Arkhaia Anatolika (Mar 2022)
Parion Hristiyanlık Tarihine Yeni Bir Katkı: Parion Başpiskoposu Ioannes’in Kurşun Mührü / A New Contribution to the Christian History of the Parion: The Lead Seal of Ioannes, Archbishop of Parion
Abstract
The subject of the study is a Byzantine lead seal belonging to Ioannes, the archbishop of the city, which was found in Parion in 2009. The study deals with Parion’s Christian era, the function of the seal and its iconographic features, respectively. Additionally, evaluations were made about the structure in which the seal appeared in the light of numismatic and other archaeological data in the seal’s context. Thanks to its geopolitical location suitable for maritime trade and its two natural harbors, Parion was inhabited continuously as an important port and commercial city from the 8th century BC to the 14th century AD. Founded as a Greek colony in the 8th century BC, Parion was granted colony status by Iulius Caesar at the end of the Roman Republic Period. During the Byzantine Era, it was a significant episcopacy center within the region where the Christian faith was strongly represented. Parion, which was the episcopacy center at the beginning of the 4th century AD, was elevated to the status of an archbishopric center in AD 640 and maintained this status until the end of the 13th century AD. The data on bishops assigned to the city of Parion, which has been episcopacy center for nearly a thousand years, is rather insufficient. Despite the fact that three modern studies on the bishops serving in Parion have identified the names of a total of 21 bishops, none of the three studies mention Archbishop Ioannes. The information that Archbishop Ioannes served in Parion in 1072 AD was understood after scanning the synod lists that were included in the episcopal lists. The data on Parion episcopal seals are also quite insufficient and only four examples have been published; seal belonging to Euthymios, who was bishop in the 9th century AD, seal belonging to Constantine, the bishop of the 11th century AD, a seal that probably served in the 11th-12th century AD but without the bishop’s name on it, and seal belonging to the 12th century AD bishop Nicetas, in auction catalogues. Despite the fact that the ancient city of Parion has been the episcopacy center for a long time and many bishops have been assigned, every scientific study will contribute to the study of Anatolian sigillography because studies on the city’s bishop seals are insufficient. The seal of Ioannes, the Archbishop of Parion, which is studied within the scope of this study and is not well known, holds a significant place in both Byzantine Period of Parion and sigillography studies.
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