E02971: Bronze attachment, of the 6th/7th c., with intaglio figure of a horseman with nimbus, probably *Sergios (soldier and martyr of Rusafa, S00023) and a surrounding Greek inscription ‘camel-driver of Saint Sergios.’ From Palestine, now in the University of Missouri-Columbia Museum of Art and Archaeology.
Images and objects - Other portable objects (metalwork, ivory, etc.)
Images and objects - Rings and seals
Inscriptions - Inscribed objects
Language
Greek
Evidence not before
500
Evidence not after
700
Activity not before
500
Activity not after
700
Place of Evidence - Region
Syria with Phoenicia
Place of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Thabbora
Thabbora
Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
Cultic confraternities
Cult activities - Use of Images
Private ownership of an image
Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Merchants and artisans
Discussion
The piece was acquired by the museum in 1972 (Byzantine Art Nr 73). Originating from the antiquities market rather than from dated archaeological contexts, this object, alongside a bronze bracelet (E02972), attest to the existence of a body of camel-drivers, perhaps a company or guild, operating under the patronage of Sergios or possibly employed by one of his shrines.
Bibliography
Muse 7 (1973), 11
Fowden, Elizabeth Key. The Barbarian Plain: Saint Sergius between Rome and Iran. The Transformation of Classical Heritage 28. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999, 35-39.
cf. SEG 45, 1885