Michael imperial spatharios and archon of Kerminitza (ninth/tenth century)
Obverse
Cross potent on three steps. Circular inscription between two wreath borders.
ΚΕΒΟΗΘΗΤΣΔΟΥΛ
Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ
Reverse
Inscription of five lines. Wreath border.
ΜΗΧ
ΑΙΛ,ΣΠΘ,
ΑΡΧΟΝΤ,
ΤΙΣΚΕΡΜΙ
ΝΙΤΖΑΣ
Μηχαὶλ βασιλικῷ σπαθαρίῳ καὶ ἄρχοντι τῖς Κερμινίτζας
Obverse
Cross potent on three steps. Circular inscription between two wreath borders.
ΚΕΒΟΗΘΗΤΣΔΟΥΛ
Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ
Reverse
Inscription of five lines. Wreath border.
ΜΗΧ
ΑΙΛ,ΣΠΘ,
ΑΡΧΟΝΤ,
ΤΙΣΚΕΡΜΙ
ΝΙΤΖΑΣ
Μηχαὶλ βασιλικῷ σπαθαρίῳ καὶ ἄρχοντι τῖς Κερμινίτζας
| Accession number | BZS.1955.1.1544 |
|---|---|
| Diameter | 26.0 mm; field: 21.0 mm |
| Previous Editions | DO Seals 2, no. 27.1. |
Translation
Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Μηχαὶλ βασιλικῷ σπαθαρίῳ καὶ ἄρχοντι τῖς Κερμινίτζας.
Lord, help your servant Michael imperial spatharios and archon of Kerminitza.
Bibliography
- Catalogue of the Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and at the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 2: South of the Balkans, the Islands, South of Asia Minor (Open in Zotero)
- Corinth, Vol. 12, The Minor Objects (Open in Zotero)
- Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
- De Administrando Imperio (Open in Zotero)
- Notitiae Episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Open in Zotero)
- Urkunden zur älteren Handels- und Staatsgeschichte der Republik Venedig (Open in Zotero)
- Peloponnesische Wanderungen: Reisen und Forschungen zur antiken und mittelalterlichen Topographie von Arkadien und Achaia (Open in Zotero)
- Neue Peloponnesische Wanderungen (Open in Zotero)
- Νέα στοιχεῖα γιὰ τὴν Ἐπισκοπὴ Κερνίτζας (Open in Zotero)
Commentary
The seal is of provincial make with unequal letters and presents many archaistic features, such as the wreath border and the two-loop beta which would normally indicate a date before the mid-9th century. Yet the cross and the circular inscription between two borders, and the almost open beta of the reverse, point to a later date. We know of several other archontes in the Peloponnesos, probably indicating a certain degree of self-administration in parts of the peninsula, for example in Corinth and Patras (Corinth XII, nos. 2695, 2705, 2723), and in Argos and Nauplion (mentioned in Laurent, Corpus V/1, 426). These archontes (including those of the Slavic tribes that survived as separate entities, such as the Melingoi and the Ezeritai (but also of the "Hellenes" of Maïni) were normally (early 10th century) appointed by the strategos (De Ad. Imp., chap. 50, lines 31, 80).
We take it that Kerminitza must be an older form of the placename Kernitza, attested from the 13th century (also as Pernitza, Peternitza), the ancient Boura, a small village close to Diakophto in the northern Peloponnesos, which was also a bishopric suffragan of Patras (Darrouzès, Notitiae, no. 13, line 542; the seal of a bishop of Kernitza is published by Zacos, Seals II, no. 267 [commentary]; another one has been discovered at the Corinth excavations: information kindly provided by A. Dunn; and a bishop Theodore of Kernitza is attested in 1210: G. Tafel-G. Thomas, Urkunden zur älteren Handels- und Staatsgeschichte d. Republik Venedig II [Vienna, 1857], 120). See E. Meyer, Peloponnesische Wanderungen (Zürich-Leipzig, 1939), 137 ff; idem, Neue Peloponnesische Wanderungen (Bern, 1957), 85 ff; Bon, Morée franque, 469; A. Lampropoulou and A. Moutzali, "Νέα στοιχεῖα γιὰ τὴν ἐπισκοπὴ Κερνίτζας," Proceedings of the 4th International Congress of Peloponnesian Studies, Corinth 9-16 September 1990 [Peloponnesiaka, Parartema 10], volume II (Athens, 1992-93), 373-386. It has been proposed by Meyer that the name was Slavic, from črn = black. We are wondering however, whether this is not simply a diminutive of the placename Kerpini, a village much further to the south, on the mountain, in the neighborhood of Kalavryta, which would give *Kerpinitza: this is close to the placename on our seal as well as to the variants of the name of Kernitza mentioned above. Or should one think of a diminutive of *kermen'>kremen' = flint, as suggested with much caution by A. Každan?