CLAY SEALINGS FOR PAPYRUS DOCUMENTS FROM MORGANTINA

Abstract

This paper publishes three clay sealings, sometimes
referred to as bullae or cretule, found during excavations at the site of Morgantina in central Sicily (Fig. 1).
These small objects, which once secured papyrus documents, have long passed unnoticed in the storerooms
of the American Excavations at Morgantina (AEM).
As growing attention is paid to the systematic study and publication of Hellenistic sealings from the Mediterranean,
now seems a worthy time as ever to make known these objects from Morgantina1. When compared to the
enormous numbers attested at sites like Zeugma (ca. 140,000) and Seleucia on the Tigris river (ca. 30,000), the
three sealings found at Morgantina would appear a rather underwhelming group in terms of quantity2. They are,
however, worthy of further consideration and comment, not least because they are the first direct, material evidence
for the use of papyrus as a medium for writing at Morgantina3. In fact, they are the only such sealings with
impressions of papyrus and an archaeological provenance from eastern Sicily that are known to the author. The
sealings also shed light on aspects of life in the ancient city that have gone otherwise unattested in the material
record, such as the maintenance of personal archives.