Sasanian Pseudo-Signet-Ring Excavated at the Palace of Mangup: The Aspects of Its Attribution and Interpretation

Abstract

In 2006, the excavation of the palace of the rulers of the Principality of Theodoro (1425–1475) in the central area of the ancient town of Mangup (south-western Crimea) uncovered a unique at this site signet-ring of yellowish chalcedony made in the sixth or early seventh century in Sasanian Iran. This find belongs to a group of the so-called pseudo-signet-rings (muhr); it shows an ellipsoidal shape (flattened hemisphere) with a narrow channel for hanging on the neck, wrist, or belt. On the shield of the signet-ring there is an image of a mountain sheep (аrhar) with steeply curved horns, lying to the left, with the legs tucked. It was accompanied with a number of official symbols of the ruling dynasty in the Sassanian State: the royal bow ashkharavand (of a ribbon tied round a front leg of the animal), a crescent with the horns upward (a young Moon, one of the symbols of the dynasty), and atashdan (Zoroastrian temple altar with burning fire). The composition of this image goes back to the legend about the founder of the Sassanian dynasty King Ardashir I (224–240), who defeated the last Parthian ruler Artaban V (213–224) and ascended the throne with the help from the deity of royal power, victory, might, luck, and glory Farr embodied in the mountain ram. Therefore, the first owner of the signet-ring was a member of the privileged part of the Sassanian society, using the ring to make signature or as a sign of ownership when sealing personal documents and items of trade transactions. Considering the circumstances of the discovery of the Sassanian ring in the cultural layer of one of the largest Byzantine fortresses in Taurica obviously constructed at the end of the reign of Emperor Justinian I (527–565), it is hardly worth thinking of direct official correspondence between the local Byzantine administration and someone from Iranian correspondents or the presence of the military contingents from Persia. Most likely, the find in question was simply a trophy of a Byzantine officer who took part in one of the many Byzantine-Sassanian military campaigns of the second half of the sixth or the first third of the seventh centuries and then continued his service in the garrison of Mangup-Doros.