Seals and Stamps
from Graeco-Roman and Byzantine Egypt

Seals: an overview

The overview has been published as:
 
K. Vandorpe, "Seals in and on the Papyri of Greco-Roman and Byzantine Egypt", in: M.-Fr. Boussac & A. Invernizzi (edd.), Archives et Sceaux du monde hellénistique (Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique, Suppl. 29), Paris 1997, p. 231-291and 11 fig.
 
In the version of this website, some addenda to the overview are added.

I. Introduction: object of the study, purpose of the sealing and material used for the seals
 
II. The Sealing of a Part of the Papyrus
Some papyri are sealed only partly. They belong to the so-called double documents, documents that are inscribed twice; the upper part is sealed so that the text cannot be falsified (scriptura interior), the lower part is left open so that it can easily be consulted (>scriptura exterior). This is a typically Greek practice, taken over for certain Egyptian documents.

  1. The Greek Six-witness Contracts
  2. Greek Notary Contracts
  3. Receipts
  4. Other Greek Double Documents
  5. Demotic Double Documents
  6. The Roman Era
III. The Sealing of the Entire Papyrus
Comparatively many seals have survived on double documents, for the good reason that they were never loosened. The seal remained in its original place until it was discovered in the 19th or 20th century. This is not the case when the whole document was sealed, as happened with letters or wills, because they were opened once in the past and the seals in most cases lost.
  1. Letters
  2. The Roman Wills
  3. Other Sealed Documents
IV. The Sealing of Objects and Buildings
 
V. Seals and their Representations
 
VI. "Untersiegelung"
 
VII. Red Stamps
 
Addendum: Seals on Greek (-Arabic) papyri of the Arab period
 
Addendum: Amphorae stamps

© 2009 Katelijn Vandorpe |