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All auctions / Ethnographical / Byzantine Eulogia Bread Stamp | Terracotta Disc, Inscribed Border
Eastern Mediterranean, Byzantine. A thick terracotta disc, hand-formed in buff clay, its face carved with a ring of short radiating strokes that circle a raised central boss dimpled at the summit. The strokes read as characters rather than ornament, though wear has softened them past certain reading; the central motif, once a device or monogram, survives only as a blunt eminence. Objects of this form served as bread stamps, pressed into risen dough so that each loaf emerged bearing a legend or sacred sign, a practice bound up with eucharistic and eulogia breads across the Byzantine world as well as with domestic and commercial baking. The reverse is plain, without the loop or knob handle usual on such pieces, so the stamp was likely gripped by its own thickness at the edge. Stamped bread carried real administrative and devotional weight in late antiquity. Liturgical loaves were impressed with crosses, christograms, and formulae such as "of the Theotokos" or the names of saints so that the eulogia distributed after the service could be recognized at a glance; bakers likewise marked commercial loaves with their own devices. The same tradition runs through Jewish and later Islamic baking in the Levant, which is one reason why an unread inscription on a disc of this type cannot by itself settle the maker's community. Should the circular legend prove Hebrew rather than Greek, the piece would belong to a much scarcer group associated with Jewish communities of the Byzantine and early Islamic Levant, where matzah and festival breads were similarly stamped. Raking light, a silicone impression, or RTI imaging would be the standard means of recovering the characters. Item # 205117
Estimate:£226.18
To the auctionView all items fromArtemis Fine ArtsorEthnographical
Estimate:
£226.18
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