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• Several Notes on Engraved Gems from Southern Pannonia

  43–57

  Iva Kaić

  Views:

  59

  Engraved gems from Eastern Pannonia are well known thanks to the scholarly work of professor Tamás Gesztelyi on the gems from Brigetio, Acquincum, Intercissa and Gorsium. Carnuntum in Western Pannonia yielded more than 1300 engraved gems, thus outnumbering all other findspots in the Province. In order to further complement the topography of gem findspots in Pannonia, this paper provides a brief conspectus of the engraved gems from Siscia in Southern Pannonia.

• Il cavallo vittorioso nelle gemme del Museo Archeologico di Venezia: Vincas, Non Vincas, Te Amamus

  105–123

  Bruna Nardelli

  Views:

  47

  In this paper a small group of engraved gems, kept in the glyptic collection of the Archaeological Museum of Venice, is taken into consideration. It is important to underscore their cultural value and our hope is that researches centring on this precious collection might contribute towards the overall progress on glyptic studies. A few intaglios presented here depict victorious horses. In usual iconography horses drawn in profile with a palm branch placed in various positions is the element that permits classification of the gems, into several groups. In the gems under discussion here there are also some intaglios that belong to the group with the image of racing scenes, a very frequent themes in the roman glyptic. Two red jaspers, depicting the chariot race, are very good examples of the elegant simplification of the well-known iconography, the chariot race set in the Circus Maximus: the drawing presents simple and clear shapes with no internal details but with an accuracy displaying the famous cliché of one circus race. The schematic work and the stylistic and technical characteristics of two gems demonstrate the standardisation of the motif and indicate a serial glyptic production during the second century A.D.

• The Gems in the Ustinow Collection, Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo

  101-141

  Tamás Gesztelyi

  Views:

  210

  Scientifically, the collection’s primary importance is its Middle-Eastern origin; collections of gemstones from the Middle East have rarely been published unlike those from European archaeological sites. Thus the possibility opens up to compare finds from the eastern and western parts of the Roman Empire with a focus on similarities and differences. While in the western provinces the gemstones typically spread during the era of the Roman Empire, in the eastern provinces the use of seals and gemstones goes back several thousand years. It follows that in the western regions, representations of the official themes of the age of the emperors, including the characteristic figures of gods of the state religion (Jupiter, Minerva, Mars, Venus Victrix), are the most common. In contrast, the eastern provinces saw the spread of representations of local gods (Zeus Ammon, Zeus Heliopolitanos, Sarapis) or the Hellenistic types of the Greek gods (Apollo Musagetes, Aphrodite Anadyomene, Hermes Psychopompos). However, there were figures of gods that were equally popular in both regions, such as Tyche–Fortuna, Nike–Victoria, Eros–Amor, Dionysos–Bacchus, Heracles–Hercules. Each of these became rather popular in the Hellenistic World, spreading basically spontaneously throughout the entire Roman Empire. There was a similar unity in the popularity of represenations of animals, too.
  The eastern region was, however, characterised by the relatively large number of magic gemstones. There is a piece among these which has no exact analogy (Cat. 69) and its analysis sheds new light on the previous interpretation of similar pieces. The popularity of magic gemstones is highlighted by the fact that some of their motifs became distorted beyond recognition in the popularisation process. Understandably, Sasanian gemstones and seals, which revived the Romans’ dying custom of sealing for some time, were also typical of the eastern regions. What is conspicuous is that the stone cameos (agate, sardonyx) so common in the western regions are completely missing from the collection, while there is a fair number of glass cameo pendants made in the eastern regions.
  From an educational and community cultural aspect, the significance of the Ustinow collection lies in the fact that it represents several historical and cultural eras between the fourth century B.C. and the fifth century A.D. for the benefit of the interested public, private collectors, and students of archaeology and the antiquities. The gemstones may be small, but the representations on them can be extraordinarily rich in meaning. With adequate enlargement and due professional expertise, which this catalogue aims to promote, all this information can come to life in front of us, allowing us a glimpse into the lives and thoughts of the citizens of a Mediterranean world two thousand years back.

• Le pied de Sérapis de la sculpture à l’intaille : étude d’un thème isiaque caractéristique

  107–128.

  Dominique Barcat

  Views:

  113

  The so-called foot of Serapis sculptures (i.e. those in the round with a bust of Serapis directly on top of a right foot) are well known and studied. Nevertheless, it was still necessary to take into account the representations of this motif in other media, such as gems and coins. And that is precisely the purpose of the present paper. In the following pages, these images are analyzed in the iconographical context of their period (1^st and 2^nd centuries CE). Such an approach allows us to observe the development of the motif in the different materials. In addition, this analysis will help us better understand the meaning of this image, and also to formulate some theories concerning the possible uses of these gems.

• Il dipinto di Teodoro Matteini con Angelica e Medoro nella Glittica

  155–184

  Gabriella Tassinari

  Views:

  45

  The difficulty of representing the paintings in the gems has determined their lesser success in the glyptic repertoire compared to the representation of the sculptures. However, the engravers received a successful painting, such as the one painted by Teodoro Matteini in 1786: Angelica and Medoro carving their names on the bark of a tree, scene from the Orlando Furioso of Ariosto. This study analyzes the reproduction of the painting in the glyptic. The image appears on high quality intaglios and cameos by famous engravers, such as Giovanni Beltrami, Clemente Pestrini, Domenico Calabresi, who sometimes make variations to the composition; on anonymous gems, and in shell, cheaper material. A cameo mounted on the lid of a box / snuffbox in Ischia’s lava, a fashionable vehicle for the transmission of messages, testifies to the intense diffusion and circulation of Matteini’s painting.

• Las Gemas Uterinas y la Terapéutica de las Piedras en la Obra de Oribasio de Pérgamo

  95–105.

  Mercedes López Pérez

  Views:

  107

  Uterine gems belong to a group of amulets, usually engraved on red minerals, such as jasper and carnelian; the most used is the hematite or “blood stone”. The iconography of the uterus in these gems refers to the mobility of the uterus, an idea already present in Plato's Timaeus (Pl., Ti. 91c.), and in the Greco-Roman medical texts, the wandering uterus theory. In this work we will complete the analysis of uterine gems with the use of stones as a therapeutic in the work of Oribasio de Pérgamo.

• Gemstones from Roman Britain: Recorded in the Portable Antiquities Scheme

  25–41

  Martin Henig

  Views:

  103

  Roman gems have continued to be discovered in Roman Britain and published in archaeological reports and notes since the author completed his Corpus of Gems from British Sites in 1978. A new source of glyptic material can be found in the on-line publication of Portable Antiquities (Portable Antiquities Scheme) which includes intaglios, most of them found without stratigraphical context, by users of metal detectors, though many are set in rings, which provide significant aids in dating. Others were clearly re-used as they are set in seal matrices or medieval rings and were frequently freshly imported at that period from southern Europe. In the High Middle Ages, as in Roman times, intaglios reflect the interests, and patterns of thought of those who wore and valued these beautiful objects.

• Das Hin und Her der Blicke, Eidola in der Pupille Augenförmiger Gemmen: Liebesgeschenke mit Amulettcharakter?

  185–203

  Carina Weiss

  Views:

  55

  The presented group of late Republican to early Imperial intagli consists of round layered stones (sardonyx, cornelian onyx) with a flat reverse side, which are strongly convex on the front side. Their horizontally stacked and differently coloured plies are sanded on the front to form concentric rings around a dark centre. The motif incised in this centre looks like an eidolon in the pupil of a 'fisheye'. Most of these motifs can be interpreted against the background of Augustan love poetry. It is possible that gems of this kind were gifts of love and, due to their striking design as an eye, also had an apotropaic function.

• Eine magische Gemme mit Inschriften im Akademischen Kunstmuseum der Universität Bonn

  205–216

  Erika Zwierlein-Diehl

  Views:

  55

  The magical gem published here belongs to the Akademisches Kunstmuseum der Universität Bonn (Abb. 1–2.; measurements: 33 x 24 x 6 mm). It stems from the collection of Klaus Müller, who acquired it in the 1960th or 1970th. Obverse and reverse of the gem are filled with inscriptions, most of them consisting of unknown voces magicae, and possibly some meaningless letters to fill the space. On the obverse a prominent inscription invokes Eloe, that is Elohim, the Jewish God, who entered the magic pantheon like Greek and Egyptian ones and under the name of Iaō, even got an image in the figure of the cock-headed, snake-legged warrior. Eloe here means the great magic Sun god, as becomes apparent by Semese(ilam) in col. d 6. The reverse names Thoth, the Moon god. Thus the gem was an amulet for day and night, that is for ever. The bevel of the gem is left plain, so it could have been personalizied by an inscription, which was not the case; thus in its present form the gem was an amulet for every owner.

• Oedipus Riddles

  131–140

  Andrej Preložnik

  Aleksandra Nestorović

  Views:

  59

  The paper discusses an interesting group of glass intaglios with the motif of Oedipus and the Sphinx. They are known from sites between the Adriatic, the Danube and the Black Sea, and occur in various colors and cuts, which suggests production in different molds or even workshops. Probably modeled on an intaglio made in an Italian officina gemmaria, the glass replicas may have been produced at Aquileia. The style points to the Late Republican or Augustan era, whereas the material of the glass copies and the funerary context from Aquincum show they were in use and probably produced till the 4 th century. The paper also discusses the possible meanings of the motif, from a simple illustration of the famous heroic adventure to a metaphoric depiction representing the mystic message of the key to a blessed afterlife.

• The Magical Fomula on a Lost Uterine Amulet

  111–114

  Edina Gradvohl

  Views:

  55

  The article tries to reconstruct the inscription of a magical gem found in 1883 in Torontál which went lost by now. For this reconstructive work I used other gem inscriptions and also other magical papyri and lead tablets in order to compare the two types of texts. The inscription contains the Soroor-logos and the Gigantorekta barophita-logos as well. The gem and the inscription together were used for the protection of the uterus.