Object Description
A rare example of a Byzantine cast bronze stamp, probably used in Antiquity on bread. The stamp features an unusual quatrefoil shape, possibly a symbol for the four Greek doctors, Athanasius, John Chrysostom, Gregory of Nazianzus and Basil the Great. The stamp bears an inscription in Greek letters, written in two intersecting lines.
Stamps have been used for millennia, at least since Mesopotamian civilization, and the Byzantine Empire resumed the pagan tradition of marking objects. This specific stamp could be related to the liturgy and the bread used in church. Indeed the stamp could have marked the Eucharistic bread or the consecrated one, served after the Mass. The inscription could therefore be related to the bread-maker or evoke passages of the Bible.
Date: Circa 7th-11th century AD.