E03081
Inscriptions - Inscribed objects
Images and objects - Lamps, ampullae and tokens
Images and objects - Other portable objects (metalwork, ivory, etc.)
Round clay stamp, broken and lost in the lower right-hand quarter. Diameter 0.1 m. Found in the 1960s by a member of Kibbutz Mefalsim at Tel Mefalsim/Khirbet Deir Dusawi, c. 9 km to the east of Gaza. Now in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
The stamp is made of greenish-yellow clay. The back is fitted with a handle. The central field on the front side is occupied by an image of the enthroned Virgin Mary, with her feet on a foot-stool, holding the Child Christ on her lap. Mary's head is flanked by two stars. Jesus is holding a codex, probably a Gospel, in his left hand and is performing a benediction with his right hand. To the left and to the right of Mary's throne, are two male figures: certainly an (arch)angel on one side; on the other, a male saint or an (arch)angel whose wings are worn away and so not visible; both carry sceptres. Rahmani identified them as the Archangels *Michael and *Gabriel. Ameling is less certain about their identity.
An inscription runs around the edge of the stamp (in mirror writing):
εὐλογία τῆς δεσποίν[ης ἡμῶν Θεοτό]κου Μαρίας
'Blessing (eulogia) of (our) Lady, the God-Bearer (Theotokos), Mary.'
Text: CIIP 3, no. 2526.
Cult building - unspecified
Activities accompanying CultProduction and selling of eulogiai, tokens
Use of ImagesPublic display of an image
Private ownership of an image
Non Liturgical ActivityVisiting graves and shrines
Pilgrimage
RelicsContact relic - other
Ampullae, eulogiai, tokens
Making contact relics
Cult Related ObjectsAmpullae, flasks, etc.
Other
Source
First published with photographs and a drawing in 1970, by Levi Yizhaq Rahmani, Chief Curator of the Israel Antiquities Authority. Later mentioned by Yiannis Meimaris (with a fragmentary transcription and no reference to the editio princeps), and by Carol Glucker. A new edition is offered by Walter Ameling in the Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaeae Palaestinae.Discussion
The stamp was certainly designed for making small breads (eulogiae) distributed to pilgrims and locals attending liturgy in a sanctuary of Mary. But the missing fragment made Rahmani, the first editor, think that the stamp was damaged during the firing, was discarded by the potter, and, therefore, actually never used.Rahmani compares the image of Mary with those on ampullae at Monza (where Christ does not hold the Gospel, does not bless, and the angels are in flight), with an image of Mary in Santa Maria Antiqua in Rome, and with one in the cathedral of Porec.
Rahmani supposes that the stamp was possibly either brought to Gaza from one of the significant Holy Land sites of the cult of Mary (Jerusalem, Bethlehem, or Nazareth), or that it was made in a workshop at Gaza, for one of those shrines, or for a local sanctuary. The latter possibility is the most convincing, and Rahmani quotes a passage by Chorikios of Gaza, saying that the Church of St Sergios in Gaza housed in its apse a magnificent mosaic showing Mary with the Child Christ on her laps. Ameling notes that the formula of the inscription resembles somewhat those of clay lamps, labelled as originating from the workshop of one Ioannes (see E01657; E02830).
Dating: according to Rahmani the stamp can be safely dated to the 6th c., based on its archaeological context.
Bibliography
Edition:Ameling, W., Ecker, A., Hoyland, R. (eds.), Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae, vol. 3: South Coast, 2161-2648: A Multi-Lingual Corpus of the Inscriptions from Alexander to Muhammad ( Berlin - Boston, Massachusetts: De Gruyter, 2014), no. 2526.
Glucker, C., The City of Gaza in the Roman and Byzantine Periods (Oxford: B.A.R, 1987), 154-155, no. 44.
Rahmani, L.Y., "A "Eulogia" Stamp from the Gaza Region", Israel Exploration Journal 20 (1970), 105-108 and Pl. 28A-C.
Fuerther reading:
Meimaris, Y., Sacred names, saints, martyrs and church officials in the Greek inscriptions and papyri pertaining to the Christian Church of Palestine (Athens: National Hellenic Research Foundation, Center for Greek and Roman Antiquity, 1986), 84, no. 538 (fragmentary transcription).
Images
)
The inscribed face of the stamp. From: Rahmani 1970, Pl. 28.
)
The back side of the stamp. From: Rahmani 1970, Pl. 28.
)
An impression of the stamp. From: Rahmani 1970, Pl. 28.
Paweł Nowakowski
23/06/2017
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00033 | Mary, Mother of Christ | Μαρία | Certain | S00181 | Michael, the Archangel | Uncertain | S00192 | Gabriel, the Archangel | Uncertain |
|---|
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Paweł Nowakowski, Cult of Saints, E03081 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E03081