A HOLY RIDER AMULET FROM SYEDRA
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14795/jaha.13.2.2026.1583Keywords:
Holy Rider, apotropaic amulets, Late Antiquity, Early Byzantine period, SolomonicaAbstract
This article examines a medallion-shaped bronze apotropaic amulet discovered during the 2024 excavations at Syedra in Cilicia from technical and iconographic perspectives. On the obverse, the object bears the “Holy Rider” scene, in which a nimbed mounted figure attacks a female demon with a spear. Although the Syedra example is uninscribed, its iconographic core still allows it to be situated within the broader repertoire of protective images that became widespread in the Eastern Mediterranean during Late Antiquity and the Early Byzantine period. The study focuses in particular on the production technique and typological position of the object. While many such medallions are known to have been produced as composite two-part objects (A+B), the expected B side of the Syedra amulet was not recovered. In addition, the absence of the running lion motif, which frequently appears in repoussé medallions of this group, suggests a local variant that preserves the common typological core without fully repeating the standard scheme. Since the possibility of redeposition in the H3 context limits the value of stratigraphic dating, the chronology is discussed on the basis of iconographic and typological parallels as well as regional distribution; on this basis, the most probable date for the amulet is proposed as the fifth to sixth centuries CE.
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