E01781: 'Tessera' with a labelled depiction of *Mary (Mother of Christ, S00033) and the Christ Child. Found near Beroia/Aleppo (central Syria). Possibly late antique.
online resource
posted on 2016-08-03, 00:00authored bypnowakowski
A black stone 'tessera'. Diameter: 0.022 m (which seems implausibly small). There is no published image. First published by René Mouterde and Louis Jalabert in 1929, from a copy by Sébastien Ronzevalle.
Decorated with a depiction of Mary with nimbus, covered with a veil. She is seated in a large throne with its top decorated with crosses. The Christ Child is shown in the middle.
The image is labelled with a scarcely legible inscription on the right-hand side of the object:
Inscriptions - Inscribed objects
Images and objects - Lamps, ampullae and tokens
Images and objects - Other portable objects (metalwork, ivory, etc.)
Images and objects - Representative images
Literary - Magical texts and amulets
Language
Greek
Evidence not before
400
Evidence not after
1300
Activity not before
400
Activity not after
1300
Place of Evidence - Region
Syria with Phoenicia
Place of Evidence - City, village, etc
Beroia
Place of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Beroia
Thabbora
Thabbora
Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
Saint as patron - of an individual
Cult activities - Use of Images
Private ownership of an image
Cult Activities - Cult Related Objects
Ampullae, flasks, etc.
Discussion
The editors suggest that another label could have been placed on the left-hand side.
Dating: The editors say nothing about the possible date of the object. Given the lack of any image, we cannot say whether it is of a late antique or middle Byzantine date.
Bibliography
Edition:
Jalabert, L., Mouterde, R., Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie, vol. 1: Commagène et Cyrrhestique (BAH 12, Paris: P. Geuthner, 1929), no. 217.