Beschreibung der Geschnittenen Steine im
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
Inscriptions on Portrait Gems and Discs in Late Antiquity (3rd6th centuries AD)
rings without couples, we can also find gvrda v1 (ibid., no. 55), and
vivai/in deo (M. Henig, The Lewis Collection of Engraved
Gemstones in Corpus Christi College (BAR Supplementary Series 1),
Cambridge, 1975, no. 294).
72 Spier (n. 3), no. 39 (do-m vict caen).
73 See n. 51 above.
74 Even if this last one is imaginary.
75 See Cormack and Eastmond (n. 6), no. 96 (with the inscription
OYHC ANHC NINAC / OYPHOYHC).
76 See n. 72 above. For the name of the boy, there is the problem of the
toga virilis (a child usually got it at the age of 15 to 17): see C.B. Horn
and J. Martens, Let the little children come to me. Childhood and
Children in Early Christianity, Washington DC, 2009, 17.
77 Spier (n. 3), no. 1 (EYTYXI ANXAPI META THC KYPIAC
BACIICCHC KAI AYINAC/ZOH/IC E-OC). See also, ZwierleinDiehl (n. 22), no. 183.
78 Good luck to Pancharios with the lady Basilissa and (daughter)
Paulina.
79 Life and There is one god!.
80 See n. 75 above. The origin of the appellations is probably Sebastia
in Palestine: see,Cormack and Eastmond (n. 6), 163.
81 OYHC for vis, ANHC for anis and NINAC. For diacritic name: J.-M.
Lassre, Manuel dpigraphie romaine, Paris, 2005, 102 , 11013.
82 OYPHOYHC for Ulrivis. For signum, seeibid., 102 (Late Antique
onomastics) and 11013 (signum); it can be worn by several
members of a family, and it appears mostly isolated, unlike the
agnomen.
83 See Section 2.3, Type 6, paragraph above. Indeed the silver disc is
11 x 11mm (Spier [n. 3], no. 39), the cameo in Vienna, 31 x 24.5mm
(ibid., no. 1), and the carnelian from St Petersburg is 51.5 x 39mm
(Cormack and Eastmond [n. 6], no. 96).
84 McCann (n. 49), 183, pl. XCII, with the inscription EZ (reversed) C.
85 G.M.A. Richter, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Catalogue of
Engraved Gems: Greek, Etruscan and Roman, Rome, 2006 (2nd
edn), no. 253 (E-IC ZEYCC/AP/AIC).
86 See E. Brandt, E. Schmidt, A. Krug and W. Gercke, Antike Gemmen
in Deutschen Sammlungen. Staatliche Mnzsammlung Mnchen,
Munich, 196872, no. 909, z (reversed) alviuz (reversed). See
alsoidem, nos 630, 832, 934 and 943 (2nd1st century bc).
87 D.B, Harden, The Wint Hill hunting bowl and related glasses,
Journal of Glass Studies2 (1960), 4582, at 4851, figs 12 and 47,
hunting scene with an inscription running around the design,
vivas cvm tvis pie z (reversed); see also, Henig (n. 19), 9.
88 It may be translated as Life to you and yours: see, Henig (n. 19), 9.
89 Translatable as Drink and good health to you: Henig (n. 19), 9, and
C. Carletti, Epigrafia dei Cristiani in Occidente dal III al VII secolo,
Bari, 2008, 195, no. 82 (pie zeses).
90 See n. 27 above.
91 E. Zwierlein-Diehl, Glaspasten im Martin-von-Wagner-Museum der
Universitt Wrzburg I, Munich, 1986, no. 801.
92 Like Pupienus, Balbinus and Gordianus III, or Severus, Caracalla
and Geta: O. Neverov, Antique Intaglios in the Hermitage Collection,
Leningrad, 1976, no. 139. For a description, see Zwierlein-Diehl (n.
91), 265 (late 2nd early 3rd century ad); the lengthening of the
faces on the Wrzburg gem (eadem, no. 801), compared to that of St
Petersburg, is a sign of late engraving (late 4thearly 5th century
ad). See also, Schlter et al. (n. 21), Hamburg, no. 67.
93 See Schlter et al. (n. 21), Hanover, no. 1628, for the letters V and N.
94 M. Hainzmann and R. Wedenig (eds), Instrumenta Inscripta Latina
II. Akten des 2. Internationalen Kolloquiums. Klagenfurt , Mai 2005,
Klagenfurt, 2008, 1957, figs 45 (1st century ad): b (reversed) ann
(reversed) af, Banna f(ecit); see also, CIL XIII, 10027, 139.
95 It should be a legend in the nominative case, or possibly a
dedication in the dative: these last ones, usually of Types 3 and 4
(Vollenweider and Avisseau-Broustet [n. 7], no. 228 see n. 49
above) are also of Types 1 or 2 in relation to portraits of emperors
(Richter [n. 85], no. 657 (divo clavdio imperato[ri]).
96 Roman agnomina were placed after the tria nomina and were
sometimes introduced with the formula qui et (vocatur), sive or
idem, also known as, which differentiates them from signa.
97 See Lassre (n. 81), 102and 113.
98 SeeB.H. McLean, An Introduction to Greek Epigraphy of the
Hellenistic and Roman Periods (323 bc ad 337), Ann Arbor, 2002, 124.
99 See n. 75 above.
100 In any case, the A is common to all three persons, and creates a
link, a complementary rapport between the inscription and the
Plate 5 Teuderigus Reliquary (front), gold, gems, and glass on wood core,
second half of the 7th century AD; St-Maurice dAgaune abbey treasury
Kornbluth
hurried off to the church and lay prostrate and weeping on the
ground, praying to God for help, that in his divine power he would
destroy what human strength was powerless to overturn. [After
that] at the very first heave which we gave the idol crashed to the
ground. I had it broken to pieces with iron hammers and then
reduced to dust.16
Plate 11 Enger Reliquary (front), gold, gems, and enamel on wood core, third
quarter of the 8th to early 9th century AD; Berlin, Kunstgewerbemuseum, 88.632
Plate 13 Enger Reliquary (front), detail: intaglio with Oedipus and the Sphinx
Kornbluth
figural gems, one a cameo and the rest intaglios.43 Of the five
with discernable original figures and surviving backplates,
three are set as one would expect. A quatrefoil fibula from
Heilbronn, for example, presents a carnelian intaglio with an
armed Mars striding to the left.44 Although the fastening pin is
now missing, clear marks on the backplate indicate that it was
placed at a 90 angle from the vertical axis of the gem. If the
brooch was indeed worn with the pin horizontal, then the
figure was displayed with its feet towards the ground. But if a
horizontal pin allowed this gem to be easily read, it set others
at distinctly odd angles. A quatrefoil brooch from Kobern has in
its centre another Mars (Pl. 18).45 The vertical axis of this figure
lies along the same line as the pin, so the fibula was most
probably worn with the figure lying on its side, the face looking
up or down. Another example probably from Bad Hnningen
holds a gem set roughly parallel to the back pin, suggesting that
the brooch was worn with the engraved standing goddess lying
nearly flat (Pl. 19).46 Even then, though, the figure was not
quite aligned: it does not exactly follow the axis of the fibula,
but has its head angled to the left of one large border setting
and its feet tilting to the right of the opposite (former) stone.
Even if the wearer of this fibula chose to insert the pin
vertically, and oriented the brooch according to its other major
axis, she still necessarily wore the gem at an angle.
Other fibulae not directly related to the Goldscheibenfibeln
also set intaglios in decidedly odd ways. A brooch possibly from
a grave in or near the church of St Severin in Cologne displays a
carnelian intaglio of Apollo. Remarkably, the almost fully
transparent stone has been set with its image turned inward to
the gold mount.47 Given the unusual clarity of the material, the
setting both reveals and conceals. It should probably be classed
with the fibulae under discussion here, preserving but veiling
its figure. Its image may also have been worn off-axis. The
hinge for the broochs pin is located at the figures feet, so if the
pin were inserted into cloth from the top down (a sensible
arrangement to avoid loss), the figure would have been
displayed standing on its head. If the fibula were worn
horizontally, its figure would of course have lain on its side.
Another fibula found in Ker (Crimea), outside our immediate
geographical area but probably from the first half of the 5th
century ad, likewise set its translucent intaglio with the image
turned inward, as does a medallion from Georgia, and (later)
an Ottonian fibula.48
A single early 6th-century ad great square-headed brooch
from south-eastern England is set with a carnelian with Cupid
milking a goat (Alveston Manor grave 5).49 This bow fibula is
the only one known to me that includes an engraved gem, and
could belong to the group discussed here. Its intaglio is set
perpendicular to the long axis and attachment pin, and it may
well have been worn with the gem on its side, perceptibly
tilted, or upside down.50 It appears that few Early Medieval
objects from England incorporated earlier engraved gems, but
a 5th- or 6th-century ad belt buckle attachment-plate from
Lyminge51 presents an interesting parallel to the brooches. In
its centre it displays a jasper intaglio with a standing Ceres. In
Plate 19 Disc fibula from Bad Hnningen with glass intaglio of Victory; Bonn,
Rheinisches Landesmuseum, 35.54
Kornbluth
Plate 20 Pendant with nicolo agate intaglio from Kirchheim am Ries grave 326,
mid-7th century AD; Stuttgart, Wrttembergisches Landesmuseum, F 70/269
326 (22)
Plate 21 Pendant with carnelian intaglio from Kirchheim am Ries grave 326,
mid-7th century AD; Stuttgart, Wrttembergisches Landesmuseum, F70/269
326 (4)
Plate 23 Bound pendant from Dettingen an der Erms, crystal intaglio in silver,
drawing made before damage; object Stuttgart, Wrttembergisches
Landesmuseum, Dettingen/E 29/154
4
5
6
7
Plate 24 Plaster impression of eagle intaglio in bound pendant from Dettingen
an der Erms, made before damage; Stuttgart, Wrttembergisches Landesmuseum
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
Notes
24
Kornbluth
25 A. Krug, Antike Gemmen an mittelalterlichen Goldschmiedearbeiten im Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin, Jahrbuch der Berliner
Museen NS 37 (1995), 10319.
26 V.H. Elbern, Ein frnkisches Reliquiarfragment in Oviedo, die
Engerer Burse in Berlin und ihr Umkreis, Madrider Mitteilungen 2
(1961), 183204; idem, Das Engerer Bursenreliquiar und die
Zierkunst des frhen Mittlealters, Niederdeutsche Beitrge zur
Kunstgeschichte 10 (1971), 41102.
27 Krug (n. 25), 115.
28 Krug (n. 1), 168, fig. 53; Krug (n. 25), 114, fig. 15; D. Ktzsche, Der
Welfenschatz im Berliner Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin, 1973, no. 9.
29 E.g. G.A.S. Snijder, Antique and mediaeval gems on bookcovers at
Utrecht, The Art Bulletin 14 (1932), 552.
30 J. Durand and M.P. Laffitte (eds), Le trsor de la Sainte-Chapelle
(exh. cat., Paris), Paris, 2001, no. 36.
31 Mineralia 2,3: Albertus Magnus: Book of Minerals (trans.
D. Wyckoff), Oxford, 1967, 131.
32 J. Hoster, Der Wiener Ptolemer-kameo einst am Klner
Dreiknigenschrein, in F. Dettweiler, H. Kllner and P.A. Riedl
(eds), Studien zur Buchmalerei und Goldschmiedekunst des
Mittelalters: Festschrift fr Karl Hermann Usener zum 60.
Geburtstag am 19. August 1965, Marburg a.d. Lahn, 1967, 5564.
33 E. Zwierlein-Diehl, Interpretatio christiana: gems on the Shrine
of the Three Kings in Cologne, in C.M. Brown (ed.) Engraved Gems:
Survivals and Revivals (Studies in the History of Art 54),
Washington DC, 1997, 6283.
34 J. Cherry, Antiquity misunderstood, in M. Henig and D. Plantzos
(eds), Classicism to Neo-classicism: essays dedicated to Gertrud
Seidmann (BAR International Series 793), Oxford, 1999, 1437.
35 M. Dalas, Corpus des Sceaux franais du Moyen ge, 2: Les Sceaux
des Rois et de Rgence, Paris, 1991.
36 J.P. Dalton, The Archiepiscopal and Deputed Seals of York 11141500,
York, 1992, 48.
37 E. Zwierlein-Diehl, Antike Gemmen und ihr Nachleben, Berlin,
2007, 2889.
38 Cf. Krug (n. 1), 167; D. Kinney, The horse, the king and the cuckoo:
medieval narrations of the statue of Marcus Aurelius, Word and
Image 18 (2002), 37298.
39 B. Thieme, Filigranscheibenfibeln der Merowingerzeit aus
Deutschland, Bericht der Rmisch-Germanischen Kommission 59
(1978), 381500 and plates; F. Rademacher, Frnkische
Goldscheibenfibeln aus dem Rheinischen Landesmuseum in Bonn,
Munich, 1940.
40 A. MacGregor et al., Ashmolean Museum Oxford. A Summary
Catalogue of the Continental Archaeological Collections (Roman
Iron Age, Migration Period, Early Medieval) (BAR International
Series 674), Oxford, 1997, no. 97.1.
41 E.g. W. Janssen, Die Goldblechscheibenfibel aus Grab 42 des
lteren frnkischen Grberfeldes unter dem Dom St Viktor zu
Xanten, Studien zur Sachsenforschung, Herrn Dr. Albert Genrich
zum 65. Geburtstag gewidmet, Hildesheim, 1977, 23571, fig. 7.
42 C. Neuffer-Mller, Das frnkische Grberfeld von Iversheim Kreis
Euskirchen (Germanische Denkmler der Vlkerwanderungszeit
Serie B, Die frnkischen Altertmer des Rheinlandes 6), Berlin,
1972, 147, graves 53, 94, 142; Thieme (n. 39), nos 78, 79, 81.
43 Thieme (n. 39), 397: nos 68, 70, 88, 92, 120, 155, 188, 192 [gem
probably added later]; also G. Graenert, Merowingerzeitliche
Filigranscheibenfibeln westlich des Rheins, Montagnac, 2007, 237
8, no. III/31d.
44 Thieme (n. 39), no. 68; Graenert (n. 43), 291, no. V/27b.
45 Thieme (n. 39), no. 92; Graenert (n. 43), 199200, no. II/41a.
46 Thieme (n. 39), no. 70; Graenert (n. 43), 194, no. II/32.
47 A. Krug, Antike Gemmen im Rmisch-Germanischen Museum Kln
(Wissenschaftliche Kataloge des Rmisch-Germanischen
Museums Kln 4), Frankfurt am Main, 1981, no. 82.
48 I.G. Damm, Goldschmiedearbeiten der Vlkerwanderungszeit aus
dem nrdlichen Schwarzmeergebiet: Katalog der Sammlung
Diergardt 2, Klner Jahrbuch fr Vor und Frhgeschichte 21 (1988),
no. 18; H. Westermann-Angerhausen, Eine unbekannte Fibel aus
dem ottonischen Kaiserinnenschmuck?, Mainzer Zeitschrift 70
(1975), 6771, pl. 20a.
49 J. Hines, A New Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Great Square-Headed
Brooches, London, 1997, 319; M. Henig, A Corpus of Roman
Engraved Gemstones from British Sites (BAR British Series 8, 2nd
edn), Oxford, 1978, no. 140.
50 Cf. Hines (n. 49), figs 1219, burial positions of fibulae.
51 A. Warhurst, The Jutish cemetery at Lyminge, Archaeologia
Cantiana 69 (1955), 140, at 24, 335, pl. 9.3; Henig (n. 49), no. 264.
52 Grave 326: C. Neuffer-Mller, Der alamannische Adelsbestattungsplatz und die Reihengrberfriedhfe von Kirchheim am Ries
(Ostalbkreis) (Forschungen und Berichte zur Vor- und
Frhgeschichte in Baden-Wrttemberg 15), Stuttgart, 1983, 1724.
53 Grave 172: A. Richardson, The Anglo-Saxon Cemeteries of Kent
(BAR British series 391), Oxford, 2005, vol. 2, 71, 343, fig. 5.
54 C. Boulanger, Le Cimetire Franco-Mrovingien et Carolingien de
Marchlepot (Somme): tude sur lOrigine de lArt Barbare, Paris,
1909, 104.
55 Cf. A. Delatte and Ph. Derchain, Les Intailles Magiques Grcogyptiennes, Paris, 1964, nos 1204.
56 W. Veeck, Die Alamannen in Wrttemberg (Germanische Denkmler der Vlkerwanderungszeit 1), Berlin, 1931, 52, pl. G8ac.
57 A. von Domaszewski, Der Legionsadler, in Paulys RealEncyclopdie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft, ed.
G. Wissowa, Stuttgart, 2 (1896), 3178.
58 C. Pilet, La Ncropole de Frnouville: tude dune population de la fin
du IIIe la fin du VIIe sicle (BAR International Series 83), IIII,
Oxford, 1980, vol. II, 3013, pl. 157 (8, 9).
59 N. Adams, The rock crystal pendant from Grave C, in K. Parfitt
and T. Anderson et al., Buckland Anglo-Saxon Cemetery, Dover:
Excavations 1994 (Canterbury Archaeological Trust, British
Museum), in press. I am grateful to Barrie Cook for showing me an
early version of this paper.
60 I.H. Forsyth, Art with History: The Role of Spolia in the
Cumulative Work of Art, in C. Moss and K. Kiefer (eds), Byzantine
East, Latin West: art-historical studies in honor of Kurt Weitzmann,
Princeton, 1995, 15362, at 1567.
61 R.A.B. Mynors and R. Powell, The Stonyhurst Gospel, in C.F.
Battiscombe (ed.), The Relics of Saint Cuthbert, Oxford, 1956, 356
74.
Plate 1 Billon ring set with a gem depicting Faustina minor, 10th century, from
Szered (modern south-west Slovakia)
the ring, one could look for the re-user of the gem amongst the
Magyars.
After that period there is no information regarding the
re-use of antique gems for nearly 200 years. This can probably
be explained by the lack of written and archaeological
evidence, rather than by the disappearance of the gems
themselves. There is no data about liturgical objects decorated
with gems, about jewellery set with gems or about the usage of
gem seals in this period.
From the end of the 12th century, a little bit later than in
western Europe, the practice of placing antique gems into rings
and their use as seals started to spread in Hungary as well. In
the second half of the 12th century and the first half of the 13th
century, during the reigns of certain kings (notably Istvn III,
Bla III and Imre) the seal rings of the rulers were impressed
onto the front side of the document seal as a control seal, not as
a counter sealing on the reverse side of the seal of the
document. In the first half of the 13th century the practice of
sealing started to spread amongst the laity as well, but this
has hardly left any traces in the archives and written sources,
because these seals (made with seal rings) were less formal, and
hence less authentic. Thus they were only suitable for the sealing
of private documents and letters, which disappeared without any
traces together with the family archives of the lower rank nobility.3
From the 13th and 14th centuries we have some rings which
have antique gems in their mounts. From their inscriptions one
can guess their function. We only know from descriptions and
drawings about a gold ring from the former Andrssy
collection,4 which, according to its inscription, was the
property of Sndor, bishop of Vrad (121930; Pl. 2). The ring
held a very good quality sapphire gem engraved with a portrait
which was probably that of the wife or daughter of Constantine
the Great (r. ad 30637). The bishop accompanied Andrs II,
King of Hungary, to the Holy Land, so it is possible that he got
the gem as a present or purchased it during that trip.
Gesztelyi
In the medieval collection of the Hungarian National
Museum are six more rings with gems and inscriptions:
1. A gem depicting a jumping lion, inscribed: s(igi) ll(um)
secreti.5 These smaller, private seals were used on documents
of no great importance, and also in letter-writing as
independent seals or as counter seals on the reverse of onesided seals. The secret seal was probably used for the closing
of charters; later its function was probably expanded and it was
used for general sealing.
2. A gem depicting a combination of Pan and a satyr mask,
inscribed: ave maria vhis.6 A possible reading of the last word
is: v(irgo) h(umil)is. The humilitas of Mary is known from the
gospel of Luke (1:48), in the Visitation scene, when Mary
answers to Elisabeths greeting. The phrase humilis often
occurs in medieval hymns to Mary; moreover the humilitas of
Mary has its own liturgical feast on the 17th of July: Humilitas
Beatae Mariae Virginis. Another possible reading occurs if we
read n instead of the letter h (which is not very clear) v(e)
n(erabil)is. The word venerabilis occurs several times in the
liturgy, in the Graduale, in the following form: benedicta et
venerabilis es.
3. An Etruscan scarab with a depiction of a centaur raising
one of its legs.7 There are inscriptions on the both sides of the
mount: on the reverse: ave maria gra; and on the front
defining its function: + s(igillum) ianee co(mi)t(i)s. The
inscription on the back was not used for sealing, because of the
bulging back of the scarab; its role was probably as a prayer.
There is a similar inscription on a seal of Thomas Lovel of
Chesterton, on which the text is given in full: ave maria gratia
plena.8
4. A gem depicting Sol in a quadriga, inscribed: + sigillum
comitis.9 Its worn surface suggests long usage. One cannot
determine the name of the person who used the seal; however,
from his title, comes, it can be deduced that he was a member of
the aristocracy of the Arpadian period (ad 9001301).
5. A gem depicting Triton, inscribed: s.d.ladislavi.f.d.b.
bosinas (Sigillum Domini Ladislavi Filii Domini (?) Bani
Bosinae).10 Thus this could be the seal of Ladislaus, the ban of
Bosnia, although we do not have any other data about him.
6. A gem depicting a hound chasing a deer, inscribed:
s. nicolai.f.ionni (Sigillum Nicolai Filii Johannis), i.e. of
Nicolaus, son of Johannes.11 The people behind the names are
unknown.
From the 15th and 16th centuries we have several antique
gems re-used in rings, but they are uninscribed. Hence we
know nothing about their owners or their function. However,
from the medieval imprints of the seals, it is clear that the
majority of gem seals were without inscriptions.
In medieval Hungary the most important sources for the
re-use of antique gems are charters. Here gems were used as
seals, in accordance with their original function. It is obvious
that this practice was widespread in every region of western
Europe, yet little research has been done in this field. In recent
years German and Italian scholarship has mostly dealt with the
analysis of antique gems on liturgical objects, royal insignia
and jewellery. This is understandable as these objects are
representative and are the classical objects of contemporary
applied arts; moreover they are the precious historical
mementos of a country or a region. There could also be another
reason behind the lack of scholarly interest, mentioned by
258 | Gems of Heaven
a lord, one was in the use of a lord (who in a later sense was a
familiaris), one belonged to a yeoman and one to an
ecclesiastical institution (loca credibilia). From the 14th century
we know of six gem seals: one belonged to the office-holder of a
noble hall, two to county office-holders, one to an ecclesiastical
institution, one to a town citizen and one to a foreign church
dignitary. Within these finds nearly all social strata are
represented, all of which were involved in the production of
charters. In the first three quarters of the 15th century, there
are a similar amount of gem seals in the collection, but the
ecclesiastical middle class becomes dominant. This is the
period when private individuals appear amongst the users of
seals: a town citizen and a nobleman. In the last quarter of the
15th century and the first quarter of the 16th there is a steep
growth in the number of gem seals compared with previous
periods. In both quarters the number of gem seals exceeded 40
gems. Amongst the owners, noblemen and lords became
dominant: the rest of the users were churchmen, mostly
members of the middle class, like prebends, but there are some
simple parish priests and bishops as well.
Re-interpretation
For the medieval re-interpretation of antique depictions
expressis verbis we have only one piece of data. The explanation
for this is that we hardly have any descriptions from that period
regarding the imagery of seal rings. In the inscriptions of the
rings there is not a single reference concerning the depicted
scene. The only example is from the turn of the 15th and 16th
century. In the coat-of-arms of the Hunyadi family the raven,
which is holding a ring in its beak (Pl. 6), is very similar to the
eagle, which holds the wreath of victory in its beak.25 The latter
Gesztelyi
Silvia, the naked man who hovers above her, is the armed Mars
(Pl. 9).34 Behind him we can see his cloak, not his wings.
Similarly it is obvious that the figure of the winged Victory
for a Christian was nothing other than an angel. We have a
direct proof for this from the end of the 13th century from
France. On a gem of the abbot of Caen which depicts Victoria,
there is an inscription: ecce mitto angelvm mevm.35 The
winged Nemesis could also be identified with an angel. This
occurs on the earliest ecclesiastical gem sealing from Hungary,
the administrative seal of the chapter of Eger.36 Its description
in the literature is as follows:
On the seal there is an eagle, extending his wings at both sides, it is
a symbol of John, the evangelist On the imprint from 1256
between the wing and body of the eagle there is an administrative
seal, which as far as it can be judged by the imprint, was an antique
gem.37
The cautious author did not identify the scene. But the
19th-century drawing of the seal in the same book makes it
clear that it was interpreted as an angel, who is standing
frontally, with wings on both sides (Pl. 10). In reality, on the
basis of its pose, we can deduce that the figure appears in
profile in a long robe and is stepping to the left. On the right
side we can see a wing, while at the left side there is a raised
arm. The details and attributes of the figure cannot be
identified, but from the gesture it is likely that it is Nemesis,
who with one hand raises the edge of her peplos and with the
other hand holds an olive branch in front of her (Pl. 11).
The masks and mask-animal combinations of antique gems
carried a more complicated system of symbols. Even today we
have to rely on mere guesswork regarding the meaning of these
fantastic combinations. However, they were not just re-used,
but in the Carolingian period, imitations were made. One
example of this is the sapphire gem on the reliquary of Abbot
This work was supported by the TMOP 4.2.1./B-09/1/KONV-20100007 project.The project is implemented through the New Hungary
Development Plan, co-financed by the European Social Fund and the
European Regional Development Fund.
Notes
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2
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4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Gesztelyi
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
object (Pl. 2). The cameo is very well composed and rich in
ancillary details, such as the snake that aggressively confronts
Poseidon. The earliest known reference to the cameo is the
1465 Medici inventory, which suggests that it was purchased by
Piero il Gottoso de Medici (141669). It remained in the
familys possession in Florence until the death of Alessandro il
Moro de Medici (151037), when it was taken by his widow,
Margaret of Austria (152286) to first Rome, then the
Netherlands (155967), and finally Ortona. Her son Alessandro
Farnese (154592) brought it back to Rome, where it remained
until 1735, when it was taken to Naples.
The possible origins of the iconography
To what degree was this representation of the myth the
personal creation of a gifted engraver as opposed to an
adaptation from pre-existing iconography? If it was not
original, did it derive from a single source, such as a Hellenistic
relief, or does it combine influences from a variety of works
of art?
The depiction of Athena is not unique: she is shown in a
similar pose in other works, such as the 1st-century bc silver
Coppa Corsini,5 a marble statuette in Athens,6 and a statue in
the Muse Rolin in Autun.7 The figure of Poseidon is not
original either: he is the so-called Lateran Poseidon, resting
his foot on a rock or on a prow, holding a trident and sometimes
a dolphin, as shown in a marble copy of a lost 4th-century bc
bronze sculpture by Lysippos (Pl. 3).8 Many slight variations
exist,9 including a number of stone copies from the Roman
period, such as a 2nd-century ad marble statuette from
Plate 3 The Lateran Poseidon, marble, H. 2m. Vatican City, Museo Lateranense
Rambach
and that:
As you enter the temple [of Athena on the Acropolis at Athens] that
they name the Parthenon, all the sculptures you see on what is
called [...] the rear pediment represent the contest for the land
between Athena and Poseidon.24
Rambach
Plate 16 Detail of the Nashville
Parthenon by Dinsmoor and Hart
(Nashville, Tennessee)
Plate 21 Red jasper intaglio with Athena and Poseidon. 14 x 11mm. Utrecht,
Geldmuseum
The gem engravers of the Roman age only differ from the sculptors
of that time in that they did not reproduce the works that they
copied mechanically. They had to copy freehand, like the painters,
or like the sculptors who adapted earlier works in new
compositions. And their reproductions have likewise become a
valuable source for our knowledge of many lost Greek
masterpieces.41
Rambach
Plate 24 ab Silver medallion with Hadrian (obverse) and Athena and Poseidon (reverse).
D. 33.5mm. Private collection
Plate 29 Attic red figure hydria, mid-4th century BC, H. 51cm. St Petersburg,
Hermitage
style and time, to the scale desired, and to the material they
were using. The real question, therefore, is the identity of the
original Classical model: a mid-4th-century bc red-figure
terracotta, such as an Attic hydria in the Hermitage depicting
the Parthenon type (Pl. 29);53 or a Campanian vase in Madrid
with a variation of the Medici type;54 a stone sculpture, such as
a damaged cylindrical neo-Attic (2nd century ad) relief in
Cordova depicting the Medici type but showing Poseidon
resting on a prow rather than a rock,55 or a bronze sculpture? In
any case, the type was known and copied not only in the early
Roman Empire, but also for centuries later: in the early 5th
century ad the Medici type was faithfully reproduced on a
silver vase found near Oradea in Romania.56
The Late and Post-Antique gems
The theme of this symposium was Late Antiquity, and the
physical re-use of ancient gems during the Medieval period is
discussed elsewhere in this volume. Although so far I have
discussed only Classical and Early Roman gems, I am
interested in the re-use of ancient iconography: the dispute of
Athena and Poseidon provides an opportunity to study the
imitation of Classical gems in later periods. Indeed, as far as
gems are concerned, this iconographical type did not die out in
the 2nd century ad. The Medici type undoubtedly inspired an
elaborate sardonyx cameo probably engraved during the 6th
century ad in the Mythological Workshop, to use Jeffrey
Spiers term (Pl. 30).57 This cameo was in a Russian collection a
century ago, but both its earlier provenance and present
Rambach
Plate 35 Sard intaglio with Athena and Poseidon. L. 11mm. London, British
Museum, GR 1913,0307.28
Notes
Rambach
7
8
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
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43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
no. 2398)in the late 1950s. After his death, when his collection
wasdispersed, it returned to Ratto, and later appeared as
Numismatica Ars Classica (Auction 18, Zurich, 29 March 2000), lot
519; most recently, on 4 January 2009, it reappeared in Heritage
(Auction 3004, New York, 4 January 2009), lot 20075. I am grateful
to Alan Walker for helping me to trace the coins provenance, and
for his advice on the Athenian coinage.
Caligula (ad 3741), silver tridrachm, Crete. The British Museum
owns a specimen: CM 1842,0726.4: W. Wroth, British Museum.
Catalogue of the Greek Coins of Crete and the Aegean Islands,
London, 1886, no. 2 (23mm, 7.55g); this provincial issue was kindly
brought to my attention by Richard Abdy. On this coin, the image
of Caligula with a sceptre likens him to the local Dictaean Zeus
(Zeus of Mount Dicte). Hadrian is occasionally depicted as Zeus,
with an aegis cloak, but never with a sceptre. The bust of the
emperor holding a sceptre would become common under Probus.
Bronze medallion of Marcus Aurelius, Bonn, Rheinische
Landesmuseum, inv. no. RLMB 3327, 39mm, 41.48g. See:
F. Imhoof-Blumer and P. Gardner, A Numismatic Commentary on
Pausanias, Journal of Hellenistic Studies (18857), 130, pl. Z.15;
Ghedini (n. 6), ill. 2; C. Klages, Athena gegen Neptun. Ein
Medaillon des Antoninus Pius, Das Rheinische Landesmuseum
Bonn. Berichte aus der Arbeit des Museums 4 (1990), 557.
A. Birley, Hadrian the Restless Emperor, London, 2001, 220.
Interestingly, the silver medallion does indeed portray Hadrian as
Zeus.
Classical Numismatic Group, auction Triton V, 15 January 2002, lot
363, 12.19g. Cf. Imhoof-Blumer and Gardner (n. 47), 130, pl.
Z.11/12/14; J. Svoronos, Trsor des monnaies dAthnes, Munich,
192326, pl. 89.610; J. Shear, The coins of Athens, Hesperia II.2
(1933), 276, cat. no. C.1; J. Kroll and A. Walker, The Athenian Agora.
XXVI. The Greek Coins, Princeton, 1993, 174; H.-C. von Mosch,
Bilder zum Ruhme Athens, Milan, 1999, 16. Based on a mistake by
Josephine Shear (Athenian imperial coinage, Hesperia V (1936),
297, pl. 8.1), Francesca Ghedini erroneously considered some of the
Athenian coins to predate the gems, and therefore concludes that
the gems were copied from the coins. Nonetheless, she knew that
Shear was contradicting other numismatists (Ghedini [n. 6], n.
46), and Shears theory is now rejected.
Knker (Osnabrck), auction 124, 16 March 2007, lot 7961, 7.61g. Cf.
Imhoof-Blumer and Gardner (n. 47), pl. Z.16; Svoronos (n. 49), pl.
89.11; Kroll and Walker (n. 49), 261.
Cf. Shear 1936 (n. 49), 297, pls 8.98.11; Kroll and Walker (n. 49),
355.
Gorny & Mosch (Munich), auction 159, 8 October 2007, lot 300,
25.73g.
From the Panticapaeum Necropolis. Last quarter of the 4th century
bc, 51cm high. Excavations of A.E. Lyutsenko, 1872.
Madrid, Museo Arqueolgico Nacional, inv. no. 11095. See: Ghedini
(n. 6), ill. 4.
Cordova, Museo Arqueolgico. See: Ghedini (n. 6), ill. 3; C. Picard,
Manuel darchologie grecque. La sculpture, vol. IV.2, Paris, 1963,
495, pl. 205; A. Garca y Bellido, Esculturas romanas de Espaa y
Portugal, Madrid, 1949, pl. 409. Picard also refers to a relief from
Smyrna, but gives no details.
See, S. Dumitrascu, Tezaurul de la Tauteni-Bihor, Oradea, 1973, pls
3442.
Sold at the Parke-Bernet Galleries in New York (Part II of the Notable
Art Collection belonging to the Estate of the Late Joseph Brummer,
1114 May 1949, lot 227), it was formerly in the collection of Prince
Nicholas Gagarine (18221905). Mistakenly said to be at the Walters
Art Museum, where exhibited in 1947, by Gallottini (n. 1), 70, pl. 3.
See: Early Christian and Byzantine Art. An Exhibition held at the
Baltimore Museum of Art April 25-June 22 (exh. cat., Walters Art
Gallery), Baltimore, 1947, 113, no. 551, pl. 67; J. Spier, Late Antique
cameos, in M. Henig and M. Vickers (eds), Cameos in Context,
Oxford and Houlton, pl. 3.7; idem, Late Antique and Early Christian
Gems, Wiesbaden, 2007, no. 759.
Ghedini (n. 6), n. 64, believes that these two figures could be the
Dioscuri; she noticed that Poseidon was associated with the
Dioscuri on the lost base of Poseidons statue at the Isthmus of
Corinth (Pausanias II.1.79: see, C. Picard, Revue dEtudes Latines
35 (1957), 299).
A similar hypothesis (that the Medici type is a simplified one) was
made by Goffredo Bendinelli (Sulle tracce di opere fidiache andate
perdute, Turin, 1954), who saw the Madrid crater as being more
Rambach
60
61
62
63
64
65
complex and the most original, since it is the oldest version of the
composition.
As Antje Krug kindly remarked after my paper at the British
Museum, the Byzantine court liked relics, but not especially
ancient jewels, and we have no reason to think that the cameo ever
travelled to the Eastern Empire.
On the subject of gift giving and gem replicas in the Renaissance,
see: L. Clark, Transient possessions: circulation, replication, and
transmission of gems and jewels in Quattrocento Italy, Journal of
Early Modern History 15.3 (2011), 185221.
Paris, Bibliothque nationale, Cabinet des mdailles, 95 x 78mm
including gold mount, mid-13th century. It was in the royal
collection in 1379, from which it passed to une des plus anciennes
glises de France, from which it was acquired c. 1685 according to
Marc-Antoine Oudinet (Keeper, 16891712). As is well known,
Hohenstaufen gems have long been misidentified: for example,
the Paris cameo was considered by Gisella Richter (n. 21), no. 65, to
be Roman and to have simply suffered some retouching in the
Renaissance, whilst Erika Zwierlein-Diehl (n. 38), cat. no. 565,
considered it to be possibly Claudian and heavily re-engraved after
antiquity. See: J. Labarte, Inventaire du mobilier de Charles V, roi de
France, Paris, 1879, 308: Item, un cadran dor, o il a ung grant
camahieu, ouquel il a ung homme, une femme et ung arbre ou
mylieu, et aux cins dudit cadran, a, par embas, ung saphir et ung
balay, chascun environn de trois perles, et deux perles lun des
costez, pesant quatre onces cinq estellins; E. Babelon, Catalogue
des cames antiques et modernes de la Bibliothque nationale, Paris,
1897, cat. no. 27; Dacos (n. 3), pl. 62; R. Haussherr et al., Die Zeit der
Staufer, Stuttgart, 1977, vol. 1, cat. no. 886, 6934, vol. 2, pl. 660; R.
Distelberger, Die Kunst des Steinschnitts, Vienna, 2002, 602, cat.
no. 17).
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Inv. no. XII 143; 35 x 26mm, 62
x 50mm including gold mount. The mount is typical of the courtly
jewellery made in Prague for the Habsburgs around 1600; it first
appears in a 1750 inventory. See: Haussherr (n. 62), vol. 1, cat. no.
887, 6945, vol. 2, pl. 659, vol. 5, 497; Dacos (n. 3), pl. 63.
I am most grateful to Shua Amorai-Stark for examining the
Hebrew inscription engraved in Sephardic letters on this cameo. It
reads
- and is the
first half of a sentence in Genesis 3:6. A study of the script reveals
spelling mistakes and miscomposed letters, due to the
incompetence of the engraver (and/or the incorrectness of his
model). Indeed, and I quote Dr Amorai-Stark, the mistakes in the
(the
writing of certain letters, for example of the (sh) in
woman) or the ( t ) in ( good); and some of the words are
divided into units all show that the engraver did not know
Hebrew, which indicate that neither engraver nor patron were
Jews. The tradition of non-Jews introducing Hebrew words into
works of art intensified in the late Renaissance (Rembrandts
paintings are an example), and Dr Amorai-Stark considers that this
inscription is likely to have been added in the 16th or 17th century,
and is not contemporary with the engraving of the gem.
Dacos (n. 3), pl. 81. This relief was formerly considered to be by
Donatello (c. 13861466), because of Vasari having written that in
the first court of the Casa Medici [i.e. the Palazzo Riccardi] there
are eight marble medallions containing representations of antique
cameos by him (G. Vasari, The Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and
Architects, London, 1970, vol. I, 306). Some scholars have believed
that it is in fact by Donatellos studio (U. Wester and E. Simon, Die
reliefmedaillons im Hofe des Palazzo Medici zu Florenz, Jahrbuch
der Berliner Museen VII1 (1965), 1591), but it now seems that they
are not related to Donatello at all: indeed, on 2 July 1452 Maso di
Bartolomeo (140656) was paid for drawing these medallions
(I. Hyman, Fifteenth century Florentine Studies: the Palazzo Medici
and a Ledger for the Church of San Lorenzo, New York and London,
1977, 2089).