445, Lot: 281. Estimate $500. Sold for $700. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PALMYRENE, Palmyra. Shime‘ôn. 1st-2nd centuries AD. Clay Tessera (32x28mm, 6.00 g, 12h). Priest reclining facing; to left, an acolyte standing right, holding a pitcher and crater; between the two, figure standing left in oval frame; in exergue, ŠM‘WN BR ḤYRN (Shime‘ôn, son of Ḥaîran) / Priest reclining facing, holding cup(?) in raised hand and palm frond over shoulder; to left, plant with five large fruits; in exergue, KMRY’ DY BL (Priests of Bêl). Du Buisson T.M. 43; RTP 12. VF.

Ex Elsen 120 (15 March 2014), lot 416.

Tesserae, usually made of clay but also found in other media, played an important role in the intersection of Palmyrene religious and civic life between the first century AD and the city’s destruction by the emperor Aurelian in the third century. Before a major religious banquet, invitees would be given a tessera as a form of invitation – these tesserae sometimes featured the name of the priest responsible for inviting the guest or organising the feast, as well as a depiction of a feasting scene showing the priest himself in his distinctive flat-topped hat, or another image of religious significance. Some tesserae also include the date of the celebration. In addition, the distinctive shapes of each token seem to be connected in some way to the extended family networks of Palmyra; a useful attribute given that priesthoods were hereditary and were held by high-status families. A great quantity of tesserae have been found in excavations of the drains of the four banqueting halls annexed to the city’s various temples, suggesting that these were single-use tokens, allowing a guest admittance or certain quantities or types of food or drink. Making these tesserae was a laborious, multi-step process, indicating the importance of policing who was admitted to these events.

For more detail on the role of tesserae in Palmyrene religious life, see Rubina Raja’s 2016 paper ‘In and Out of Contexts: Explaining Religious Complexity through the Banqueting Tesserae from Palmyra’ in Religion in the Roman Empire, Vol. 2, No. 3, pp.340-371.