Roman Miniature Sculptural Bezel Rings from a Caesarea Maritima Workshop

Roman rings with miniature “sculptural bezels” - a product of an early Roman workshop in Caesarea Maritima. A group of Roman period rings with miniature sculptured bezels depicting Egyptian deities was identified as a product of Roman Egypt by Karo (1901), Marshall (1907, reprint 1969) and others. The conclusion that these rings were initially made in Roman Egypt is accepted by some later scholars (Segal 1938; Leclant 1971). Other scholars, such as Hornbustel identified most specimens as provincial Roman pieces dating above all from the Severan period (later 1st-2nd century CE). Hornbustel suggested that under the Severans these rings were fairly common in Western Europe, and identifies their owners as private people or soldiers of the middle to lower classer (Hornbustel 1973). The origin of most published rings is hard to ascertain - some come from known regions, even from a specific site; but the provenance of many is unsecured.

Three new pieces of this ring type were found on the site of Caesarea Maritima; a fourth is said to come from the same site; and two others were acquired in Israel. Observations show that the initial prototypes for this ring type were indeed fashioned in Roman Egypt, by a workshop (or workshops) specializing in manufacturing gold rings, above all for religious patrons. Furthermore, that a workshop located in Caesarea Maritima in the late 1st century BCE to the 2nd century CE specialized in the production of this unique type of sculptured bezel rings. This Caesarean workshop probably played a part in the dispersion of this ring type into the Western Roman provinces.