Roman Seals

Die 138 römischen Siegelkapseln aus Augusta Raurica bilden den bisher grössten publizierten Komplex eines einzelnen Fundortes dieser relativ seltenen Fundgattung. Siegelkapseln dienten meist zum Verschluss von Schreibtäfelchen und zur Absicherung ihres geschriebenen Inhalts vor unbefugten Augen.
Der erste Teil dieses Buches behandelt die Typologie, den Katalog mit den Kapiteln zur Verwendung, Aufbau, Datierung, Verbreitung und Kulturgeschichte der Siegelkapsel. Im mittleren Teil werden die zahlreichen Beobachtungen an Werk- und Herstellungsspuren vorgelegt. Im dritten Teil folgen naturwissenschaftliche Untersuchungen sowie Archäometrie, Untersuchung der verwendeten Materialien und Sedimentanalysen aus dem Inneren der Kapseln.
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Comprehendsive analysis of 138 Roman seal boxes from Augusta Raurica. They constitute the largest complex of this quite rare find category published to date from a single site. The vast majority of seal boxes served to lock writing tablets and to protect the written contents from prying eyes.
The first part of this book deals with the archaeological evidence and the typology of seal boxes, the catalogue with chapters on use, construction, chronology, distribution and cultural history of the seal boxes. The second part is concerned with the examination of the traces of manufacture and technology. The third part of the publication is dedicated to various scientific analyses, namely archaeometry and study of materials used as well as analysis of sediment contents of selected seal boxes.

Apstrakt: U radu su prikazani carski olovni pečati iz zbirke Narodnog muzeja u Beogradu. Reč je o deset rimskih i tri ranovizantijske plombe koje se svrstavaju u četiri grupe opredeljene prema broju poprsja vladara na aversu. Najstarija je plomba Julije Domne, dok najmlađi pečat pripada vremenu vladavine cara Justinijana I. Među plombama se izdvaja pečat sa predstavom tetrarha koje krunišu dve Viktorije. Za samo četiri primerka poznato je mesto nalaza. Tri rimska pečata potiču sa lokaliteta na obali Dunava (Veliko Gradište -Pinkum, Kostolac -Viminacijum, Dubravica -Margum), koji su imali važnu administrativnu ulogu i carinu na svojoj teritoriji. Četvrta, vizantijska plomba, otkrivena je u Zvečanu, važnom strateškom mestu na ulazu u Ibarsku dolinu.

We continue the regular publishing of the sealings found in Dobruja, by presenting several civic and provincial sealings. Based on the sealings' legends, we were able to identify the names of the following cities from Asia Minor: Dios Hieron, Ephesos, Hypaipa, Klazomenai and Tralleis. One sealing bear the name of Pamphylia province. We believe that the commercial sealings discovered in the Lower Danube area attest to the trading of goods imported from Asia Minor, in order to maintain the logistics of the Roman army stationed along the Danube during the Gothic war under the emperor Valens (366)(367)(368)(369).

In the last decade, epigraphists have begun to show a new interest in signacula, a kind of seals used to identify soldiers (as the modern "dog-tags") or even civilian goods. Signacula are a class of artifacts for a long time neglected. This has brought numerous contributions devoted to the different regional contexts, along with reflections on methodological questions, not to mention the momentum towards the digitizing of a corpus which counts at least 3.500 pieces. These artifacts have a great potential in providing information related not only to the economy and to the administration of the "res" (i.e., public and private affairs, as Romans intended), but also about the profile of the signacula holders. In this scenario, the Sicilian context proved to be particularly significant due to the presence of several seal impressions on mortar in the Late Antique cemeteries of Siracusa: a unique example in Sicily and an extremely rare one in Italian archaeology. This inspired a specific research question: it is possible to identify unequivocally a signaculum through its impression? And then, what are the implications for archaeological research? The aim of this contribution is to establish a protocol for semi-automatic matching between 3D models of seals and 3D models of impressions. This survey may open the way to the creation of a virtual edition of signacula augmented with 3D models of both seals and prints. We believe could be particularly meaningful to embed a method of seals and prints comparison in a digital collection of this kind. Furthermore, a research agenda may include the design of a machine learning algorithm for matching of 3D meshes.