LEAD TRADE SEALINGS FROM ANCHIALUS

Abstract

Αγχίαλος arose as a colony of Apollonia at an yet undetermined time in the 6^th – 4^th century BC. The settlement, mentioned in later sources with the designations πολίχνιον and φρούριον, was located at the eastern end of the present Pomorie Peninsula, which was then still an island. On the continental coast west of it, from the 5^th – 4^th cеntury BC onwards a satellite settlement developed, the central place of which was occupied by a large temple complex dedicated to the Mother of the Gods. It is assumed that in the last decades of the 1st century BC and until the liquidation of the Thracian kingdom in AD 46, the administrative centre of the Αγχίαλος strategy was located here.

During the reign of Emperor Trajan, Αγχίαλος received the status of a city, but in this case it was not a matter of a natural development of the settlement from the previous period, but actually of the creation of a new city, built according to the modern canons of Roman urban planning mainly on previously uninhabited terrain.

Roman Anchialus developed on a vast peninsula on the continental coast, west and south of the existing satellite settlement structure with the temple complex. Built at the beginning of the last quarter of the 2^nd century, the fortress wall of the city encloses an area of about 50 ha. The port of the city was situated to the south-west of it, in a strongly penetrating inland and sufficiently deep bay, which was enlarged and improved by the construction of a powerful breakwater. Although with significant territorial reductions, Anchialus continued to exist at this place until the third quarter of the 13th century, when, most likely for reasons of greater security, it moved to the naturally protected terrain at the end of the present Pomorie Peninsula, whose formation was finally over by that time.
The remains of the Roman, Late Antique and Medieval (up to the third quarter of the 13^th century) Anchialus are situated in the locality called Paleokastro in the modern “St. George” district of the town of Pomorie and a significant part of them have been destroyed to one degree or another by modern construction. However, regular and rescue excavations sporadically conducted since 1966 have provided abundant data on the site’s topography, town planning, complex stratigraphy and chronology.

The subject of this communication are several lead trade sealings found in various places within the limits of the ancient city. All of them were acquired in the course of archaeological research led by the author, but far from all of them originate from a clear and chronologically reliably determined context. In these and other cases, the suggested identification and dating of the monuments is based on parallels known to the author from other places.