Dissigillare e sigillare a Hierapolis: una bulla plumbea e un anello sigillo bizantini

The essay presents two metal artefacts related to the sealing activity. The first is a lead Byzantine bulla, found in the House of the Ionic Capitals. It is not completely legible, but a comparison with an identical specimen from the Staatliche Münzsammlung in Munich allowed the missing elements to be integrated. The name of the owner of the seal seems to be Theodoros (less likely Dorotheos), son of Eupaterios. Bullae on which a son/father relationship is indicated are not documented before 650 A.D., reaching their peak in the 8th century. The find of the artefact in Hierapolis indicates that the document it sealed was opened in the city of Phrygia. Its presence in US 483 appears to be of a residual nature, in analogy with the discovery of two bronze coins of much earlier date. The second artefact is a bronze ring datable between the 6th and the beginning of the 7th century A.D. from the House of the Doric Courtyard. On the convex band is applied a circular bezel, engraved with an anthroponymic block monogram that could refer to a man named Mena, Michael or Manasse. The ring was discovered near the doorway of the domus, in a stratigraphic context that corresponds to the collapse of the proto-Byzantine structures of the house. It is therefore related to its last period of its frequentation (first half of the 7th century). Its sealing function can be referred to an epistolary activity, but also to the sealing of containers, in order to secure their contents. The use of the modest ring could therefore be linked to the transformation of the living spaces of the domus, related to public-commercial purposes. It would, therefore, reveal the name of the owner of the domusd, or more probably that of one of his superintendents, who used the ring in the course of their mercantile occupations.