Archaeologia Adriatica, Vol. 2 No. 1, 2008.
Izvorni znanstveni članak
Notes on Spintriae from Salona in the Archaeological Museum in Split
Zrinka Buljević
orcid.org/0000-0003-3037-1876
; Arheološki muzej u Splitu
Sažetak
To date, two spintriae from Croatia have been more or less known, one from Majsan (an islet in the Pelješac channel; fig. 3 and 4) and one from Narona (Vid; fig. 5 and 6), both bronze. In contrast to these two, and seemingly all the others, the Salonitan spintria is made of pottery, hence it was not officially produced in the same Roman mint with the others. It is hence unique, like the spintria from Modena, which was made of gilded cast copper and can be considered the work of a goldsmith. This confirms the reproduction in antiquity of such objects. The find of the Modena spintria in a grave together with four coins from the Julian-Claudian period is the first archaeological confirmation of the chronology of spintriae based so far on the identity of the imperial figures on tesserae with a number on the reverse as well as the style of the depiction. The find of bone cubes, glass balls, and several glass pebbles might indicate the purpose of the spintria and the coins with the portraits of the imperial family from Augustus to Claudius – tokens for a version of the popular Roman game Duodecim scripta or a similar game. The owner evidently could not acquire the original, minted spintria, so he purchased a cast one, and possibly missing the original tesserae featuring imperial figures, he used coins. On the spintria from Salona, in contrast to the analogous examples, a baldachin is visible (otherwise present in certain other scenes on erotic tesserae), so it is conjectured that this spintra best reflects the original type in every detail. The pottery spintria from Salona was possibly produced privately, reproducing the original, probably from the Roman mint, for the same reasons the metal spintriae were produced.
Ključne riječi
spintriae; tesserae; erotic scenes; Salona
Hrčak ID:
37015
URI
Datum izdavanja:
23.5.2009.
Posjeta: 3.211 *