OLA219 Caseau Stamps and Magic

ORIENTALIA LOVANIENSIAANALECTA

219

UITGEVERIJ PEETERS en DEPARTEMENT OOSTERSE STUDIESLEUVEN PARIS WALPOLE, MA

2012

SEALS AND SEALING PRACTICES IN THE NEAR EAST

Developments in Administration and Magic from Prehistoryto the Islamic Period

Proceedings of an International Workshopat the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo

on December 2-3, 2009

edited by

ILONA REGULSKI, KIM DUISTERMAAT andPETER VERKINDEREN

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contributors to this volume vii Programme of the conference ix Preface xi I. Regulski Introduction K. Duistermaat Which Came First, the Bureaucrat or the Seal? Some Thoughts on the Non-Administrative Origins of Seals in Neolithic Syria V. Mller Do Seal Impressions Prove a Change in the Administration during the Reign of King Den? H. Tomas The Transition from the Linear A to the Linear B Sealing System U. Dubiel Protection, Control and Prestige Seals among the Rural Population of Qau-Matmar K. Vandorpe and B. Van Beek Non Signat Aegyptus? Seals and Stamps in the Multicultural Society of Greco-Roman Egypt N.C. Ritter On the Development of Sasanian Seals and Sealing Practice: A Mesopotamian Approach B. Caseau Magical Protection and Stamps in Byzantium

xiii

1

17

33

51

81

99

115

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TABLE OF CONTENTS vi

J.-Cl. Cheynet and B. Caseau Sealing Practices in the Byzantine Administration C. Kotsifou Sealing Practices in the Monasteries of Late Antique and Early Medieval Egypt P.M. Sijpesteijn Seals and Papyri from Early Islamic Egypt E. Fernndez Medina The Seal of Solomon: From Magic to Messianic Device S. Dorpmller Seals in Islamic Magical Literature K.R. Schaefer Block Printing as an Extension of the Practice of Stamping

133

149

163

175

189

209

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MAGICAL PROTECTION AND STAMPS IN BYZANTIUM

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Whereas magical rituals could involve complex sets of words and specific manipulations known only to experts, simple gestures and one word invocations performed by ordinary persons were also deemed to work magic in the Ancient World.1 Writing itself was considered to wield magical powers (Frankfurter 1994: 189-211; Dornseiff 1925). Those who had divine names, divine signs or invocations inscribed on any of their belongings believed that such inscriptions could protect them and/or the objects in their possession. Invocations of deities worked in the context of the different religious cultures of the Roman Empire, such as Judaism (Janowitz 2002: 19-31), Early Christianity (Dillon 1985) and the numerous cults of the Mediterranean world (Porreca 2010). Simple, everyday magical practices had one purpose, as F. Graf wrote: to the ordinary men and women of antiquity exposed to the contingencies of life, (it) was a way to cope with difficulties in their daily existence (Graf 1997: 113).

A whole branch of magical practices was devoted to rituals and gestures providing protection. Everyday objects were placed under the protection of a divine being by being stamped with a protective sign or inscription (Dauterman Maguire 1989; Vikan 1980). Museum collections hold many stamps or seals of different forms and shapes, which could have been used on bread, dough or on fresh clay. Amphoras, bricks, lamps and other clay objects were often stamped.2 Made of bronze, wood or clay, stamps bore inscriptions or images. Some of them were inscribed only with a name, but others included wishes, or religious messages. It is this last category of seals (those bearing religious messages) that I wish to study here. Their intent was to magically convey some form of protection on the owner of the object or on the object itself. For example, religious images with specific protecting words were stamped on

1 Tambiah 1968 and 1985; Graf 1994: 231-261. For their help with bibliography and for lively discussions, I wish to thank J.-L. Fournet, D. Frankfurter, J. Gascou, M. Perrin, B. Pitarakis and J.-P. Sodini.

2 Bardill 2004; Garlan 2000; Bakirtzis 1989; Lyon-Caen and Hoff 1986; Hellmann 1985.

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amphora stoppers to protect wine from turning sour, or to make sure they would travel safely to their destination.3

The stamps under consideration belong to the Roman, Late Roman, early Byzantine or Byzantine period. One can follow the changes in seals through time, from when they consisted simply of well-wishing inscriptions such as health or life, to when they began to bear Christian images of the cross and inscriptions alluding to Gods blessing. From the evolution in their shapes and inscriptions, it is possible to study the Christianization of ancient magical practices. The Collections Roman and Byzantine stamps are found in archaeological excavations and preserved in different museums around the world. Some museums have also received donations of stamp collections dating from the Roman and Byzantine periods.4 In this article, I shall take most of my examples from three institutions: the Bibliothque Nationale de France (Cabinet des Mdailles), the British Museum and the Muse dArt et dHistoire de Genve.5 The Cabinet des Mdailles in Paris holds a collection of metal, clay and wooden stamps, given by different donors throughout the past century. The largest contribution to the Cabinet des Mdailles was made by W. Froehner, a German scholar who lived in Paris and worked at the Louvre museum. Greatly appreciated by Napoleon III,

3 J.-L. Fournet 2008: 181, n. 16 concerning Christian inscriptions painted on amphoras: Lobjectif est de protger lamphore et donc la cargaison. Il est aussi possible que la conservation du vin soit vise. Ma collgue Hlne Cuvigny attire mon attention sur un passage des Goponiques (VII 14 tir des Cestes dAfricanus) qui irait dans ce sens : Pour empcher que le vin ne tourne, tu inscriras sur lamphore ou la jarre ces paroles divines: Gotez et voyez comme le Seigneur est bon (Psaumes 33, 9) ( , , ).

4 One of the biggest collections can be seen at the Menil Foundation in Texas: http://www.menil.org/collection/antiquities.php (last accessed on 29 May 2011).

5 To study these collections, I have benefited from research grants from the CNRS. I wish to thank J-Cl. Cheynet, director of the research center Orient-Mditerrane (UMR 8167), for supporting this research project and also M. Avisseau, curator at the Cabinet des Mdailles (BNF, Paris), M. Martinani-Reber, curator in charge of the Department of Applied Art at the Museum dArt et dHistoire (Genve), and Ch. Entwistle, curator at the British Museum, for allowing me to study the stamps.


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who sought his advice on archaeological matters, Froehner started collecting archaeological material for himself. However, as a result of the ongoing war with Prussia and Froehners German origins, he lost his job in 1870. Impoverished, he was forced to work small consulting jobs here and there. He sold part of his collection of coins, gave some objects to friends and eventually donated his collection of inscribed objects to the Bibliothque Nationale. This collection, a bric brac of objects of small sizes, including seals of different shapes used to stamp bread or clay, entered the Cabinet des Mdailles upon his death in 1925 (Hellmann 1982: 75-87).

While they are frequently displayed in exhibits concerning the Byzantine Empire, the late Roman world or the Egyptian Coptic world,6 such collections are rarely systematically published. Instances are so rare that we can, in fact, list here the names of all who have recently published entire collections: in 1985, S. D. Campbell published the University of Torontos Malcove collection, a donated set containing four bronze stamps and one wooden one;7 in 2006 and 2009, Michael Grnbart published the 6 metal stamps of the Bennet collection, a private North American collection, and the 16 metal stamps housed in the British Museum (Grnbart 2006 and 2009); and in 1986, M. H. Rutschowscaya published the 22 wooden stamps kept in the Louvre museum.8 Chronology Stamps are usually difficult to date with precision, unless discovered in a scientific excavation with stratigraphy. In spite of the difficulty of accurately dating these objects, they can still easily be matched with a broad time period according to the religious content of their inscription and imagery. It is likely that stamps with simple well-wishing invocations, without any Christian references, date from anywhere between the Roman period up to the early Byzantine centuries (4th-5th centuries).

Good luck! Be prosperous! May you be rich or successful! These invocations are found on bronze stamps from the Roman and early Byzantine periods. Well-wishing stamps were as popular as

6 Byzanz 2010: 279-280; Wamser 2004: 341-343; Wamser and Zahlhaas 1998: 151-153; Byzance 1992: 310-311.

7 http://www.utac.utoronto.ca/collections (last accessed on 29 May 2011); Campbell 1985.

8 Rutschowscaya 1986.


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acclamations and are close to them in spirit (Rouech 1984: 181-199; Rouech 2009: 169-177). There is no certainty that they could not have been used in the 6th or 7th centuries, but stamps made then were more likely to portray a cross or a Christian invocation of some sort. A stamp can be in use for a long period of time. Invocations to the deities of the Roman Empire are most probably from the Roman period (1st-4th centuries), but a Christian of the 5th or 6th century could just as well use a stamp inherited from an earlier generation. However, if he were to make a new one, it would likely have some reference to the Christian faith, either by the seals shape (a cross) or by the inscription.

Bearing in mind that there was some freedom in the choice of stamp one wished to use, the presence or the absence of Christian signs is a chronological indication. The stamps bearing Christian signs must have been produced during or after the 4th century. Those simply inscribed with a name can be Roman or early Byzantine, but a cross would probably be added to the name, at least from the 5th-6th century onwards. On papyri, crosses appear before all sorts of texts during the 5th century (Bagnall 2009). These distinguishable features do not make for a precise tool for dating seals, but they allow us to make lucid distinctions between a society not fully Christianized and a society taking for granted the presence of Christian signs and expressions.

Most of the stamps in the museum collections are dated to the Late Antique or early Byzantine period (4th -7th centuries), but some are Roman and some belong to the middle Byzantine period (8-12th centuries). A stamp of the Cabinet des Mdailles, bought in Constantinople by W. Froehner, bears an inscription from a Kalokyros protospatharios (cf. Fig. 1). The dignity of protospatharios (first sword bearer) was accorded only from 718 CE onwards, so we can conclude that the stamp dates from the 8th century, at the earliest (Oikonomides 1972: 297). Denis Feissel suggests the stamp comes from the 9th-10th centuries, because the family Kalokyros becomes widely-known during the 10th century (Feissel et al. 2001: 16 n. 11). However, on the stamp, the name is in the genitive form, which is no longer used on lead seals after 700-720 CE, when it is replaced by the dative. The use of the dative form starts at the end of the 7th century. There is a period of overlap during which both forms are utilized. This particular stamp has a mixture of the genitive and dative forms (Byzance 1992: 311). Attributing it to the early 8th century (700-750) is therefore possible and probable. In



this particular case, the dignity helps to date the stamp, but most stamps do not have this type of well-dated information. Many stamps bear simple names and probably belonged to artisans rather than to aristocrats.

Fig. 1: Rectangular stamp inscribed (Of Kalokyros the protospatharios). BnF Froehner 556, 55 x 160

Was the stamp of Kalokyros his personal stamp? Or was it a stamp used to mark objects made for him by workers? The stamp may reveal that aristocrats, such as Kalokyros, had clay objects that were produced on their estates and stamped in their name or, more likely, that they ordered large quantities of clay objects, which were stamped in their name, to be delivered to them. Brick-stamps reveal that stamps sometimes bore the name of the person or the institution ordering the bricks (Bardill 2004). The example of clay lamps reveals that, when stamps were used, the name of the lamp-maker was under the lamp, and the name of the owner on top of it (Lyon-Caen and Hoff 1986).

The design of a stamp its shape and inscription was deter-mined by the use intended for the seal. We can assume that metal stamps bearing a first name had a practical use. Stamps allowed workers to mark their work and be paid for it. Stamps could also bear the name of producers, who wished to identify their merchandise. Amphoras on a boat, for example, could be distin-guished thanks to stamps, and to the dipinto added by merchants (Fournet and Pieri 2008). Judging by these functions, metal stamps inscribed with a first name most likely had a practical use.


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Well-wishing stamps and their Christianization Stamps are close to amulets, charms and phylacteries in that they can bear invocations (Leone 2003). Their well-wishing inscriptions were meant to magically offer a form of protection. Such was the case with the many stamps inscribed with ZOH (life) and (health). They wished a good life and good health for whoever would eat the stamped bread or would buy the stamped object.

P. Perdrizet wrote a very interesting article on the significance of such inscriptions (Perdrizet 1914: 266-280). The stamps, he explains, were used in the temples of Asklepios and Hygia, the god of medicine and the goddess of health, to stamp bread offered or sold to pilgrims that took part in sacrifices. The bread itself was called a hygia. To support such an assertion, he cites a verse from Herodas (3rd century BCE): , , (dont forget to bring some of the health bread) and a passage from Athenaeus, mentioning that the cake (bread?) given to be tasted during the sacrifices, is called hygeia.9 Such a cake may have been prepared with barley, oil and wine. This cake or bread was probably stamped with the word in honor of the goddess. The inscription of the name of the deity blessed the bread and endowed it with healing properties.

If some of the stamps preserved in museums and marked are truly from temples of Asklepios, they can probably be attributed to the Roman period up to the end of the 4th century CE, date of the official closing of temples.10 It is probably wrong, however, to link too closely all of the stamps marked with the cult of Asklepios and his daughter. Secularized, the invocation was widely used to convey good wishes of health, rather than to promote a real religious invocation. The combination ZOH YIA can be found on different types of stamps, such as a circular stamp (Fig. 2), a shoe-sole-shaped stamp from the Cabinet des Mdailles (Fig. 4) or an S-shaped stamp also bearing the message, life for all ( C) (Weitzmann 1979: 627-628). It would be difficult to determine

9 Herodas, Mimiambi, Mime 4, The Women sacrificing to Asclepios, Kynno (eds. J. Rusten, I. C. Cunningham, Loeb, 2009); Athenaeus, III, 82, 15, , (ed. G. Kaibel, Teubner, 1985).

10 Some cultic practices, such as banquets, remained possible longer (Frankfurter 1998); stamps could be instrumental in transforming ordinary bread into an offering. Moreover some temples remained open much longer, at Philae for example (Dijkstra 2004 and 2008).



what kind of religious background the owner of this last stamp may have had due to the lack of a clear religious message.

Fig. 2: Circular stamp inscribed ZOH HYIA (Healthy life), bought in Cyprus in 1898. BnF Froehner 553, diam. 65 mm. Unpublished.

Let us consider shoe-shaped stamps for a moment. Seals of this form are very intriguing. While shoes cited in papyri and residing in archaeological collections have been studied, shoe-shaped stamps have not attracted much attention.11 Shoes and feet once had an erotic dimension, illustrated by depictions of Aphrodite removing her shoe or punishing Eros with it. This scene, described in epigrams, was a favorite of sculptors, painters and poets (Hodkinson 2007: 25-28). However, past the eroticism of the image, one must also remark upon the magical aspect of feet and soles.

Shoe-shaped objects can be viewed as allusions to the deities footprints. Some sanctuaries boasted the finding of footprints left by the gods and goddesses; these became objects of veneration (Deonna 1913: 241). Although (according to L. Castaglione) imprints found in ancient Egyptian temples indicated the deities presence, footprints and shoe-shaped objects during the Greco-Roman period referred to pilgrims who left their imprints at temples, in memory of a visit.12 The pilgrims left both their name, engraved or painted, and the shape of one of their feet. On the terrace of the Memnonion of Abydos, one can clearly read the names of Agathon, Philotera,

11 On shoes in papyri, Russo 2004; on shoes discovered by archaeology, Montembault 2000.

12 Castaglione 1967: 239-252; dans la symbolique religieuse gyptienne, limage de lempreinte de pied de la divinit ou du souverain personnifiant la force divine signifiait leffet bienfaisant et fcondant de lpiphanie du dieu, p. 251.


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Dionysios, Ermia on each of their respective footprints (Perdrizet 1919: 117-118). These imprints symbolized the devotion of the pilgrim towards the deity and perpetuated his or her prayers.

K. Dunbabin has studied a number of imprints of bare or sandaled feet that have been discovered, mostly in Egypt (Dunbabin 1990: 85-109). Some, she says, could be votive deposits, calling for the healing of the foot or wishing for success on a journey, but most of the imprints simply allude to the presence of a person, either divine or human.13 Feet are mainly associated with the Egyptian cults of Serapis and Isis, but can also be linked to the cult of Zeus Hypsistos. Divine imprints attributed to these deities were deemed to have healing powers (Leglay 1978: 573-589). This explains why blessings of good health and life were inscribed on shoe-shaped stamps (Fig. 3).

If we link these shoe-shaped stamps to the Egyptian cults or to the cult of Zeus Hypsistos, we should conclude that they are from the Roman period. If a seal owner wanted to convey an attachment to the ancient cults without explicitly worshipping the gods, such a stamp would have been handy, especially in the second half of the 6th century or after, when it had become not only unlawful but also unsafe for residents of the Byzantine Empire to openly worship the gods (Caseau 2011). At that time, new stamps most probably included Christian signs.

Fig. 3: Shoe-shaped stamp, inscribed VIVAS (May you live). BnF inv.

2388, 34 x 15 mm. Cf. Babelon and Blanchet 1895: II 728.

13 Jacquet-Gordon 2003: 3 (imprints belonged to the priestly personnel of the temple); Wilson 2007: 116 and 120-123 (imprints belonged to visitors).



We should probably not overstate the strictly religious dimension of the message carried by the depiction of a foot. The image was simply seen as an auspicious sign in Late Antiquity. This explains its presence in bathhouses and in private dwellings. The role of the foot as a good omen also accounts for objects shaped in its form, whether lamps (Xanthopoulou 2010), amulets, seals or stamps. Feet or sandals were often depicted in mosaics and interpreted as a wish for prosperity, success and good fortune (Dunbabin 1990: 104). They were still popular as late as the 5th century or early 6th century.

Fig. 4: Shoe-shaped stamp, inscribed (Healthy life). BnF inv. 2372a, 97 x 18 mm. cf. Babelon and Blanchet, 1895: II 727.

So, we are left with two possibilities of interpreting the shoe-shaped stamp bearing the inscription (Fig. 4): either it was linked to an Egyptian cult, or it was drawing on this ancient tradition in a very loose manner. It is not possible to choose the right interpretation, but in Late Antiquity, many formerly religious symbols became cultural ones. The many 5th and 6th century mosaics with Dionysius illustrate how the deity came to symbolize good cheer and hospitality (Maguire 2001; Stirling 2005; Bowersock 2006). In the same manner, an image of a foot could have evolved to simply convey good wishes, rather than to preach particular religious ideals. As a result of its neutrality and universal application, it is impossible to be sure of the religious preference of the owner of stamps with this inscription. If the owner were a merchant, he could apply such a stamp to amphoras carrying food, oil or wine. C. Bakirtzis notes that inscriptions invoking divine help are linked to the Byzantines habit of praying that the wine in the containers would not turn sour (Bakirtzis 1989: 76). We can understand the appeal such a message would have had for a merchant selling his products.


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Fig. 5: Cross-shaped stamp, inscribed (Healthy life). BnF inv. 2371, 94 x 87 mm. Cf. Babelon and Blanchet 1895: II 727.

The popularity of the message explains its adoption by Christians. In itself, such a message contained nothing repre-hensible (except perhaps its past link to the goddess and cult of Asklepios). The British Museum, the Cabinet des Mdailles and the Benaki Museum each have stamps in the shape of a cross bearing the inscription.14 The former is said to be from ca. 5th century (Galavaris 1970: 50), the latter from the 4th or 5th century and Egyptian.15 The ancient message has been Christianized by its inscription within a cross.

The cross was a very powerful sign for Late Antique Christians, who believed that crossing oneself, or inscribing the cross on objects, brought apotropaic protection (Walter 1997). Christians were reminded of their salvation when they saw the cross. It was the sign of eternal life. The sign of the cross was widely used by Christians for protection against evil (Israeli 2000: 127-145). Thus, we find crosses inscribed on many everyday objects. Embroidered on clothing, worked into jewels, chiseled on silverware, etched on lintels above a door or drawn into floor mosaics, the sign of the cross was omnipresent in Christian households. Saints Lives reveal that it was used in combination with words of prayer to exorcise people, to cure them and to bless them. When the owner of a 6th

14 British Museum n 84/5-9/26; Benaki Museum n. 11473; Cabinet des Mdailles BnF inv. 2371 (Fig. 5).

15 Fotopoulos and Delivorrias 1997: 172 ill. 294. Dated to the 4th or 5th C CE, coming from Egypt. Size L 0.08 m (inv. 11473).



century Syrian house decided to protect his house, he had the following words inscribed on the lintel of his door: for as long as the Cross is set in front of it, the Evil Eye will not have power (Vikan 2008: 55).

When crosses appear on a stamp, or when the stamp itself has the shape of a cross, we can presume that the owner was a Christian and wished to use the protective power of the cross. Yet, some Late Antique Christians still enjoyed using traditional well-wishing inscriptions as well. On their stamps, they would mix a Christian sign with a call for good health and life.

P. Perdrizet was somewhat puzzled by this mixture of traditions. He admitted that Christians could enjoy good wishes but preferred to imagine that by life they meant eternal life, and by health they meant a soul free of sin (Perdrizet 1914: 278). He preferred that Late Antique Christians transform even traditional invocations to include a Christian theological agenda. A similar idea was later developed by G. Galavaris (1970: 51): Life in Christ meant health of soul; and when the soul is healthy, when it is free from the consequences of sin, it is ready to enter into Eternal Life. Galavaris even considered these stamps to be meant for the prosphora, the Eucharistic bread. There is no need to over-spiritualize the message. Even if Christ is called medicus, or , and the Eucharist the medicine of life, it remains unlikely that a stamp destined for the Eucharist would have included the name of an ancient goddess. This is true even if by the end of Antiquity, this reference to Hygia was more cultural than religious. Statues of Asklepios and Hygia were still very popular in the 4th-5th century (Jacobs 2010: 114). It is probable that the owner of the cross-shaped stamp bearing the inscription combined, perhaps without thinking twice, two types of protection: the powerful Christian sign of the cross, able to repel demons, and the well-wishing inscriptions of his ancestors. It seems that the message was too closely-linked with pagan and magical practices to become completely Christianized. This explains why it was not commonly used during the Byzantine period, despite its popularity during Late Antiquity.

The messages link to magic is undeniable. The word is found on many magical objects. A tabella ansata discovered in the region of Tyr shows, on one side, a rider, a group of snakes and the inscription C C, while the other side reads (Dalton 1901: 543). Such a syncretistic combination of words and images created


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a powerful protective message, common on objects used for magical purposes.16 For example, a bronze bracelet with Christian scenes (women at the tomb, Mary and Jesus) was also decorated with a holy rider, under whom was inscribed the word . The bracelet bears more inscriptions: the first verse of Psalm 91 (he who dwells in the shelter of the Most High) and holy holy holy is the Lord.17 could be found on a wide range of objects. Some were more acceptable than others to the Christian authorities, who either frowned upon or vigorously condemned magical practices (MacMullen 1964, Graf 1994). In itself, it was simply a wish for good health. Its association with magic came from the numerous amulets on which it was in presence of figures and words belonging to the magical lore. Stamps could allude to this world of magic simply by using the word .

Fig. 6: Shoe-shaped stamp inscribed C C (One God), bought in Beirut in 1899. BnF Froehner 513, 100 x 35.

This may also be the case with the stamps bearing the inscription C C.18 This reference to the one God has long been considered either Jewish or Christian. Recently, it has also been linked to pagan monotheism (Mitchell 2010). Of all the inscriptions and citations that E. Peterson studied bearing those words, he considered a large number to be Christian and originating in Syria or Egypt (Peterson 1926). L. Di Segni collected all the C C inscriptions from Palestine and came to the conclusion that C C has almost no independent Jewish use. It is found as a part of

16 Israeli 2000: The sacred horseman, 159-161; Bonner 1950. 17 Israeli 2000: 162-163; on amuletic bracelets, Vikan 2003. 18 Wamser 1998: 152-153. A stamp in the shape of a shoe, belonging to a private

collection (cf. Fig. 6).



pagan inscriptions, a large group of which was connected to the cult of Helios-Sarapis, on magical Gnostic amulets, in Samaritan synagogues and within Christian inscriptions (Di Segni 1994: 94-115). Its use in magical inscriptions comes from the formula: , One God the victor against evil. Although this group of words is not the only one associated with C C, it is the one most commonly seen. The combination forms a formula for magical protection (Russell 1995: 37-38; Prentice 1906: 137-150).

In 1906, Prentice noticed that, on lintels, the main purpose of inscriptions and symbols was to bring luck or to avert evil. He added: certainly the name of God has always been and is now in the East the most potent charm against evil (Prentice 1906: 138). The words C C on a stamp played the same apotropaic role.

Although Christians used C C as a proclamation of their faith,19 its use in a magical context and in pagan cults may account for some wariness on the part of the Byzantines of later centuries. On stamps, the and C C messages were replaced by other, less tainted messages of protection such as blessing of the Lord on us ( C; cf. Fig. 7), common in the 6th century (Cohen-Uzzielli 2006: 172; Galavaris 1970: 118), or Lord help ( ), a phrase which forms the opening line of many Byzantine seals, from the end of the 6th century and the middle of the 7th (see in this volume, Cheynet and Caseau).

Fig. 7: Circular stamp inscribed + [] () [] []OY + (Blessing of the Lord on us. From Sergios). BnF Froehner 564,

diam. 105 mm.

19 ajtar 2006: 219: inscribed probably by a monk in the 6th century as an answer to an earlier graffito (1st-2nd c.) asking the Lord god Asklepios and Amenothes and Hygia for healing.


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While amulets and phylacteries remained concealed (as magical practices were illegal and condemned by Church authorities), stamps were used on bread and on other objects that anyone could see. In the late Roman and early Byzantine period, stamps with apotropaic formulae were as popular as amulets, yet their form of magic could not be as explicitly syncretistic. It was softer and discreet. One or two words were enough to call on ancient forms of protection.

Stamps evolved with the societies that created them. Although originally they called on the benevolence and protection of many gods, they later asked for the protection of the one God, soon identified as the Christian god. Stamps were Christianized first by the adoption of cross-shaped stamps and then by the preference for new formulaic inscriptions calling on Christ or the Theotokos for protection (Wamser 2004: 340-341). Bibliography ATHENAEUS 1999 The Deipnosophists, 3, edited and translated by Ch. B. Gulick,

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OLA219 Caseau Stamps and Magic

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