RT Article
T1 Much Ado About a Small Thing: An Iron-Age Stamp Seal from Late Roman  Beth Sheʿarim in Galilee
JF Bulletin of ASOR
VO 383
SP 19
OP 32
A1 Erlich, Adi
LA English
YR 2020
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1880474352
AB A stamp seal of the Iron Age has been found in a Late Roman level at Beth Sheʿarim, in a room that collapsed in the beginning of the 5th century c.e. The seal is of the bifacial type, with two complex scenes of royal and divine imagery, and is dated ca. 1000 b.c.e., some 1400 years prior to the archaeological context in which it was found. Although there are Iron Age II finds at Beth Sheʿarim, the seal seems to have found its way to a later phase not by accident, but deliberately collected and reused in the Late Roman town. The paper will explore this unique seal and the phenomenon of readopting old seals as talisman antiques during the Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine periods in the region.
K1 Beth Sheʿarim
K1 Iron Age
K1 antique
K1 heirloom
K1 stamp seal
DO 10.1086/707649