SEAL IMPRESSIONS OF ‘PROPHYLACTIC’ SYMBOLISM ON PITHOI FROM THE FORTRESS OF BOUKELON NEAR ADRIANOPOLIS

Year 2025, Volume: 1, 102 - 111, 15.04.2025

Mariela Inkova , Panayot Antonov

Abstract

The fortress of Bukelon is located in the immediate hinterland of Adrianople (ancient Hadrianopolis; modern city of Edirne, Republic of Turkey). It lies along the route of the meridional road, which in Late Antiquity connected the Provinces of Moesia Inferior (Moesia Secunda) and Haemimontus in the Diocese of Thracia on the way to capital city of Constantinople. In the Middle Ages this same road was the main connection between the Bulgarian Tsardom to the north and the Byzantine Empire to the south. It is one of the few fortresses in the region, the name of which is mentioned repeatedly in the historical sources. In Late Antiquity it is mentioned as the seat of a bishop.
Regular archaeological surveys began in 2017. The stratigraphy of the cultural layers has been established. The earliest traces of habitation date back to the Early Iron Age. On the plateau of the fortress settlements existed in the Late Iron Age, as well as in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. The impressive fortification system was probably constructed in the 4th – 5th centuries and was repaired in the 6th century. There are also traces of reconstruction works carried out in the Middle Ages, specifically in the Middle Byzantine period, judging by the recorded usage of clay instead of mortar in the masonry of some sections of the wall.
Numismatic materials span from the Hellenistic to the Ottoman period and indicate almost uninterrupted habitation. The importance of the fortress in the Middle Ages has been additionally confirmed by the discovery of several Byzantine lead seals from the 11th – 13th centuries.
In 2022, in the remains of one of the rooms of a building attached to the late antique fortress wall, two fragments of a pithos with cross-shaped stamps applied before the firing were found. Similar finds are known from the area of the Western Black Sea coast and the Attic peninsula, dated to the 6th – 7th centuries. A few examples of graffiti with incised crosses and inscriptions in cursive letters from the area of the Western Black Sea coast and the Lower Danube region suggest their apotropaic, ‘prophylactic’ function in relation to the food supplies preserved in the pithoi.

Keywords

Boukelon fortress, Late Antiquity, Early Byzantine period, pithoi, western Black Sea coast, early Christian symbolism, ‘radiant cross’, prophylactic stamps and inscriptions

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