1951.31.4.1875: One-Half of a Bivalve Bulloterion (Seal)

Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
This device was used for creating seals. It originally consisted of two halves that were attached to a suspension loop and swiveled around a pin to open and close. One half is fully intact; only the loop of the other half is preserved. On the inner surface of the remaining half is a five-line inscription framed by an incised circle. It names the owner of the seal as one Nikephoros Poupakes, who is identified as a priest (“Levite”).

Fully intact bivalve seals illustrate how this device functioned (1). The two halves were closed on either side of a blank disc, and force was applied to impress the seal. Bivalve seals were typically used to make impressions in relatively soft materials, such as wax, pitch, or clay (2). The exterior surface of the Harvard seal shows extensive wear concentrated at the center, possibly the result of repeated striking or intense pressure.

Complete bivalve seals from the middle Byzantine period are rare (3). Surviving examples display various combinations of inscriptions, imagery, and monograms on the interior surfaces. An early tenth-century example in Munich is inscribed on one side with five lines providing the name of the owner and on the other side with a monogram of the invocation “Theotokos, help” (4). Two middle Byzantine bivalve seals in Houston have images on both interior surfaces; one example is decorated with abstract animal designs, while the other depicts portraits of St. Peter and St. Paul (5).

The use of the term “Levite” for “priest” is found in two early thirteenth-century Byzantine lead seals (6). Nikephoros’ family name, Poupakes, is attested in the early to middle twelfth century CE (7). The particular form of the O-Y (omicron-upsilon) ligature employed in the Harvard device is present in seals dating from the second quarter of the twelfth century to the second quarter of the fifteenth century (8). Together, these diagnostic features suggest a date for this bivalve seal in the twelfth to thirteenth centuries (9).

NOTES:

1. G. Vikan and J. Nesbitt, Security in Byzantium: Locking, Sealing, and Weighing (Washington, DC, 1980) 23-24; and N. Oikonomides, Byzantine Lead Seals (Washington, DC, 1985) 6-7.

2. Vikan and Nesbitt 1980 (supra 1) 25.

3. A partially preserved silver shell-shaped sealing device in Bucharest dates to the eleventh or twelfth century and is inscribed with the name and title of a woman, “[Seal] of Barbara spatharea.” See I. Barnea, “Sigilii bizantine inedite din colecţia Muzeului Naţional de Istorie,” Cercetàri numismatice 4 (1982): 169-76, esp. 174-75, no. 10.

4. C. Stiegemann, ed., Byzanz, das Licht aus dem Osten: Kult und Alltag im Byzantinischen Reich vom 4. bis 15. Jahrhundert, exh. cat., Erzbischöfliches Diözesanmuseum Paderborn (Mainz, 2001) 239, no. III.12.

5. Oikonomides 1985 (supra 1) 7, fig. 13; and Vikan and Nesbitt 1980 (supra 1) 23-24, nos. 52 and 54.

6. V. Laurent, Le corpus des sceaux de l’Empire byzantine 2: L’administration centrale (Paris, 1981) 661, no. 1180; and V. S. Šandrovskaja and W. Seibt, Byzantinische Bleisiegel der Staatlichen Eremitage mit Familiennamen 1: Sammlung Lichacev–Namen von A bis I (Vienna, 2005) 97-98, no. 80.

7. See M. Jeffreys et al., Prosopography of the Byzantine World (PBW) (2011) available at http://pbw.kcl.ac.uk (accessed 27 January 2014) Poupakes 17001 http://db.pbw.kcl.ac.uk/pbw2011/entity/person/151757.

8. N. Oikonomides, A Collection of Dated Byzantine Lead Seals (Washington, DC, 1986) 169, no. 60.

9. I am grateful to J. Cotsonis for assistance in interpreting the seal inscription and identifying relevant comparanda.


Alicia Walker