This preliminary study of the so-called ‘Pistiros Inscription’ challenges the dominant interpretation of the document that has crystallized in the years since its preliminary publication, namely, that the inscription somehow guarantees the rights of traders operating within Pistiros. A reexamination of the rhetorical structure of the inscription and a reconstruction of the inscription’s relationship with preexisting documents on this subject, which are not extant, raises the possibility that the function of the inscription was somewhat different than the communis opinio: the Pistiros Inscription appears to have supplemented earlier regulation concerning Pistiros and to have attempted to limit the authority of an official, possibly a Thracian royal, who exercised dramatic power within Pistiros.
The third article on sealings revealed at Pistiros in Bulgaria in 2012 analysis those linked directly to proper Greek models. Most of the items carry two imprints, apparently signatures of partners of document confirming a contract or deal, the archive of them kept with a “notary”. The archive of contracts was hidden in a vaulted oven to be protected at the time of fire destruction of the emporium at ca. 310 BC. The majority of subjects represented on the sealings discussed here show reflections of popular works of leading sculptors of the age; a smaller part reflects contemporary terracotta and bronze figurines of characters of Middle and Late Comedy and two Egyptiazing subjects might reflect the Ptolemaic domain in Thrace.
The article discusses a group of sealings of Dionysiac circle found at Pistiros in Bulgaria in 2012, most of them with two imprints; apparently attached to a document with a contract or deal. The subjects represented on the seals reflect the Greek sculpture at the time of Philip II and Alexander the Great.
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