ORIENTALIA LOVANIENSIA

ANALECTA
————— 219 —————

SEALS AND SEALING PRACTICES IN THE NEAR EAST

Developments in Administration and Magic from Prehistory

to the Islamic Period
Proceedings of an International Workshop
at the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo
on December 2-3, 2009

edited by

ILONA REGULSKI, KIM DUISTERMAAT and

PETER VERKINDEREN

UITGEVERIJ PEETERS en DEPARTEMENT OOSTERSE STUDIES

LEUVEN – PARIS – WALPOLE, MA
2012

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contributors to this volume vii

Programme of the conference ix

Preface xi

I. Regulski xiii
Introduction

K. Duistermaat
Which Came First, the Bureaucrat or the Seal?
Some Thoughts on the Non-Administrative Origins of Seals 1
in Neolithic Syria

V. Müller
Do Seal Impressions Prove a Change in the Administration 17
during the Reign of King Den?

H. Tomas
The Transition from the Linear A to the Linear B Sealing 33
System

U. Dubiel
Protection, Control and Prestige – Seals among the Rural 51
Population of Qau-Matmar

K. Vandorpe and B. Van Beek

“Non Signat Aegyptus”? Seals and Stamps in the 81
Multicultural Society of Greco-Roman Egypt

N.C. Ritter
On the Development of Sasanian Seals and Sealing Practice: 99
A Mesopotamian Approach

B. Caseau
Magical Protection and Stamps in Byzantium 115

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 vi TABLE OF CONTENTS

J.-Cl. Cheynet and B. Caseau 133

Sealing Practices in the Byzantine Administration

C. Kotsifou
Sealing Practices in the Monasteries of Late Antique and 149
Early Medieval Egypt

P.M. Sijpesteijn 163

Seals and Papyri from Early Islamic Egypt

E. Fernández Medina 175

The Seal of Solomon: From Magic to Messianic Device

S. Dorpmüller 189
Seals in Islamic Magical Literature

K.R. Schaefer 209

Block Printing as an Extension of the Practice of Stamping

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 SEALING PRACTICES IN THE BYZANTINE ADMINISTRATION
JEAN-CLAUDE CHEYNET AND BEATRICE CASEAU

The Byzantine world made a large use of seals, especially metal

seals.1 The Byzantine seals that we offer to study, also called bullae,
are imprints and not seals that were used as stamps. The tradition
of medievalists - Western as well as Byzantine scholars share the
same tradition - is to use the word “seal” for stamped objects, and
not for the tool used to stamp them.2 This may be confusing to
specialists of ancient seals, who use the word “seal” for the tool
used to create imprints on different materials such as clay, wax or
bread.
The history of this tradition for Byzantine studies is complex, but
G. Schlumberger, the founding father of Byzantine sigillography, is
probably responsible for the use of the word “seal” instead of bulla.
Before him, however, A. Mordtmann already used the words “seal”
(Bleisiegel), “plombs” and “bulles” concomitantly to talk about the
same type of objects. The Byzantines themselves used the word
̛̮̱̬̝̟̭ (sphragis) and sometimes add ̠̥Қ ̨̧̫ҥ̞̠̫̰ (dia molybdou)
(for a lead seal). To confuse the matter even more, there is at least
one lead seal bearing an inscription which calls the seal a
̴̧̧̞̫̰̯̬̥̫̩̚ (boullotèrion).3 This is confusing because the word
boullotèrion is nowadays used to indicate the tool used to strike lead,
silver and gold bullae (Cheynet 2010; Robov 2008; Zacos 1972: plate
1-4; Schlumberger 1911).
The Byzantines also had stamp seals4 and seal rings.5 They did
not use as many semi-precious stones to engrave stamp seals as the
Sassanians did (Spier 2003: 114-126; Spier 2007; Gyselen 2007 and
1997). Because the Byzantine administration used mostly metal

1
For a detailed introduction to Byzantine sigillography, see Cheynet 2008: 1-82;
Cheynet 1997: 107-123.
2
Schlumberger 1880 and 1884; Laurent 1963-1972. Latin sigillography: Blancard
1860; Charvet 1872; Bedos 1980.
3
Seyrig 121, described in Cheynet, Morrisson and Seibt 1991; also mentioned in
Zacos 1972: I, ix.
4
Galavaris 1970; Grünbart 2009 and 2006; Caseau forthcoming.
5
Spier 2007; Byzance 2001 n. 219-221, 309-310; Vikan and Nesbitt 1980;
Schlumberger and Blanchet 1914.

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 134 JEAN-CLAUDE CHEYNET AND BEATRICE CASEAU

seals (gold, rarely silver and, most of the time, lead) they required a
tool stronger than a stamp used on wax or clay. The boullotèrion was
the tool specifically used to strike metal blanks, with information
engraved in reverse on its dies (cf. Fig. 1).

Fig. 1: Boullotèrion, former collection Zacos (Zacos and Veglery: IX-X).

The vast majority of seals were made of lead. Lead seals became
widely used starting in the 6th century CE. The Romans used seals
for commercial purposes, while the Byzantines extended their use
to civil servants. Many of these seals reveal not only the name of
the owner but also his titles and his administrative, religious or
military function. Around 80,000 Byzantine seals have been dis-
covered and more come to light. They form one of the most
important sources to understand the Byzantine administration. In
this article, we hope to introduce seals as key elements in defining
the relationship between the provincial and central administration,
as well as in drawing accurate maps of the Byzantine Empire.

What kind of information can we find on Byzantine seals?

Seals are diverse: some are simply iconographic and only bear
images. A vast majority of Byzantine seals, however, provide the
name of the sigillant. During the early Byzantine Empire, only the
first name or baptismal name was used. A very large selection of
first names was available to parents. In the Eastern part of the
Empire, one could use Latin names, or the hellenized versions of a
Latin name (e.g., Kratianos for Gratianus; Zacos – Veglery 1972: no
1360). Traditional Greek names, with regional traditions, were also
widely used. Christian saints names started appearing as well and
became very popular. About one out of twenty boys was baptized

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 SEALING PRACTICES IN THE BYZANTINE ADMINISTRATION 135

John. As a result we have a great number of bullae belonging to a

John. To better identify the sigillant, a function or an honorific title
was sometimes added. Despite this, such information is usually not
enough to identify the sigillant as a figure known from literary,
documentary or epigraphic sources. Sometimes a second name
appears, either a nickname or the name of the father (Seibt 2002).
Family names, a second name transmitted from one generation to
the next, make their appearance on seals from the 10th C CE and
become widely used in the 11th C CE (Cheynet 1996: 267-294).

Fig 2: Romanos Sklèros, proedros and duke of Antioch, coll. Seyrig

(Cheynet et al. 1991, no 158)

Civil servants in the central services of the administration were

allowed to have their own boullotèrion and strike their own seals,
even if they were quite low in the administrative hierarchy. Seals
that belonged to simple notaries as well as ones that were struck by
the heads of the administrative offices have been discovered. From
the provinces, we have seals of protonotarioi charged with a special
mission, such as provisioning the army, but we do not have the
seals of the notaries working for the judges. This is because when
notaries drafted legal documents in the 11th century, they used the
judge’s boullotèrion. We have very few seals of the notaries working
in the patriarchal chancery, but the seal of a patriarchal usher
(despotatos) has survived (Laurent 1963: no 141).
Civil servants often indicated their honorary titles on their seals,
because they wanted to show their place in the aristocratic
hierarchy (Oikonomidès 1972). Until the end of the 11th century,
such titles gave them a right to the roga, an annual distribution of
money and luxury objects such as silks (Lemerle 1967: 77-100).
Titles were cumulative: one title did not cancel a previous one. Civil

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 136 JEAN-CLAUDE CHEYNET AND BEATRICE CASEAU

servants usually indicated all of them on their boullotèrion, often,

but not always, starting with the highest title. Most important for
historians is the mention of the actual job the civil servant held
and, if they worked in the provinces, the location of that particular
function (Seibt 2000). Sometimes this information was omitted,
when the sigillant considered other types of information more
important. In the 12th century CE, family relationships were of
utmost importance to members of the elite, who wanted to indicate
how closely related they were to the imperial family.
The Church administration also used seals. Bishops and heads of
powerful monasteries (hègoumenos) striked their own seals.
Sometimes, institutions also had a boullotèrion to strike their seals.
Such is the case for the patriarchal judicial court of the
ekklèsekdikoi, which struck large and beautiful seals.

Could just anyone seal a document in the Byzantine world?

We find texts condemning the illegal use of somebody else's

boullotèrion, but there is no text limiting the use of seals to a certain
category of persons. Private citizens could have boullotèria or seal
rings. Yet, the use of seals was more limited in the Byzantine
Empire than in, for example, mediaeval Normandy, where even
peasants appended their own seal to documents because seals were
necessary for many transactions (Barre and Foucher forthcoming).
In contrast, only members of the elite had a boullotèrion to strike
seals in the Byzantine world. When we find the seal of a humble
Byzantine monk, we conjecture that he was most likely a pro-
minent aristocrat before entering a monastery. We have numerous
parallel seals belonging to a priest named Modestos, all found in
Palestine and from the 7th century CE.6 It is probably the seal of the
later patriarch of Jerusalem. Few women struck seals, and those
who did all belonged to the high aristocracy, with enough wealth to
have needed a boullotèrion to strike seals for the management of
their property. Many of their properties were originally public
lands (fiscal land and crown land) that were later received as a
donation. In a way, the beneficiaries of such donations, even when
they were women, dealt with these properties as had the civil

6
Many specimens of this seal were sold during auctions (cf Cheynet and Sode
2003: 239) and some are unpublished in Israeli collections.

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 SEALING PRACTICES IN THE BYZANTINE ADMINISTRATION 137

servants before them. Empresses did not strike their own lead seals
before the Comnenian period (end of the 11th century), except when
they ruled as regents or personally. Few women besides them
applied lead seals to documents, packages and chests containing
precious documents, relics or jewels. It is possible that there is a
dearth of lead seals belonging to women because most women
sealed their letters with wax seals. We have some lead seals for very
high-ranking women, such as the patrikia zostè. This title was reser-
ved for select women, often among them the mother-in-law of the
emperor (Cheynet 2000). During the Comnenian and Paleologian
period, we find more lead seals belonging to women. If more
women had their own boullotèrion to strike seals, one can conclude
that their social status had improved. They were all women of the
high aristocracy and managed their wealth themselves.

What were seals used for in the Byzantine world?

Sealing with gold was the privilege reserved to the emperor. This
privilege was challenged after 1204, but only on rare occasions
(Seibt 1994: 71-76). Very few of the gold seals have survived (most
of them have been melted). The Byzantine emperors would seal
important documents (chrysoboullon) with gold; less important but
still official documents with lead seals; and ordinary letters with
wax seals. When the emperors gave a piece of land, an exemption
from taxes, or other gifts to someone (dôrea), they would seal the
document with gold. Most of the gold seals preserved come from
Mount Athos, where the monasteries kept the written documents
proving their property titles.
The weight of a gold seal had both political and diplomatic
significance. The usual gold seal was 4.55 gr., and was equivalent to
the nomisma. The same imperial workshop produced both gold
coins and gold seals. The only way to distinguish a gold coin from a
seal is the presence of a channel inside the seal. When the emperor
wanted to signify the importance of the recipient, he would use a
heavier seal. A gold seal could be the equivalent of one, two, three
or four gold coins (nomismata). During the 11th C CE, the caliph in
Baghdad or in Cairo received the heaviest imperial seal (4 coins), an
indication of his political importance. This signified the recognition
of the caliph as a ruler to be reckoned with.
Byzantine seals were frequently made of wax but these were lost
when the original documents were destroyed. Most of the

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 138 JEAN-CLAUDE CHEYNET AND BEATRICE CASEAU

Byzantine seals we have in museums around the world are made of

lead.7 When the emperor sent simple orders (prostagmata) to the
civil servants, he used lead seals. Hundreds of imperial seals made
of lead have been preserved. Lead was not costly. It mostly came
from silver mines as a byproduct. It was malleable and easy to
strike. A 14th C CE manual of how to write pittakia (simple orders on
a folded paper, an equivalent of the prostagmata) reveals that lead
seals were very often used for recipients of a high status and wax
seals for all others (Darrouzès 1969). The patriarchal chancery, for
which the manual was written, had similar practices. The patriarch
would use lead seals for the emperor, the despotes, the caesars,
foreign rulers or for the other patriarchs. Patriarchs of Constan-
tinople only sealed their documents with wax seals, when they
were being sent to metropolitan bishops and other bishops. More
modest recipients received letters without a seal. Receiving a sealed
document was an honor; seals displayed the hierarchy of recipients.
Seals were not used for ordinary documents.
Most of the recovered seals belonged to civil servants and were
also made of lead. Millions of seals were struck by them during the
thousand years of the Byzantine empire, but only some 80,000 were
preserved. Their use was not consistent throughout the centuries.
Except imperial seals, few seals predate the 6th century. Starting
with the reign of Justinian, seals became more numerous. The
increasing number of civil servants and the expansion of the
Empire in the 11th century explain why the highest number of
preserved seals is from this century. After the reign of Alexis
Comnenus, they were not as frequently used. Their creation and
use decrease even more after 1204, though they escape a complete
extinction under the Palaeologian dynasty.
Seals were used to authentify a document or an object. They
were also useful in keeping certain documents secret. Military
orders, sent by the emperor or by generals, are examples of docu-
ments that needed to be sealed for secrecy. Reports on the state of
a province were also intended only for the eyes of the recipients. In
the event of seals being used to protect the secrets of a document,
they were broken when the document was read and then discarded,
or melted into something else. Seals were also attached at the

7
The most important collections are in Dumbarton Oaks (Washington DC), the
Hermitage (Saint Petersburg), and the Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris).

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 SEALING PRACTICES IN THE BYZANTINE ADMINISTRATION 139

bottom of documents to authentify them. Seals and signatures were

two means of authentifying an official document and were used
together. The author of the document would sign it and sometimes
describe his seal as well as attach it to the parchment. Rarely the
seals are found still attached to the original document. When the
seal has been lost but not the document, often the documents
provide us with a description of the seal’s iconography and of its
inscription (Wassiliou 2002: 137-160). Most of the documents in the
Athonite archive have lost their seals; unfortunately, this is the
only archive important enough to allow us an investigation into the
uses of seals and the limits of their use.
On some of the seals, we find countermarks added by the
Byzantine financial administration. When a B is struck on a seal, it
is an indication that the “basilike sakelle” dealt with the order
received on the document to which the seal was attached. It is a
way to say ‘done’ or, most likely ‘paid’. The B stands for “basilike.”

Fig. 3: N. proedros and logothetes of the genikon, with a countermark B

inscribed on one face (Cheynet 2008, no 7)

Some seals only have iconography, indicating that they were

valued in themselves and not as a means of identification. In a
document dated from 975 and kept in the Athonite archive, the “ek
prôsopou” Théodoros Kladôn confirms the monasteries’ possession
of peasants attached to the land (paroikoi). His seal has Saint
Nicholas on one side and Saint Pantelèimôn on the other side.
Except for the sacra nomina, it is an anonymous seal. Nevertheless, it
was appended to the document. This shows that seals themselves
were necessary, but not the name of the civil servant on the seal,
given it was recognized as his usual seal (Lefort et al. 1985: acte no 2,

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 140 JEAN-CLAUDE CHEYNET AND BEATRICE CASEAU

109). Seals played a secondary role in the authentification of a

document, but they were honorific. When the monks created false
documents, they appended seals. Some of them were so clumsily
chosen that they give away the falsity of their documents, even in
the cases of carefully-copied original donations. The monks
carelessly re-used already detached seals, which had fallen from
other documents, and appended them to the new ones
(Oikonomides 1997: 69-74).
The Byzantine administration was aware of these kinds of abuses
and worried about the proper destruction of boullotèria of civil
servants, whether promoted or retired. When a civil servant was
promoted, or received a new honorary title, he received a new
boullotèrion, probably from the central administration. The high
quality of many provincial seals means that they were made by
well-trained craftsmen, probably in Constantinople. Philaretos
Brachamios, an army general, ruling the large region around
Antioch, Edessa and Melitene at a time when the Turks had cut the
road crossing Asia Minor towards Constantinople, had struck seals
of very different qualities: some were very fine and others rather
mediocre (Cheynet 2008: II 390-410). It is possible that he received
beautifully made boullotèria from Constantinople but had to have
new ones made in Antioch. Philaretos Brachamios lived in a time
when communication with Constantinople was difficult, because of
the Turkish invasion. It is possible that his own boullotèrion broke
and he could not have a new one made in Constantinople.
Boullotèria made of iron and struck by a hammer, could break or
wear out when used intensively (Nesbitt 1991: 1858). Shaped like
pliers, they were used to pinch and strike blank roundels of lead.
The two heads of the boullotèrion were engraved in reverse. When
one side of the seal is of very high quality and the other one is poor,
we assume that the boullotèrion had to be repaired locally
(Oikonomides 1983: 147-157). It was difficult to find skilled artisans
for that kind of intricate engraving in the provinces in the Middle
byzantine period.
We also have civil servants who had more than one boullotèrion,
although they did not change jobs or received a new title. On their
seals, the inscription is always the same, and only small details
reveal that they were not struck by the same boullotèrion. This is an
incongruency difficult to resolve. One hypothesis is that they lent
their boullotèrion to civil servants under their orders (V. Prigent,
oral communication 2009). In any case, civil servants were respon-

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 SEALING PRACTICES IN THE BYZANTINE ADMINISTRATION 141

sible for the proper use of their boullotèria and had to make sure
that they were eventually destroyed when they left their service.

How personal were these seals?

A middle Byzantine seal often has one side with an inscription and
another side with an image, usually of a saint. When the seal came
from an institution such as the monastery of Saint-Sabas in
Palestine, the iconography remained stable for centuries (McGeer et
al. 2005: no. 19.6 and 19.7). Even the inscription did not change.
When seals belonged to a particular bishopric, the saint repre-
sented was often the saint to whom the cathedral was dedicated.
Some bishops chose otherwise, but the choice was a statement.
Among the favorite saints, Mary and Nicholas were the most
frequently chosen (Cotsonis 2005: 383-497). Mary was a favorite
everywhere but especially in Constantinople. Nicholas seemed to be
a popular choice among Constantinopolitan civil servants.
Could civil servants choose their prefered saints or were they
offered saints instead? Having a choice depended on the rank and
the social origin of the civil servant. Well established aristocratic
families had their “family” saint on their seals. The Xèroi for
example had Saint Mark on many of their seals, and the presence of
this saint – rarely chosen for Byzantine seals – allows us to identify
some of the seals as belonging to a member of the family Xèros
(Caseau 2011). In this manner, the choice of saint functioned as a
kind of trademark. Lesser civil servants may not have had a say in
the saint on their seal, which would explain the prominence of
some saints.

Seals and the imperial image

Imperial seals bore the image of the ruling emperor and sometimes
of his co-emperors as well. The image of the emperor was also
present on seals belonging to persons needing to authenticate a
document or to guarantee the quality of a good. The presence of an
imperial portrait gave the seals authority: the sealed object had an
imperial guarantee that it was genuine or of good quality. Heads of
the imperial workshops working on silks had imperial portraits on
their seals, during the first centuries of the Middle Ages (Laurent
1963-1972: II 330). Such seals played an important role in economic
and diplomatic matters.

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 142 JEAN-CLAUDE CHEYNET AND BEATRICE CASEAU

Fig. 4: Julian, apo hypaton, kommerkiarios of the apothek of Helenopontos

and second Armenia with the portrait of Justinian II (Cheynet 2001, no 36).

The seals of kommerkiarioi in charge of controlling trade and taxes

bore portraits of the emperors (Oikonomides 1986: 33-53; Fig. 5).
The imperial image worked on seals the way it worked on coins. It
added an element of official guarantee. Appending the seal of a
kommerkiarios on trade goods proved that the tax had been paid.
Essentially, it was some sort of official stamp of the emperor. Traces
of rough cloth found on some of the early seals of kommerkiarioi
reveal that they were placed directly on the bags of the goods
themselves, although how this was done remains unclear.

Fig. 5: Seal of Julian, Sergios and Stephanos, kommerkiarioi of Tyre, with

marks of the cloth bag to which it was attached, coll. Seyrig (Cheynet et al.
1991, no 142a)

Seals created in the years between 673/674 and 730 bear the
indiction for one or two years. This is how we can date these seals
so precisely. The kommerkiarioi of this period had the right to buy

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 SEALING PRACTICES IN THE BYZANTINE ADMINISTRATION 143

and stock trade goods during these specific years. Holders of very
important titles and close to the emperors, they acted as large-scale
tax farmers. From 730 onward, the seals of kommerkiarioi became
anonymous. At this point, the State controlled the taxes directly
again and sent civil servants of a lower profile to levy them. Later
in the 9th century, the kommerkiarioi were put in charge of levying
the Kommerkion, a trade tax of 10% on transactions. They also
checked the goods exported by foreign merchants: some high
quality silks were not to be sold outside of the Empire. An
ambassador, bishop Liutprand of Cremona, had his silk coats
confiscated at the customs of Corfou: they were of too high a
quality for his masters (Liutprand of Cremona 1993: § 56). His
embassy to the Byzantine Empire under Nicephorus Phokas had
turned into a very sour experience. These high-quality silks were
reserved for the emperor and those whom the emperor wished to
honor with a gift. The emperor sent presents to rulers abroad in
bags sealed with the seal of the logothetes of the genikon, the finance
minister. In London, seals of the Byzantine financial office have
been discovered in the Thames. Evidently, they had been
obliterated on each side and inscribed with a B (for basilikon, i.e.
imperial). It is likely that they were attached to an apokombion full
of gold. Their obliteration probably means that the financial service
had paid the sum due, as seen above (Cheynet 2003: 85-101).
In order to export Byzantine products, foreign merchants
needed an authorization sealed with the eparch’s seal. The eparch
was the Byzantine equivalent of the Roman urban prefect. He
supervised corporations and trade in Constantinople. We must note
the presence of the imperial portrait on seals of the archon tou
blattiou, head of the imperial silk workshops.

Fig. 6: Seal of John, chrysoepsetes and archon tou blattiou, coll. Dumbarton
Oaks DO 58.106.662 (Laurent 1981, no 649)

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 144 JEAN-CLAUDE CHEYNET AND BEATRICE CASEAU

The imperial portrait guaranteed that the purple dye was made
with a marine snail, the murex. The price of the dye was very high
because 10 000 shellfish were required to make 1 gram of dyestuff
(Laurent 1981: 330). The imperial portrait was also present on the
seals of the chrysoepsetes, who was in charge of melting gold
(Laurent 1981: 649). In all these examples, the image of the emperor
worked as an indicator of quality.
Seals were also used to close bags and other objects. At the court,
once a year for the roga, or occasionaly for a promotion or a
celebratory event, the titled aristocracy received bags of gold coins
and silks. The coins were counted and enclosed in leather bags,
called apokombia, carefully sealed before the distribution
(Magdalino 1991: 135-136). The seal showed that no one had
tampered with the number of coins within. Precious objects such as
relics that were rarely displayed were sealed. This was a security
measure. This way, one was sure that the real relics were in the
reliquary. The stealing of relics was not uncommon during the high
Middle Ages; many unscrupulous persons also presented false relics
to the faithful (Geary 1990). After his victory against the Persians,
Heraclius managed to bring back the reliquary containing the holy
cross that the Persians had captured in Jerusalem in 614. One of the
Byzantine tales concerning the holy cross maintains that the seal
on the reliquary was intact, proving the authenticity of the pieces
of wood triumphally transported to Constantinople (Nicéphoros
1990: 66; Flusin 1992: 311-312). During the Paleologian era, the
Russian pilgrim Stephen of Novgorod saw reliquaries bearing the
imperial seal in the monastery of Saint-Georges (Majeska 1984: 35).

Byzantine seals and their imitators

Sealing documents with lead seals was not costly. It was well
adapted for the Byzantine administration, which valued written
documents and made many copies of a single document (Caseau
2009: 159-174). Seals added prestige to official documents. This
model impressed neighbouring states. In the caliphate, a small
number of civil servants sealed documents with lead seals
(Heidemann and Sode 1997: 41-60). The papacy and Venetian doges
were well acquainted with Byzantine administrative practices and
continued to use lead seals, even when they were no longer under
Byzantine rule. When the Normans established themselves in the
South of Italy and in Sicily, they used lead seals with Byzantine

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 SEALING PRACTICES IN THE BYZANTINE ADMINISTRATION 145

titles mixed with their own Western titles. In the Latin crusaders’
lands, lead seals were commonly used by the aristocracy and the
clergy. Finally, Russian princes, once christianized, adopted
Byzantine sealing practices, as did the Serbs. In all these examples,
it is possible to observe a Byzantine influence on sealing practices.

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