Evidence ID
E01826Saint Name
Unnamed martyrs (or name lost) : S00060Type of Evidence
Inscriptions - Inscribed objects
Images and objects - Other portable objects (metalwork, ivory, etc.)
Archaeological and architectural - Extant reliquaries and related fixturesEvidence not before
500Evidence not after
1300Activity not before
500Activity not after
1300Place of Evidence - Region
Syria with Phoenicia
Syria with Phoenicia
Asia MinorPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
Antioch on the Orontes
Seleukeia Pieria
Seleucia ad CalycadnumPlace of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Antioch on the Orontes
Thabbora
Thabbora
Seleukeia Pieria
Thabbora
Thabbora
Seleucia ad Calycadnum
Nicomedia
Νικομήδεια
Nikomēdeia
Izmit
Πραίνετος
Prainetos
NicomediaCult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
VowCult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Other lay individuals/ peopleCult Activities - Relics
Reliquary – institutionally owned
Reliquary – privately ownedCult Activities - Cult Related Objects
Ex-votos
CrossesSource
A metal 'reliquary cross' (presumably hollow). H. 0.25 m. The upper branches are decorated with globes. The lower vertical branch bears the inscription.
Acquired by the British Museum in 1896, from the collection of Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks. Reported provenance: Seleucia. First published by Ormonde Dalton in 1901. Republished by René Mouterde and Louis Jalabert in 1953, based on a new copy by Jalabert.Discussion
The inscription says that the cross was an ex-voto offering of a certain Ioannes, son of Engolios (Aingolios/Engolis/Egolis, etc.). If it contained relics, there is no record of what these were.
Dalton published the cross, marking the provenance simply as 'Seleucia', without a precise identification of this city. Mouterde argued that this could be either Seleukeia/Seleucia ad Calycadnum (modern Silifke) in Isauria or Seleukeia/Seleucia Pieria (modern Suadiye) near Antioch-on-the-Orontes (north Syria). Though he reasonably pointed out that both the name of Ioannes' father and the formula εὐξάμενος τὴν εὐχὴν ἀπέδωκα are characteristic of southeast Asia Minor (see: E01082; E01083 and Monumenta Asiae Minoris Antiqua 3, no. 56), he eventually published the object under Seleukeia Pieria.
Dating: Dalton dated the cross stylistically to the 6th or later centuries.Bibliography
Edition:
Jalabert, L., Mouterde, R. (eds.), Les inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie, vol. 3/2: Antioche (suite). Antiochène: nos. 989-1242 (BAH 51, Paris: P. Geuthner, 1953), no. 1211.
Dalton, O.M., Catalogue of early Christian Antiquities and Objects from the Christian East in the Department of British and Mediaeval Antiquities and Ethnography of the British Museum (London: Printed by order of the Trustees, 1901), 113, no. 566.
