Original scientific paper
Antique Leadan Seals from Sotin (Cornacum)
Mato Ilkić
Abstract
Antique leaden seals from Sotin offer precious data about Cornacum, an antique locality situated some 10 kilometers southeast of Vukovar. In certain cases they are now the only archeological traces especially as far as some aspects of religious life is concerned. A large number of seals which have an official character relate directly or indirectly to the army. Those with the inscription COH II AVR D (Cat. no. 1, 2) belong to this group. Their greatest significance consists in the fact that they make a contribution to military history. Owing to these seals but also to numerous identical seals on tiles and tegulas it can be presupposed with a great deal of certainty that coh(ors) (secunda) Aur(elia) D(acorum) was stationed in Cornacum perhaps already after its formation during the reign of the emperor Marcus Aurelius or 222 as the latest date. Two seals show tetrarchs (Cat. no. 3, 4). Most of these with different images derive from the period of Constantius II (Cat. no. 5, 6, 9–11). On the most recent one are the busts of three emperors (Cat. no. 12). It probably displays one of the ruling parties after Valentinian I. The samples with the images of four soldiers standing at attention surely belong to the official seals (Cat. no. 13). Especially interesting is a seal with the image of the army, of Chrystogram, architecture and of a ship (Cat. no. 14). Going by its content it can be connected to the battle in 351. when Constantius II defeated the usurper Magnentia near the city of Mursa. Official seals bearing the portraits of the emperor but also showing military themes probably belonged to the state treasury. They garanted that prescribed amount of money was in bags. The abundance of such seals as well as the large number of coins from the same period can be brought into connection only with the sealed soldier’s pay which in Late Antique Cornacum was received by the members of the elite army units Cuneus equitum scutariorum and Equites Dalmatae. In the context of this sort of archeological material it is much more difficult to determine the origins of the city and private seals or the period when they were used (Cat. no. 19–31). There are not enough established points of reference which would with certainty solve this problematic. Probably the majority of such seals on which are shown different gods, such as the ones with Jupiter and Apollo (Cat. no. 19) belonged to some of the cities. In addition, it is even more difficult to determine the origins of those with animal figures (Cat. no. 22, 26). The samples with Latin and Greek inscriptions (Cat. no. 27, 28) could possibly relate to the personal names of their owners. Those with Christian and Jewish themes also belong to private seals. The sample with the image of Daniel in the lion’s den (Cat. no. 16) is interesting because it belongs to the period of Early Christianity which has been insufficiently studied in the area of continental Croatia. Because of the place where it was found, alongside the parish church of Mary the Helper in Sotin, the seal is significant when attempting to designate the possibly more accurate location of the early Christian community in Cornacum. The image of the candle with seven stems on two of the seals (Cat. no. 17, 18) undoubtedly connects them with the Jewish religion. These two also belong to the findings of interest because as of now they are unique phenomena. Considering that they were made according to an identical pair of models they certainly belong to the same or adjacent periods. Roman lead seals have been found, proportionately speaking, in all the parts of the Antique locality which is mainly located in the central part of today’s Sotin. Although of tiny dimensions and frequently in a dilapidated state, these numerous and content-wise very various cultural-historical findings are important for a fuller understanding of Antique Cornacum especially if we take into consideration the fact that systematic archeological excavations have not yet gotten under way on this multi-layered archeological locality in the Croatian sub-Danube region.
Keywords
Antique seals; Cornacum (Sotin); Antique archeology
Hrčak ID:
11882
URI
Publication date:
5.9.2006.
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