| Abstract: |
This chapter presents stone seals reportedly unearthed at the site of Khao Sam Kaeo over the years. None of them was found in the Thai-French excavations. (sic) Nevertheless, in the interest of collecting as much information as possible, they are all included here as a class of artefacts which provides decisive knowledge about the people in the ancient settlement. Over the years and on occasion, several of the seals in local ownership have been photographed and few prints have been made by the Thai-French team. (sic) Their provenance from the site is not doubted, but only for CAT. 9 could be ascertained a more precise location of its find spot. It was found at the foot of the north-eastern slope of Hill 3 which yielded a great amount of archaeological material associated with South Asia. The Suthi Rattana Foundation acquired several of these seals previously dispersed in local ownership. They have been studied in detail for this chapter. Impressions could be made, and the ringstone CAT. 16 has been submitted to non-destructive scientific analysis. Some other stones of unknown present location have been studied for this chapter only from photographs. Where possible, an illustration of the seal impression is given in addition to the photograph of the stone itself, since the engraving on the seal face is usually done mirror-inverted because it is meant to be viewed from the impression where it would stand out in relief. This applies in particular for the seals with inscriptions in Indian scripts. However, the inscriptions are not always engraved correctly in reverse, as is pointed out in detail in the catalogue entries. In the catalogue, the seals are grouped in a typological order according to their shape. The type of most of the seals, their designs and inscriptions point to a South Asian origin or source of inspiration. However, some seals which either appear to be unfinished or exhibit certain other peculiarities might have been locally manufactured according to South Asian perceptions. The motifs on the stamp seals like the taurine, the swastika, and the triangle-headed standard are well-known in India in the Later Mauryan and in the Sunga period. The seals in the shape of a rectangular prism, perforated lengthwise, carry Brāhmī inscriptions, usually the name of the owner in the genitive thus pointing to the presence of South Asians at the site. Some of these inscriptions have been studied by several scholars in the past years. The readings and comments by Stefan Baums, Oskar von Hinüber, Iravatham Mahadevan, Richard Salomon, and Peter Skilling, given as personnal communications to Bérénice Bellina, as well as the more recent ones by Harry Falk, given as personal communications to the writer of this chapter, are all included here and presented in the catalogue entries. One of the seals, CAT. 9, is of special interest because it was inscribed with a female name
its owner may have been a trader woman. It is also noteworthy for its many engraving mistakes regarding direction and omission to mirror the letters. It is possible that the engraver was a local craftsman. Based on palaeographic grounds as well as on the choice of motifs, most of the seals may be assigned to a period between the 2nd century BC and the 1st century AD
the prism seal CAT. 12 may possibly date even from the 3rd to 2nd centuries BC. Khao Sam Kaeo yielded also a Roman intaglio engraved with a picture of Mars, the Roman god of war, probably dating from the mid-2nd to early 3rd century AD. The garnet intaglio CAT. 16, engraved with a lion in Indian style, is here tentatively dated to the 1st to 2nd centuries AD, although a slightly earlier date is not to be excluded. Current research assigns the stone, an almandine garnet, to an Indian garnet deposit (see analysis). The sphere CAT. 18 is included here because of the Brāhmī inscription, albeit it is not a seal, and its inscription is not in retrograde. The four characters engraved on it have been reviewed by Harry Falk, with the surprising result that this inscription with a suggested date in the 1st century BC might be at present the earliest written evidence in Southeast Asia related to Buddhism. The incidence of objects of such personal character among the finds from Khao Sam Kaeo may certainly be taken as evidence for the presence of South Asians at the site, also among them, at least one woman. The same applies for the two Chinese bronze seals found at Khao Sam Kaeo. Like the Indian seals, they might have been owned by traders, and used to seal letters and packages with merchandise. Roman intaglios, usually set in a finger ring, were also used as personal seals, but, engraved with a pictorial devise only, they could also be enjoyed merely as a piece of jewellery. Being without an explicit owner's inscription, their figurative representation might have made them attractive for a wider clientele, not necessarily restricted to persons connected to the Roman world. Whereas the Indian and Chinese seals with owners' names may be taken as indicators for the actual presence of persons from South and East Asia, we should be cautious to draw definite conclusions from the finds of Roman intaglios in Southeast Asian contexts. In any case, the seals found at Khao Sam Kaeo are important documents which, together with other evidence, establish the cosmopolitan character of the place.
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