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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 December 2021
This article presents 19 lead seals from the Museum of Bergama (ancient Pergamon), dating from the early eighth to the early twelfth century. We offer a descriptive catalogue of these Middle and Late Byzantine seals preserved in a western Turkish museum. The owners of these seals were primarily ecclesiastical, legal or military dignitaries who were probably active in Pergamon, in southwestern Mysia, Aeolis or Lydia. The catalogue is followed by an appendix on a Byzantine magical amulet.
For the first part of this collection, see BMGS 45.1 (2021) 5–24. For the study of these objects at the Museum of Bergama authorization was issued to Doğukan Çağlayan by the directorate of the museum on June 27, 2019, enumerated as 75845132-154.01-E.529808. Documentation was done in August 2019 by D. Çağlayan. We would like to thank Nilgün Ustura, the director of the museum, as well as Yalçın Yılmazer, research assistant of the museum, for their help before and during our researches. Photos were taken by D. Çağlayan in 2019 and the map was prepared by Sami Patacı (Ardahan) in 2020; we would like to express our sincere gratitude and appreciation to both. We are also grateful to Ingela Nilsson and John Haldon for their patience and support.
1 Belke, K. and Mersich, N., Phrygien und Pisidien, TIB 7 (Vienna 1990) 117 (hereafter TIB 7)Google Scholar.
2 Preiser-Kapeller, J., Der Episkopat im späten Byzanz. Ein Verzeichnis der Metropoliten und Bischöfe des Patriarchats von Konstantinopel in der Zeit von 1204 bis 1453 (Saarbrücken 2008) 341Google Scholar. The region of Pergamon is treated by Andreas Külzer in his forthcoming Westkleinasien (Lydia und Asia) in the series Tabula Imperii Byzantini. We would like to express our deepest appreciation to him for making available to us the lemma on Pergamon.
3 Berlin acc. no. 463/1911; ed. Regling, K., ‘Byzantinische Bleisiegel’, in Conze, A. et al. , Altertümer von Pergamon, vol. I/2: Stadt und Landschaft (Berlin 1913) 335, no. 17Google Scholar; photo no. 17 (a bust of St Nikolaos on the obv.) (hereafter Regling II).
4 Regling II, 335, no. 18; photo no. 18.
5 Regling II, 336, no. 19; photo no. 19. For the complexity of distinguishing the seals of Michael VIII and Michael IX, see W. Seibt, Die byzantinischen Bleisiegel in Österreich, part 1: Kaiserhof (Vienna 1978) no. 31 (hereafter Seibt, Österreich I).
6 Regling II, p. 336, no. 20. Cf. A.-K. Wassiliou-Seibt, Corpus der byzantinischen Siegel mit metrischen Legenden, part 1: Einleitung, Siegellegenden von Alpha bis inklusive My (Vienna 2011) no. 1359 (first half of the thirteenth century) (hereafter Wassiliou-Seibt, Corpus). Recently a parallel seal in the Tatış Collection in Izmir was dated to the late thirteenth–early fourteenth century: J.-Cl. Cheynet (ed.), Les sceaux byzantins de la collection Yavuz Tatış (Izmir 2019) no. 7.5 (hereafter Tatış).
7 Seibt, W. and Zarnitz, M. L., Das byzantinische Bleisiegel als Kunstwerk. Katalog zur Ausstellung (Vienna 1997) 5.2.4Google Scholar (hereafter Seibt and Zarnitz). Cf. Laurent, V., Le Corpus des sceaux de l'Empire byzantin (Paris 1963–72) V/1, 286Google Scholar (ninth–tenth century, which is certainly very late) (hereafter Laurent, Corpus). This piece was found in Pergamon and is now kept in Berlin.
8 The seal Hermitage acc. no. M-427, photo in I. V. Sokolova, Монеты и печати византийского Херсона (St. Petersburg 1983) pl. 3, no. 3.
9 J. Nesbitt and N. Oikonomides, Catalogue of the Byzantine seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg Museum of Art, vol. 3: west, northwest, and central Asia Minor and the Orient (Washington, DC 1996) 28.1 (hereafter DOSeals); Laurent, Corpus V/3, 1696. On the obv. a bust of the Theotokos holding a bust of Christ at her breast.
10 Laurent, Corpus V/1, 287 (ninth/tenth centuries). On the obv. a bust of St Demetrios.
11 V. S. Šandrovskaja, ‘Сфрагистика’, in eadem (ed.), Коллекция музея РАИК в Эрмитаже, Каталог выставки (St. Petersburg 1994) 182–3, no. 271 (without a photo); cf. the bibliographic remark in Studies in Byzantine Sigillography 6 (1999) 107.
12 Laurent, Corpus V/1, 288 (tenth century) and 289 (tenth–eleventh century). The latter has a very rare bust of St Antipas of Pergamon on the obv.
13 B. A. Pančenko, ‘Каталог моливдовулов коллекции Русскаго археологическаго института в Константинополе’, Известия Русскаго археологическаго института в Константинополе / Bulletin de l'institut archéologique russe à Constantinople 13 (1908) 87, no. 320 (eighth–ninth century).
14 DOSeals 2, 22.12 (ninth century); cf. G. Zacos and A. Veglery, Byzantine Lead Seals, vol. 1 (Basel 1972) 2104 (hereafter Zacos and Veglery).
15 Nos. 5–6, 8–9, 16–17, 19–28 and 30–1.
16 Nos. 1–2, 4, 7, 10–13 and 29.
17 Konstantopoulos, K. M., Βυζαντιακὰ μολυβδόβουλλα τοῦ ἐν Ἀθήναις Ἐθνικοῦ Νομισματικοῦ Μουσείου (Athens 1917), no. 570Google Scholar (with an error concerning the tetragram) (hereafter Konstantopoulos).
18 DO 55.1. (neg. no. 61.17.20-723), eds. Zacos and Veglery 1953.
19 Bulgurlu, V. and İlaslı, A., ‘Seals from the museum of Afyon (Turkey)’, Studies in Byzantine Sigillography 8 (2003) 135, no. 8CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
20 Athens 561α, ed. Konstantopoulos 561α.
21 For ἄρχοντες Λυδίας cf. W. Seibt, ‘The Early Byzantine province of Lydia based on sigillographic evidence’, in E. Laflı and G. Labarre (eds.), Studies on the History and Archaeology of Lydia from the Early Lydian Period to Late Antiquity (Besançon) (forthcoming).
22 J.-Cl. Cheynet, T. Gökyıldırım and V. Bulgurlu, Les sceaux byzantins du Musée archéologique d'Istanbul (Istanbul 2012) (hereafter Istanbul).
23 The Auction of Gerhard Hirsch’ Nachfolger in Munich 271, 17.-19. 2. 2011, 2688; cf. A.-K. Wassiliou, ‘Beamte des Themas der Kibyrraioten’, in H. Hellenkemper and F. Hild (eds.), Lykien und Pamphylien, TIB 8 (Vienna 2004) part 1, 408, with no. 72; and a similar, though slightly later type on Cyprus: D. M. Metcalf, Byzantine lead seals from Cyprus (Nicosia 2008) no. 271.
24 Münz-Zentrum 157, 12.–13.1.2011, 616 = Münz-Zentrum, Catalogue June/July 2011, 550.
25 The epithet ἁμαρτωλός (sinful) is one of the terms of humility that were used primarily by members of the clergy.
26 The Pecunem auction 35, 6.10.2015, 887.
27 Last edition: Laurent, Corpus V/1, 256.
28 Tatış, no. 6.18.
29 Seibt and Zarnitz, 195.
30 A date after 833 would only be probable if the archbishop Markos was the immediate successor of the iconophile Theophilos; see Laurent, Corpus V/3 1690; DOSeals 3, 14.8. For Markos, the archbishop of Ephesos who was sent to the Frankish ruler in 833 as a Byzantine ambassador, see R.-J. Lilie et al. (eds.), Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit. Erste Abteilung (641-867), 6 vols. (Berlin and New York 1999–2002) 4838 (hereafter PmbZ).
31 Seibt and Zarnitz 5.2.6; a parallel was recently offered in the Pecunem auction 27, 4.1.2015, 908.
32 Schlumberger, G., Sigillographie de l'Empire byzantin (Paris 1884) 246Google Scholar (with facsimile) (hereafter Schlumberger, Sigillographie); Laurent, Corpus V/1, 399.
33 Cf. also Vailhé, S., ‘Les métropolitains de Chalcédoine, Ve-Xe siècle’, Échos d'Orient 11 (1908) 350CrossRefGoogle Scholar (hereafter ÉO).
34 For Byzantine names ending with -άδης, see E. Trapp, R. Walther and H.-V. Beyer (eds.), Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit (Vienna 1976–96) abbreviations 397.
35 Cf. e.g. N. Oikonomides, A Collection of Dated Byzantine Lead Seals (Washington, D.C. 1986) no. 59, 62 and 64 (hereafter Oikonomides, Dated), or Seibt, Österreich I, 45.
36 J. Darrouzès, Notitiae Episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae: Texte critique, introduction et notes (La géographie ecclésiastique de l'empire byzantin) (Paris 1981) 370, n. 13, 803 (hereafter Darrouzès, Notitiae).
37 Laurent, Corpus V/1, 472. For the title proedros, see A. P. Kazhdan and A. Cutler, ‘Proedros. Proedros as a civilian dignity’, in A. P. Kazhdan (ed.), The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium (Oxford 1991) 1727 (hereafter ODB), and A. Papadakis, ‘Proedros. Proedros an ecclesiastical title’, in ODB, 1727–8. The term proedros can mean an episkopos, an archiepiskopos, even a metropolitan or abbot; but since the obv. of this seal has a standing figure of St Demetrios of Thessaloniki, this may hint at Thessaloniki or the Vardariotes.
38 Cf. Révész, É., ‘Die ersten byzantinischen Oberpriester Turkias – Hierotheos, Theophylaktos, Antónios, Démétrios, Ióannés’, Studia Hungaro-Bulgarica 3 (2014) 55–68Google Scholar.
39 The American Numismatic Society, Thomas Ollive Mabbott Collection, neg. no. 8414 (photo stored in the Byzantine sigillographical photographic archive at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna).
40 Cf. J.-Cl. Cheynet, ‘Un aspect du ravitaillement de Constantinople aux Xe/XIe siècles d'après quelques sceaux d'hôrreiarioi’, in idem, La société byzantine. L'apport des sceaux, Bilans de recherche 3, vol. 1 (Paris 2008) 209–36 (hereafter Société).
41 A dioiketes of Galatia is known from a seal from the eighth century: C. Foss, ‘Late Antique and Byzantine Ankara’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 31 (1977) no. 182 (hereafter DOP); Zacos and Veglery, no. 3189. Such officials are known in the Bucellarian theme in the eleventh century. One of them received a letter from Michael Psellos, asking a favour for the dioiketes of Ankyra who needed assistance in collecting taxes: Michael Psellos, Epistulae, ed. S. Papaioannou (Berlin 2019), Ep. 301; cf. Foss, l.c., n. 201.
42 For the site of Ankyra Sidera, see TIB 7, 184–5; Drew-Bear, T., Nouvelles inscriptions de Phrygie (Zutphen 1978) 66, n. 100Google Scholar, ‘The city of Temenouthyrai in Phrygia’, Chiron 9 (1979) 275, n. 2, and ‘Ankyra Sidera'dan Yeni Yazıtlar’, in A. N. Toy and C. Keskin (eds.), 28. Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı, 24-28 Mayıs 2010 İstanbul, vol. 3 (Ankara 2011) 311–24. We have very few Byzantine sources on Ankyra Sidera: in the original list of the Council of Chalcedon (451), including a Latin list of Chalcedonian bishops, Ernest Honigmann supposes that after the name of Philippos of Ankyra Sidera (Σ 348. Δ 337) followed a phrase indicating that he was represented by his metropolitan or a fellow-bishop: E. Honigmann, ‘The original lists of the members of the Council of Nicaea, the Robber-Synod and the Council of Chalcedon,’ Byzantion 16.1 (1942–43) 45.
43 Photo stored in the Byzantine sigillographical photographic archive at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna.
44 The Byzantine trade of Paphlagonia focused on the superior harbour at Amastris. Lead seals of bishops of Amastris are known from the eighth to the thirteenth centuries, and Middle Byzantine seals of civic and military officials show that the city was a trading, administrative, ecclesiastical and military centre; see K. Belke, Paphlagonien and Honōrias, TIB 9 (Vienna 1996) 161–70, esp. 163; J. Crow, ‘Amastris’, in P. Niewöhner (ed.), The Archaeology of Byzantine Anatolia from the End of Late Antiquity Until the Coming of the Turks (New York 2017) 389–94; and E. Laflı, ‘Roman and Byzantine metal finds in the Museum of Amasra (ancient Amastris) in Paphlagonia (northwestern Turkey)’, in Laflı (ed.), Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Bronzes from Anatolia and Neighbouring Regions (Oxford 2021) 207–8, cat. no. 42, figs. 25.40a–b (a seal of the seventh century, erroneously dated to the tenth–eleventh century).
45 For its most recent publication, see Jordanov, Corpus III 257–61.
46 DO 47.2.828; Oikonomides, Dated, no. 69. The seal Zacos II 795 is published without any photo, which makes it impossible to study its details, but it seems to be 
47 For the extraordinary personality of Basileios Lakapenos, see PmbZ 20925 (vol. I, 588–98); Brokkaar, W. G., ‘Basil Lacapenus. Byzantium in the tenth century’, Studia Byzantina et Neohellenica Neerlandica 3 (1971) 199–234, esp. 233Google Scholar; and C. J. Holmes, Basil II and the Government of Empire (976–1025) (Diss. Oxford 1999). For another seal type of Basileios, only as the proedros of the senate, see Laurent, Orghidan, 186 and 187, whereas in the latter seal the identification of a ‘protoproedros’ is certainly erroneous.
48 For the title episkeptites, see Oikonomidès, Listes 312. Much material is collected in J.-Cl. Cheynet, ‘Episkeptitai et autres gestionnaires des biens publics (d'après les sceaux de l’IFEB)’, in Société, 237–72.
49 For general logothesion, including chartularies of provincial treasuries and thematic epoptai, tax assessors and dioiketai, i.e. fiscal administrators, see Oikonomidès, Listes, 109.16–111.5; cf. 113.28ff.
50 For the iconographic type of the Theotokos Hagiosoritissa, see Seibt, W., ‘Die Darstellung der Theotokos auf byzantinischen Bleisiegeln, besonders im 11. Jahrhundert’, Studies in Byzantine Sigillography 1 (1987) 48–50Google Scholar. The Hagiosoritissa is also represented on some coins of the Komnenian period: Bertele, T., ‘La Vergine aghiosoritissa nella numismatica bizantina’, Revue des Études Byzantines 16 (1958) 233–4CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
51 Vailhé, S., ‘Une ‘notitia episcopatuum’ d'Antioche du Xe siècle’, Échos d'Orient 10 (1907) 93Google Scholar. At this time Mopsouestia became also the seat of a strategos. For the problematic seal of a Georgios protospatharios and strategos of Mamistra, Anabarzos and probably Adana, which was published incorrectly by Schlumberger, Sigillographie, 274–75, cf. Seibt, Österreich I, 261. The seal of a Theophylaktos Saronites, protospatharios and strategos of Adana and Mamistra in the Wassiliou-Seibt Collection (434), is edited in a catalogue entitled Das goldene Byzanz und der Orient (eds. C. Gastgeber and D. Heher) (Schallaburg 2012) 230–31, no. III.3. Shortly after the mid-eleventh century, Mopsouestia became the seat of a katepano, as the seals of a Sanpates (Smbat) magistros and katepano of Mopsouestia, demonstrate: one piece in the collection Wassiliou-Seibt (no. 498), the other in Antiocheia; see Cheynet, J.-Cl., ‘Sceaux byzantins des Musées d'Antioche et de Tarse’, Travaux et Mémoires 12 (1994) 423–4Google Scholar.
52 For the Byzantine history of Mopsouestia cf. F. Hild and H. Hellenkemper, Kilikien und Isaurien, TIB 5, vol. 1 (Vienna 1990) 351–9.
53 Photo stored in the Byzantine sigillographical photographic archive at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna.
54 Auction Gorny & Mosch 186, 8.–9. 3. 2010, 2606: Pantherios patrikios and strategos of Sikelia; DOSeals 3, 2.48: Pantheres imperial protospatharios and strategos of Thrakesion; Zacos II 265: Pantherios imperial protospatharios and strategos of Germanikeia; auction Münz-Zentrum Müller (Cologne) 81, 30. 3.–1. 4. 1995, 1514: Pantherios imperial protospatharios and strategos of Lykandos.
55 Thierry Collection, no. 19.
56 DO 47.2.1386.
57 Wassiliou-Seibt, Corpus, no. 562.
58 Bonner, C., Studies in Magical Amulets, Chiefly Graeco-Egyptian (Ann Arbor 1950) 90Google Scholar; Björklund, H., ‘Classical traces of metamorphosis in the Byzantine hystera formula’, DOP 70 (2016) 151–66Google Scholar.
59 See also G. Schlumberger, ‘Amulettes byzantins anciens, destinés à combattre les maléfices & maladies’, Revue des études grecques 1892, 73–93, and ‘Amulettes byzantines anciennes’, in Schlumberger, Mélanges d'archéologie byzantine: monnaies, médailles, méreaux, jetons, amulettes, bulles d'or et de plomb, poids de verre et de bronze, ivoires, objets d'orfèvrerie, bagues, reliquaires (Paris 1895) 117–40; Vikan, G., ‘Art, medicine, and magic in early Byzantium’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 38 (1984) 65–86CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Spier, J., ‘Medieval Byzantine magical amulets and their tradition’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 56 (1993) 25–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Schoneveld, K., ‘Ein frühbyzantinisches Bronzeamulett im Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseum. Zur Genese der mittelbyzantinischen Hystera-Amulette’, Jahrbuch des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums 61 (2014) 267–306Google Scholar; A. Bosselmann-Ruickbie, ‘A Byzantine casting mould for a hystera (womb) amulet and a cross in the Museum Schnütgen, Cologne: a contribution to the cultural and religious history of Byzantium and the material culture of Byzantine magic’, in J. Drauschke et al. (eds.), Lebenswelten zwischen Archäologie und Geschichte, Festschrift für Falko Daim zu seinem 65. Geburtstag (Mainz 2018) 629–44.
60 Cf. Bonner, Studies in Magical Amulets, 214.