Tessera

This article covers the archaeological term tessera; for the island of the same name see Tessera (island) .

Tesserae or mosaic stones

Tessera ( Latin for square ; plural: tesserae ; the word is derived from the ancient Greek τέσσαρες / téssares - "four") is the name for the small square, polygonal or round plates made of stone, ceramic , ore , lead , bone, terracotta , Glass or similar hard materials that are used to lay out mosaics .

Later, tessera was also used to denote the dice and the tiles that were used as identification, entry tickets or coins. These tesserae could also have other shapes, for example tesserae are often in a round shape, but also in stick shape or figuratively occupied.

Tesserae as brands

Size comparison: Roman tessera - 1 cent

The Greeks called tesserae σύμβολα / sýmbola (singular: symbolon ) and were authorization, entry or identification tags , as well as game and counting tags. In Athens they were used as attendance marks for popular assemblies and court hearings and as such were entitlement marks for financial compensation. Symbolon also referred to the residence permit for foreigners temporarily living in the country ( Xenoi , more precisely parepidēmúntes παρεπιδημοῦντες ).

In the Roman military, tesserae militares were used. For example, the name of the soldier could be applied to this; the objects then served as a kind of identification tag. In addition, tesserae were used in the army to convey passwords. From this the name of the tesserarius was derived, who as an employee of a centurion had to do this task among other things.

Aureus des Macrinus - The emperor distributes tesserae among the people

The most famous tesserae are in the shape of coins. They were minted just like this and were mostly made of brass. On the lapels were mostly numbers from I to XVI - rarely to XIX - embossed on the obverse the emperor was coined in the early imperial period of the head. These tesserae frumentariae were grain brands that acted as tokens for the free supply of grain ( Latin annōna ). They were introduced around 23 BC. In the course of the reform of the grain supply of the city of Rome by Augustus . The numbers mark the day of grain distribution between the Ides and the Calends ; the day was determined by counting down from the calendar. Tesserae, which were used as theater tickets, were also made of clay.

Clay tessera for theater entry, 3rd century AD, Palmyra

Roman lead essera minted in Alexandria under Hadrian . Obverse: Antinous with hem-hem crown and crescent moon. Reverse: Sarapis with kalathos and scepter

In the private sector there were cast lead esserae that were used within the clientele as vouchers for money or food. They were also used as a kind of substitute money in religious life and at festivals. A special group of the tesserae are the spintriae , which were probably used in the field of prostitution .

Tesserae were also used in the private sector . From ivory -made discs with concentric rings and numbers from I to XX on the obverse were tokens, in the form of animal or plant they were Lossteine probably used in the private sector.

Metalla , which used to be called mining brands, are not tesserae despite similarities .

Tesserae nummulariae

Tesserae nummulariae were square or hexagonal chopsticks made of bone or ivory, which were attached as seals to bags containing a certain number of coins. A specially trained slave (see Nummularius ) had checked and counted the coins beforehand.

The square chopsticks had the slave's name on the first page, the name of his master on the second page, the spectavit on the third page with the day and month and on the fourth page the two consuls in office as the year. With the hexagonal chopsticks, the first four sides were labeled in the same order as with the square chopsticks. The other two sides are decorated with ornaments.

A square stick made of bone, dated July 23, 5 AD, contains the following information:

CINNAMVS
HOSTILI
SP X K AVG
C VIB C ATEI COS

"Cinnamus, (slave) of Hostilius, carried out the examination on July 23, when C. Vibius and C. Ateius were consuls."

literature

• Alexander Mlasowsky : The ancient Tesseren in the Kestner Museum Hanover. Tokens, gaming and distribution tokens in ancient Rome . Kestner Museum, Hannover 1991 ( collection catalogs of the Kestner Museum Hannover , Volume 10), ISBN 3-924029-16-4 .
• Gerd Stumpf: Tessera. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 12/1, Metzler, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-476-01482-7 , column 178 f.
• Catherine Virlouvet: Tessera frumentaria. Les procédures de distribution du blé public à Rome à la fin de la République et au début de l'Empire . École Française de Rome, Rome 1995 (Bibliothèque des écoles françaises d'Athènes et de Rome, 286), ISBN 2-7283-0331-2 .

Web links

Commons : Tessera  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

1. ↑ According to Werner Eck, Andreas Pangerl, only two specimens of the hexagonal Tesserae nummulariae are known, while around 180 specimens of the four-edged are known.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Tessera. In: Angela Weyer et al. (Ed.): EwaGlos. European Illustrated Glossary Of Conservation Terms For Wall Paintings And Architectural Surfaces . English Definitions with translations into Bulgarian, Croatian, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Romanian, Spanish and Turkish. Michael Imhof, Petersberg 2015, ISBN 978-3-7319-0260-7 , p. 401 , doi : 10.5165 / hawk-hhg / 233 ( download ).
2. ↑ ^{a b} Werner Eck , Andreas Pangerl: Drei Tesserae nummulariae In: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik , Volume 210 (2019), pp. 231-234 ( online ).
3. ↑ Tessera nummularia ( ZPE-210-232.2 ).