E02972: Bronze bracelet, 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 mentioning a ‘camel-driver of Saint Sergios of the Barbarikon.’ Recorded in the antiquities market of Beirut in 1960.
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
600
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
Saint as patron - of a community
Cult activities - Use of Images
Private ownership of an image
Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Merchants and artisans
Discussion
Originating from the antiquities market rather than from dated archaeological contexts, this object, alongside a bronze attachment now in the University of Missouri-Columbia Museum of Art and Archaeology (E02971), 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. This particular piece may indeed be directly associated with the shrine of Rusafa, since it mentions explicitly its region, the Barbarikon.
Bibliography
Mondésert C. (1960) « Inscriptions et objets Chrétiens de Syrie et de Palestine, » Syria 37, 123-125.
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