Remarks on the iconography of the engraved gem and cameos of Novae (Moesia Inferior)
The collection of the Historical Museum of Svištov (Northern Bulgaria) includes at present 139 glyptic items, among them ten cameos. All of these come from the territory or the vicinity of Novae, a legionary camp established around the years 45–46 A.D., presumably by the 8th Legion (Augusta), which...
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Кримський філіал Інституту археології НАН України
2006
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irk-123456789-1729602020-11-18T01:27:28Z Remarks on the iconography of the engraved gem and cameos of Novae (Moesia Inferior) Nowak, M. The collection of the Historical Museum of Svištov (Northern Bulgaria) includes at present 139 glyptic items, among them ten cameos. All of these come from the territory or the vicinity of Novae, a legionary camp established around the years 45–46 A.D., presumably by the 8th Legion (Augusta), which after Vespasian’s ascension to the throne was relocated to Gaul and replaced in Novae by the 1st Legion (Italian) in the year 69. With time Novae evolved from a legionary camp guarding the Lower Danubian limes into a Roman and early-Byzantine city, which existed until the 620s. В собрании Исторического музея в Свиштове (Северная Болгария) хранится в настоящее время 129 гемм. Все они были обнаружены в Новах. Первоначально это был римский военный лагерь, охранявший римскую границу над Нижним Дунаем, в позднеантичный и ранневизантийский периоды преобразованный в город. 2006 Article К вопросу об иконографии гемм и камей из Нов (Нижняя Мезия) / M. Nowak // Херсонесский сборник. — 2006. — Вип. 15. — С. 159-164. — Бібліогр.: 14 назв. — англ. XXXX-0129 http://dspace.nbuv.gov.ua/handle/123456789/172960 en Херсонесский сборник Кримський філіал Інституту археології НАН України |
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The collection of the Historical Museum of Svištov (Northern Bulgaria) includes at present 139 glyptic items, among them ten cameos. All of these come from the territory or the vicinity of Novae, a legionary camp established around the years 45–46 A.D., presumably by the 8th Legion (Augusta), which after Vespasian’s ascension to the throne was relocated to Gaul and replaced in Novae by the 1st Legion (Italian) in the year 69. With time Novae evolved from a legionary camp guarding the Lower Danubian limes into a Roman and early-Byzantine city, which existed until the 620s. |
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Nowak, M. Remarks on the iconography of the engraved gem and cameos of Novae (Moesia Inferior) Херсонесский сборник |
| author_facet |
Nowak, M. |
| author_sort |
Nowak, M. |
| title |
Remarks on the iconography of the engraved gem and cameos of Novae (Moesia Inferior) |
| title_short |
Remarks on the iconography of the engraved gem and cameos of Novae (Moesia Inferior) |
| title_full |
Remarks on the iconography of the engraved gem and cameos of Novae (Moesia Inferior) |
| title_fullStr |
Remarks on the iconography of the engraved gem and cameos of Novae (Moesia Inferior) |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Remarks on the iconography of the engraved gem and cameos of Novae (Moesia Inferior) |
| title_sort |
remarks on the iconography of the engraved gem and cameos of novae (moesia inferior) |
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Кримський філіал Інституту археології НАН України |
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2006 |
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http://dspace.nbuv.gov.ua/handle/123456789/172960 |
| citation_txt |
К вопросу об иконографии гемм и камей из Нов (Нижняя Мезия) / M. Nowak // Херсонесский сборник. — 2006. — Вип. 15. — С. 159-164. — Бібліогр.: 14 назв. — англ. |
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Херсонесский сборник |
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AT nowakm remarksontheiconographyoftheengravedgemandcameosofnovaemoesiainferior |
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2025-07-15T09:25:27Z |
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2025-07-15T09:25:27Z |
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1837704442537836544 |
| fulltext |
159
Херсонесский сборник. Выпуск 15
M. NOWAK
remArKs oN the iCoNoGrAphy of the eNGrAved Gems ANd CAmeos of NovAe
(moesiA iNferior)
The collection of the Historical Museum of
Svištov (Northern Bulgaria) includes at present 139
glyptic items, among them ten cameos. All of these
come from the territory or the vicinity of Novae, a
legionary camp established around the years 45–46
A.D., presumably by the 8th Legion (Augusta), which
after Vespasian’s ascension to the throne was relocated
to Gaul and replaced in Novae by the 1st Legion
(Italian) in the year 69. With time Novae evolved from
a legionary camp guarding the Lower Danubian limes
into a Roman and early-Byzantine city, which existed
until the 620s (Biernacki 2003: 7–10) (Fig.1).
The collection of glyptic items analyzed below,
was first established in the 1920s. It was when Stefan
Stefanov, the first Director of the Historical Museum
of Svištov, purchased the first ancient objects which
the local people had found while working in the fields
near the city (Dimitrova-Milčeva 1987: 193). The
collection has eventually grown into the second largest
in Bulgaria, after that of the Archeological Museum
of Sofia, and now includes almost 60 engraved gems
and 10 cameos from Novae.
The earliest gems are dated to the end of the 1st and
to the 2nd cent., when Novae was strictly a legionary
camp. Most representations are of deities related to war,
combat and victory. There are many gems depicting
the superior god, Jupiter Optimus Maximus, typically
shown in one of the three iconographic patterns: as
the Capitoline Jupiter sitting on a throne in a hieratic
attitude, standing with attributes or accompanied by
other deities (Fig. 2/1). The most numerous, however,
are gems bearing images of Mars Ultor (Avenger)
(Fig. 2/2) and of Mars Gradivus marching at the head
of an army and carrying the legionary emblems on his
shoulder.
There are also images of the goddesses whom the
army worshiped: Venus Victrix, typically portrayed
with a shield, a Corinthian helmet and a spear in her
hand (Fig. 2/5); Minerva, usually shown standing,
wearing a Corinthian helmet and holding a shield and
a spear (Fig. 2/6); and winged Victoria walking on the
globe, most often depicted in profile with an oak wreath
and the palm of victory in her hands (Fig. 2/7). Further
deities who are usually associated with the army,
include the Dioscuri, the patron gods of the Roman
cavalry. These are usually represented as naked
youths, their hair held by diadems with the star of the
Julii at the top (Fig. 2/3), leaning on spears or riding
horses.
Due to their wide circulation, glyptic items were
conducive to the popularizing of certain political
ideas, and also testified to their owners’ strong sense
of identification with the state, loyalty and devotion.
Moreover, engraved gems also featured portraits
and symbols of emperors, the latter including the
particularly popular Capricorn (Fig. 2/13), the emblem
of the Augustus’s cosmic and mystical destiny (Zenker
1999: 232).
Obviously, the legionary eagles and other emblems
symbolized the legion itself. A sacred power which
was ascribed to them gave them the status of guardian
spirits. Very popular iconographic representations of the
eagle showed it among the legionary emblems or with a
wreath of oak leaves (a corona civica) (Fig. 2/15).
Later, as Novae began to evolve into a city,
glyptic items from its territory were mainly decorated
with images of civilian nature, related to agriculture,
commerce and the crafts. Within this group, there
are numerous gems with the engraved representation
of: Mercury, the patron god of herds and herdsmen,
roads and travelers, and commerce, usually depicted
standing with the caduceus in one hand and a purse
with money in it in the other (Fig. 2/4); Ceres, the
patron goddess of agriculture (Fig. 2/9), typically
shown standing with ears of grain in her hand (at the
turn of the 3rd cent., this figure began to be portrayed
as a syncretic hybrid with Fortuna, taking over her
attributes: the cornucopia and the rudder); and Fortuna
in a frontal view, with the cornucopia and the rudder
(Fig. 2/8).
As the other small form arts, glyptics also
developed its own language of symbols, signs, slogans
and allegories. Personifications typically embodied
moral values, but also welfare and affluence, good
fortune, eternity, favourable condition of the spirit
and the body, victory and desirable events.
160
Новак М. К вопросу об иконографии гемм и камей...
Three personifications appear on the engraved
gems of Novae: the Concordiae, identified with
harmony in both the state and private spheres,
especially in regards to spouses, siblings and co-
rulers, which was represented by the gesture of
shaking their right hands - dextrarum iunctio (Fig.
2/12) (Mikocki 1997: 50); Aequitas, identified with
justice and illustrating the principal imperial virtues-
shown with scales and the cornucopia (Fig. 2/10)
(Mikocki 1997: 10); and Bonus Eventus, personifying
fortunate events, and depicted as a young man with
an epergne and ears of grain (Fig. 2/11).
Many engraved gems are charms of the gryllos
and abraxas types, which allegedly provided to their
owners more lasting benefits, e.g. successes in life or
divine attention and protection. These were decorated
with various symbols and short magic spells (voces).
Of particular interest are the gems with the gryllos
type of images – fantastic combinations of the human
body, animal, bird and fish body parts, and sacral
objects (Fig. 2/14). These images are found on glyptic
and toreutic items and in vase painting in the Balkans,
dating as early as the 7th cent. B.C. Engraved gems
of this type were expected to reduce the influence of
sinister forces on people and to protect them from
the evil eye, diseases and misfortunes. They were
the most popular in Moesia in the 2nd and 3rd cent.
(Dimitrova-Milčeva 1972: 40).
The collection also features a charm of the
abraxas type. These were produced in Alexandria in
Egypt and flourished in the 2nd and the 3rd cent. (Zwier-
lein-Diehl 1979: 39). They were usually engraved
on both sides, their decoration included Egyptian
as well as Greek, Jewish and Christian motifs. They
often featured magic spells, typically in Greek. The
reverse side showed the demon Abraxas, portrayed
as a half-animal, half-man with a rooster’s head and
the extremities of a serpent, wearing an armor on his
torso and carrying a whip in one hand and a shield in
the other (Wypustek 2001: 183). The rooster, which
was a solar bird, was believed to provide protection
from the darkness and demons, while the snakes
symbolized the nether world. Sometimes a lion’s,
a jackal’s or an ass’s head appeared instead of a
rooster’s (Dimitrova-Milčeva 1975: 126).
The collection of the Historical Museum of
Svištov also includes eleven cameos, two of them
are preserved in their original gold settings. They
adorned medallions encountered from mid-2nd cent.
A.D. until the end of the late Ancient period. Their
iconography is typical for the art of the 2nd and 3rd
cent. The items in the collection can be divided into
four types of representation, characteristic of the
provincial glyptics of that time: images of a child’s
(Amor’s) head, the Genius Mortis, women’s busts,
and Medusa’s heads.
Of particular interest are the cameos showing
a child’s (Amor’s) head (Fig. 2/18). Although the
design of the relief is rather simple, it features a
distinctive hairstyle: the hair is combed to the sides
and covers the ears, with a braid in the middle of the
forehead laid along the head. Scholars have identified
these as falerae, military tokens of honor.
The motif of the Genius Mortis appears on
many glyptic items (Fig. 2/17). The figure is always
represented in the same iconographic pattern:
standing, leaning on a torch by a sacrificial altar, with
crossed legs. Most images are carelessly executed,
and the Genius’s head and wings are executed with
the use mere lines. These items date to between the
late 2nd and mid-3rd cent. A.D.
The glyptic female portrait is typical of the second
half of the 2nd and the first quarter of the 3rd cent.,
or the period of the Antonines and the Severi. These
images occur mainly in the provinces of Moesia
Inferior, Moesia Superior, Thrace, Dacia and the two
Pannoniae, as well as on the northern coast of the
Black Sea. A few such items have also been found in
the Rhenish provinces. The shared characteristics of
these items include the shape of the gem, the model’s
position (usually shown in profile), and the way of
portraying the hairstyle and the dress. The busts are
executed in a fairly crude manner, typically by means
of slanting lines, while the hairstyles most often in
the current fashion of the imperial court are shown
more realistically and in more detail than the faces
and the clothes (Fig. 2/16).
Cameos bearing the image of Medusa’s head and
set in earrings, rings and medallions were used not
only as adornments but also as apotropaic symbols
(averting evil influence) (Fig. 2/19). In the 3rd and
4th cent., this motif was highly popular on the lower
Danube and on the northern coast of the Black Sea.
The discussed items bear a wide variety of images,
from a pantheon of deities through personifications
of virtues and diverse symbols and charms to
representations of wild and domestic animals, and
date to the period from the 1st to the 4th cent. A.D.
They come from various stages of the history of
Novae and testify to the conditions of those times: the
religion, the owners’ position in the local community,
their political sympathies, and fashion.
Several engraved gems and cameos from the
turn of the 2nd cent. are of very high quality: they
are extremely carefully and flawlessly made and
have a thoughtfully designed layout of the image.
These were apparently made in Italian workshops
and brought to Novae by the soldiers of the Legio
161
Херсонесский сборник. Выпуск 15
I Italica, which was quartered there. In the 3rd and
4th cent., the motifs were engraved and carved in an
increasingly crude manner, and the gems were made
less painstakingly. In most images from the latter
period, one notices shortened proportions, elongated
faces, highly emphasized muscles and a greatly
simplified technique of representation. The engraving
on most of these relics is shallow.
The engraved gems and cameos were probably
made in provincial workshops, whose customers
were mainly the legionaries guarding the Roman
limes, their families and the Romanized populations
which inhabited the areas of the military bases at first
and then the cities. Such workshops may well have
operated in the Lower Danubian provinces: Moesia,
Dacia and Pannonia. In terms of technology and style,
they made use of the practices of Italian workshops
and copied their designs (Sena Chiesa, Facchini,
1985: 13). One must remember, however, that the
existence of glyptic workshops in the Balkans has
not been archaeologically confirmed, and therefore it
may be validly claimed that the region was supplied
by the products of the workshops of Aquileia (until
the 3rd cent. A.D.) and Campania (in the 3rd cent. A.D.)
(Krug 1995: 189–190), especially since these small
items were easy to transport. The gem engravers
might also have been itinerants who carried the tools
of their trade with them (Krug 1993: 270). Still, the
Balkan scholars do not agree with this supposition
and prefer to identify the locations of glyptic
workshops as Viminacium (now Kostalec, Serbia),
whose production included the cameos with female
busts and with images of Medusa and Durostorum
(now Silistra, Bulgaria), whose production included
the cameos with portraits (Popović 1989: 11).
Since more than 200 glyptic artifacts, among
them unfinished engraved gems, have already been
found in Novae and its area, it is tenable to claim
that a local glyptic workshop in the city existed there
in the 2nd and 3rd cent. Located at the junction of the
communication route along the southern bank of the
Danube with the road leading from the Barbaricum to
the south, to Thrace and Byzantium (Biernacki 2003:
7), Novae would have been a reasonable location
for such a business venture. Another possible site of
the workshop is in Ratiaria (now Archar, Bulgaria).
In the 3rd cent., the latter city was a major center
of goldsmithery in Northern Moesia (Ruseva-
Slokoska 1991: 17) which supplied all the Balkan
provinces with its products; there is also evidence
of its commercial and cultural interchange with the
northern coast of the Black Sea and particularly with
Chersonesus Taurica (Dimitrova-Milčeva 1980: 23).
The existence of close contacts between these centers
in the Antiquity is further supported by the similarities
of the images, especially on the cameos with female
busts and with Medusa’s heads. Moreover, both
cities had military origins, which ensured subsequent
economic and cultural prosperity of the urban areas
and of their art. Whatever the actual location of the
workshop was, Novae clearly can boast one of the
richest collections of glyptic items in the provinces.
This, in turn, proves the brisk demand for this type of
jewelry and also the high degree of the Romanization
of the local population in the 2nd and 3rd cent. A.D.
Although the local makers of the engraved gems and
cameos followed certain generally accepted designs,
their work also featured characteristics typical of the
region, probably in order to satisfy the aesthetic and
emotional needs of the local people.
Translated by P. Znaniecki
BiBlioGrAphy
Biernacki B.A. 2003 Novae. Novae. Antyczne miasto. Zabytki ze zbiorów Muzeum Historycznego w Swisztowie. (Poznań).
Dimitrova-Milčeva A. 1972 Грили от Националния археологически музей София. Археология. (София). 1.
Dimitrova-Milčeva A. 1975 Magischen Gemmen aus Thrakien und Mösien in der Römerzeit. Народни музеj. (Београд). 8.
Dimitrova-Milčeva A. 1908 Antiken Gemmen und Kameen aus dem Archäologischen Nationalmuseum in Sofia. (Sofia).
Dimitrova-Milčeva A. 1987 Gemme e cammei del Museo Stolico Comunale di Svištov. Ratiarensia 3-4.
Krug A. 1993 Gemmy antyczne w Średniowieczu. Meander 5-6.
Krug A. 1995 Römische Gemmen in Rheinischen Landesmuseum Trier. Bericht der RGK 76.
Mikocki T. 1997 Zgodna, pobożna, skromna, piękna.... Propaganda cnót żeńskich w sztuce rzymskiej. (Wrocław).
Popović I. 1989 Les camées romains au Musée national de Beograd. (Beograd).
Ruseva-Slokoska L. 1991 Roman Jewellery. A Collection of the National Archaeological Museum Sofia. (Sofia).
Sena Chiesa G., Facchini G.M. 1985 Gemme romane di etа imperiale: produzione, comerci, comittenze. ANRW II,12.3.
Wypustek A. 2001 Magia antyczna. (Ossolineum).
Zenker P. 1999 August i potęga obrazu. (Poznań).
Zwierlein-Diehl E. 1979 Die antiken Gemmen des Kunsthistorischen Museums in Wien. (München). 1.
162
Новак М. К вопросу об иконографии гемм и камей...
РЕЗюМЕ
М. Новак
К ВОПРОСУ ОБ ИКОНОГРАФИИ ГЕММ И КАМЕЙ ИЗ НОВ (НИЖНЯЯ МЕЗИЯ)
В собрании Исторического музея в Свиштове
(Северная Болгария) хранится в настоящее время
129 гемм. Все они были обнаружены в Новах.
Первоначально это был римский военный лагерь,
охранявший римскую границу над Нижним
Дунаем, в позднеантичный и ранневизантийский
периоды преобразованный в город.
Геммы из Нов, датирующиеся I–IV вв.,
характеризуются большим разнообразием
изображений: от богов, разнообразных символов
и амулетов до диких и домашних животных.
Иконография гемм неразрывно связана с
различными периодами жизни в Новах и является
отображением религиозных пристрастий,
положения их собственника в местном обществе,
его политических симпатий, а также моды. В
I-II вв., когда на территории Нов располагался
I Италийский легион, явно доминируют
изображения богов, связанных с войной, борьбой
и победой (Юпитер, Марс, Минерва, Венера,
Виктория), со счастьем, удачей и здоровьем
(Фортуна, Bonus Eventus, Асклепий и Гигия). В
период, когда военный лагерь начал превращаться
в город, появляются изображения, связанные с
гражданским обществом, сельским хозяйством,
торговлей и ремеслом: Церера, Меркурий,
геммы с изображением животных. Популярными
становятся также магические геммы, на которые
был спрос и военных, и гражданских жителей
города.
Представленный археологический материал
по способу обработки и иконографии находит
множество аналогий в других провинциальных
центрах на Нижнем Дунае, Рейне, а также в
Северном Причерноморье.
Перевод с польского Е.Ю. Клениной
163
Херсонесский сборник. Выпуск 15
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164
Новак М. К вопросу об иконографии гемм и камей...
Fig. 2. The Gems and Cameos of Novae
|