Seal of Amalric king of Jerusalem front
1 media/zoom_thumb.jpg 2022-10-27T18:00:26-07:00 Brooke Hendershott b0a907cd0f989ee79e94592378a1545647719cfb 39447 2 Seal of Amalric king of Jerusalem, front side, 1163-1174. Metal. Dumbarton Oaks BZS.1951.31.5.2939. © Dumbarton Oaks, Byzantine Collection, Washington, DC. plain 2022-10-27T18:01:22-07:00 Brooke Hendershott b0a907cd0f989ee79e94592378a1545647719cfbThis page is referenced by:
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2022-11-02T13:18:25-07:00
What is this?
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Seal of Amalric king of Jerusalem, back side, 1163-1174. Metal. Dumbarton Oaks BZS.1951.31.5.2939. © Dumbarton Oaks, Byzantine Collection, Washington, DC.
plain
2022-12-20T08:21:20-08:00
By Omar Afifi '24
This is a seal of King Amalric. It’s fairly small; it has a diameter of 35 mm. He ruled from 1163 until 1174 when he died of dysentery. He ruled about sixty years after the founding of the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem.
The seal would travel with documents attached with a string. If we take a closer look at the seal’s top and bottom, we see indentations–more prevalent at the bottom. These indentations are the locations where the string would wrap around the seal to attach it to the documents. The string would go across the seal and wrap over both indentations multiple times. The seal was used to authenticate government documents.
The obverse side shows Amalric seated on a backless throne with a trefoil ornament in his left hand and a scepter in his right hand. At the border of the seal, there is a Latin inscription that translates to “Seal of Amalric.” If we take a look at the seals of the immediately preceding king and a successor king of Jerusalem, we can see that they followed the same design.
For example, the seal of King Baldwin III (1143-1163) and the seal of John Brienne (1210-1212) shows the respective kings seated in the same seated position as King Amalric on his seal. There is consistency among the seals of the kingdom, which makes sense because their value is driven from how widely recognized they are, similar to coins used as currency.
The reverse side has three iconic buildings: the Holy Sepulchre on the left, the Tower of David in the middle, and the Temple on the right. The pilgrimage of a crusader was not considered complete until they had prayed at the Holy Sepulchre. Many kings of Jerusalem were also crowned and buried there. It’s believed that Christ was crucified then buried, before his resurrection, at the Holy Sepulchre which gives it its significance to the crusader movement. The Tower of David served as a strategic spot for guards, and the crusaders thought that it was King David’s palace. The Temple is the Dome of the Rock, an Islamic shrine that was transformed into a church, known as the Templum Domini (see this page to learn more about the effect of the Crusaders on the Dome of the Rock). At the edge of the seal, a Latin inscription translates to “King of Jerusalem.” The reverse of the seals of the kings mentioned previously also had the same design as King Amalric’s seal.
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media/seal of amalric, king of jerusalem.png
2022-10-27T17:55:10-07:00
Seal of Amalric, king of Jerusalem (DO BZS.1951.31.5.2939)
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google_maps
2022-11-09T12:37:19-08:00
31.78492, 35.23097
By Omar Afifi '24
This seal is most similar to other Jerusalem seals of the time period. On the obverse side, King Amalric is seated on a backless throne surrounded by latin inscription translating to “Seal of Amalric.” The reverse side contains three notable buildings: the Holy Sepulchre, the Tower of David, and the Temple. Most interestingly, the Temple is Templum Domini which is the Dome of the Rock, an Islamic shrine. These structures were deemed representative of Jerusalem at the time. Surrounding the structure is an inscription in latin that translates to “King of Jerusalem.” The seal captures the time period of the region briefly after the Crusades had fought very diligently to capture Jerusalem from the Muslims. By creating this seal, it serves as an authenticator to the existence of the newly formed Christian kingdom of Jerusalem. -
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2022-11-02T13:19:24-07:00
Why was the Seal of Amalric made and how was it used?
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plain
2022-12-07T13:56:08-08:00
By Omar Afifi '24
Seals have been used for many years as a method to authenticate and legitimize the documents they accompanied. Therefore, this seal would accompany official documents as a modern-day stamp–it wasn’t on the document directly, however. Similar to coins that were used as currency during the same time period, a seal had to be consistently made because inconsistencies signaled inauthenticity. In fact, the seal had to be consistent across all rulers of the kingdom with a slight variation in the name of the current ruler—see “what is this?” to learn more. In essence, one can argue that the seal was also made to serve as a testament to the existence of the newly established Christian kingdom of Jerusalem. It allowed the new government to set a standard between legitimate and illegitimate documents.
Unlike a stamp, this seal was wrapped around the envelope of the document using a string. If we take a closer look at the seal’s top and bottom, we see indentations–more obvious at the bottom. These indentations are the locations where the string would wrap around the seal to attach it to the documents. The string would go across the seal and wrap over both indentations multiple times. This gives us an idea of how the seal was used to authenticate government documents and the method it accompanied the documents. In order to access the document inside the sealed envelope, the string would have to be unwrapped but the seal continued to remain attached to the document by one end.