PROVENANCE: Byzantine Macedonia/Bulgaria, Twelfth to Thirteenth Century A.D.

SIZE/DIMENSIONS:

Height: 31 millimeters.

Breadth: 18 millimeters.

Thickness: 5 1/2 millimeters at bail; 1 millimeter body of pendant.

Weight: 1.23 grams.

Chain: Contemporary bronze tone 48 centimeters (18 inches). A wide variety of other chains are available upon request in sizes from 16 to 30 inches, and in metals ranging from gold and silver electroplate to sterling silver and solid 14kt gold. The default chain (absent contrary instructions) is bronze tone, 18 inches. For a more authentic touch, we also have available handcrafted Greek black leather cords.

CONDITION: Exceptional! Completely intact. Moderately light porosity (surface pitting caused by contact with earth while buried). Very fine finish. Professionally conserved.

DETAIL: In the world after the collapse of Rome, particularly in the surviving eastern fragment of that empire which came to be known as the "Byzantine Empire", by the fifth century the cross had come to represent the crucifixion and the promise of salvation and everlasting life, and the symbol of the cross was incorporated into many different forms of jewelry and was worn by virtually every citizen of the Roman (and subsequent Byzantine) Empire, from East to West, from pauper to emperor. This is a nicely preserved cross pendant of Byzantine/Macedonian origin circa twelfth or thirteenth century A.D. One side of the cross depicts a Slavic Patriarchal Cross (also known as an "Eastern/Russian Orthodox Cross" with two cross bars at top and a slanted cross bar at the base), see references here and here. To the left and right sides of the cross are the letters IC-XC, an early Slavic abbreviation for Christ; and to the top and bottom the letters NI-KA, as in the winged goddess of Victory "Nike"

The sacred abbreviation for Christ used in Eastern Greek/Slavic Orthodoxy, "ICXC", was often placed at the title of crucifixes, and also combined with the abbreviation, "NIKA". With each phrase on either side of the cross, the meaning is "Jesus Christ Conquers". The NIKA is taken from the Greek form of "In Hoc Signo Vinces" ("Ev Toutw Nika" - "in this sign you will conquer"), the words that Constantine heard when he witnessed the chi-ro sign (an early cruciform symbol incorporating a cross with the first two letters of Christ, "CH") in the heavens as a prelude to his victory at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 318 A.D. (more historical detail here).

The opposite side of the pendant contains two legends, both horizontally and vertically. The horizontal legend is completely legible, "XPAHYMR" (or as close as English characters can approximate Cyrillic). The vertical legend is a little indistinct toward the bottom, but both legends are variants of a similar express meaning to "save for"/"save from"; or perhaps "preserve for"/"save for", as in "Christ saves" or "Christ preserves" (life). There is a bit of oxidation toward the bottom of this side of the cross which as mentioned, somewhat obscures the legend. It should not come as a surprise that the telltale signs are present indicating that the cross spend many centuries in the soil. The evidence is known as "porosity", which is fine surface pitting (oxidation, corrosion) caused by extended burial in caustic soil.

Many small ancient metal artifacts such as this are extensively disfigured and suffer substantial degradation as a consequence of the ordeal of being buried for millennia. It is not at all unusual to find metal artifacts decomposed to the point where they are not much more substantial than discolored patterns in the soil. Actually most smaller ancient artifacts such as this are so badly oxidized that oftentimes all that is left is a green (bronze) or red (iron) stain in the soil, or an artifact which crumbles in your hand. However this specimen is not so heavily afflicted, and certainly has not been disfigured. To the cursory inspection of the casual admirer, it simply looks like an ancient cross pendant, nicely surfaced, no immediately discernible blemishes.

You have to look closely to detect the telltale signs indicating the cross pendant was buried for millennia. No denying, there is oxidation, you can clearly see the evidence in these photo enlargements, or if in hand you inspect the pendant. However the extent is very mild. This pendant spent the better part of 1,000 years buried, yet by good fortune there is only a very modest degree of porosity evidenced. It happened to come to rest in reasonably gentle soil conditions. Consequentially, the integrity of the artifact remains undiminished, and despite the very modest porosity, the cross pendant remains quite handsome, and entirely wearable.

This is truly a significant relic representing the very foundations of the early Christian Church and the spread of Christianity through Europe. With the addition of a contemporary chain it can be worn and enjoyed - an authentic "souvenir" of the Roman/Byzantine Empire. This is truly a significant relic representing the very foundations of the early Christian Church and the spread of Christianity through Europe. It is offered complete with an eighteen inch bronze-tone chain which will darken when worn so as to match the pendant. Upon request, other chains lengths and styles are also available, including solid 14kt gold and sterling silver, in lengths from 16 or 24 inches. Worn as a pendant, it would be a wonderfully evocative reminder of the glory which was once Rome and Constantinople.

HISTORY: The Byzantine Empire was the eastern remainder of the great Roman Empire, and stretched from its capital in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul, Turkey) through much of Eastern Europe, Asia Minor, and small portions of North Africa and the Middle East. Prior to the fifth century collapse of the Western Roman Empire, one of Rome's greatest emperors, Constantine the Great, established a second capital city for the Roman Empire in the East at Byzantium, present day Turkey. Constantine The Great sought to reunite the Roman Empire, centered upon Christian faith, by establishing a second "capital" for the Eastern Roman, away from the pagan influences of the city of Rome. Established as the new capital city for the Eastern Roman Empire in the fourth century, Constantine named the city in his own honor, "Constantinople".

After the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the Eastern Roman Empire, the "Byzantine Empire", lasted for another thousand years as the cultural, religious and economic center of Eastern Europe. At the same time, as a consequence of the fall of the Western Roman Empire, most of the rest of Europe suffered through one thousand years of the "dark ages". As the center of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople was one of the most elaborate, civilized, and wealthy cities in all of history. The Christian Church eventually became the major political force in the Byzantine Empire. In Byzantine art, God rather than man stood at the center of the universe. Constantine the Great is also credited with being the first Christian Roman Emperor, and was eventually canonized by the Orthodox Church. Christianity had of course been generally outlawed prior to his reign.

Under the Byzantine Empire, Christianity became more than just a faith, it was the theme of the entire empire, its politics, and the very meaning of life. Christianity formed an all-encompassing way of life, and the influence of the Byzantine Empire reached far both in terms of time and geography, certainly a predominant influence in all of Europe up until the Protestant Reformation. In Byzantine art, God rather than man stood at the center of the universe. Representations of Christ, the Virgin, and various saints predominated the coinage of the era. The minting of the coins remained crude however, and collectors today prize Byzantine coins for their extravagant variations; ragged edges, "cupped" coins, etc. Other artifacts such as rings, pendants, and pottery are likewise prized for their characteristically intricate designs.

Bronze is the name given to a wide range of alloys of copper, typically mixed in ancient times with zinc or tin. The Bronze Age followed the Neolithic, and as the name implies, saw the production of bronze tools, weapons and armor which were either hard or more durable than their stone predecessors. Traditionally archaeology has maintained that the earlier bronze was produced by the Maikop, a proto-Indo-European, proto-Celtic culture of Caucasus prehistory around 3500 B.C. Recent evidence however suggests that the smelting of bronze might be as much as several thousand years older. Shortly after the emergence of bronze technology in the Caucasus region, bronze technology emerged in ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Levant (Eastern Mediterranean), Anatolia (Turkey) and the Iranian Plateau. By the late fourth to early third millennium B.C. many Bronze Age Cultures had emerged. Some of the more notable were the Celtic cultures of Middle Europe stretching from Hungary to Poland and Germany, including the Urnfield, Lusatian, and (Iron Age Transitional) Hallstatt Cultures.

The Shang in ancient China also developed a significant Bronze Age culture, noted for large bronze burial urns. Britain's Bronze Age cultures included the Beaker, Wessex, Deverl, and Rimbury. Cornwall was the principle source of tin not only for Britain but exported throughout the Mediterranean, and copper was produced from the Great Orme mine in North Wales. Though much of the raw minerals may have come from Britain (and to a lesser extent Spain), it was the Aegean world which controlled the trade in bronze. The great seafaring Minoan Empire appears to have controlled, coordinated, and defended the Bronze Age trade. Tin and charcoal were imported into Cyprus, where locally mined copper was mined and alloyed with the tin from Britain. It appears that the Bronze Age collapsed with the Minoan Empire, to be replaced by a Dark Age and the eventual rise of the Iron Age Myceneans. Evidence suggests that the precipitating event might have been the eruption of Thera and the ensuing tsunami, which was only about 40 miles north of Crete, the capital of the Minoan empire.

It is known that the bread-basket of the Minoan empire, the area north of the Black Sea lost population, and thereafter many Minoan colony/client-states lost large populations to extreme famines or pestilence. Thus with the end to the shipping of tin throughout the Mediterranean the Bronze Age trade network is believed to have failed, and the end of the Bronze Age and the rise of the Iron age is normally associated with the disturbances created by large population movements in the 12th century B.C. The end of the Bronze Age saw the emergency of new technologies and civilizations which heralded the new Iron Age. Although iron was in many respects much inferior to bronze (steel was still thousands of years away), iron had the advantage that it could be produced using local resources during the dark ages that followed the Minoan collapse. Bronze also resists corrosion and metal fatigue better than iron. Bronze was still used during the Iron Age, but for many purposes the weaker iron was sufficiently strong to serve in its place. As an example, Roman officers were equipped with bronze swords while foot soldiers had to make do with iron blades.

Macedon (or Macedonia) is known to have been inhabited since the Neolithic, early inhabitants including Thracians, Pannonians, and Ilyrians. It is believed by anthropologists that the original population was of Indo-European Dorian stock. The Dorians were responsible for the invasion of Myceanean Greece to the south about 1150 A.D., precipitating the "Greek Dark Ages". Mycenea was sacked, and the archaeological record shows that many other principle cities in Greece and Crete were reduced to villages. It is known that the Greeks considered the Doric Macedonians "barbarians", and that the Macedonians spoke a distinct language or dialect, and were considered by the Greeks as "non-Greek" speakers.

Up until the time of Alexander the Great Macedonians were not allowed to participate in Olympic Games. However with the Hellenization of the Greek Peninsula, eventually Macedon was considered Hellenic. The area of ancient Macedon was in the north part of the Greek Peninsula, and was bordered by ancient Thrace. Ancient Macedon is now split between Greece and the Republic of Macedonia (formerly part of Yugosalvia). Due to the barbarian incursions and depopulation of the region after the fall of the Roman Empire, the surviving Greek population of Macedon fled southwards into what is now the Macedonian region of Greece; while eventually the northernmost regions (present day Republic of Macedonia) became repopulated with Slavic peoples, and even later by Armenians.

The ancient populations coalesced into the Kingdom of Macedona about 800 B.C. Ancient Macedon fell to the Persian Armies of Darius the Great in the late sixth century B.C. It became more Hellenic in character after King Alexander I of Macedon began promoting the Attic (Greek) dialect and culture in the first half of the fifth century B.C. The Hellenic character of Macedon grew over the next century. Under the rule of Philip II, Macedon extended its power over the rest of northern Greece, including Thrace, Pannonia, and Illyria. Philip's son Alexander the Great conquered not only the remainder of Greece, but also the Persian Empire, Egypt, and Northern India. After his death Alexander's generals divided the empire between them, founding their own states and dynasties.

Macedon was part of the empire created by Antigonus, remaining independent until foolishly engaging the Romans in three successive wars in the late third and early second centuries B.C. The Romans initially divided Macedonia into four republics, client kingdoms of Rome, before finally annexing Macedon as the first Roman Province in 146 B.C. With the division of the Roman Empire, Macedon eventually became part of the surviving Eastern Roman/Byzantine Empire. However the population of the entire region was severely depleted by destructive successive invasions of Goths, Avars, Visigoths, Huns, and Vandals. In the fifth and sixth centuries a number of Slavic tribes repopulated the desolated northern regions (what is today the Republic of Macedonia).

Most of inland (Slavic) Macedonia was incorporated into Bulgaria in the ninth century, while the ethnic Greek Aegean coastal regions remained part of the Byzantine Empire. However the period following (one century plus) was punctuated by almost incessant warfare between Bulgaria and the Byzantine Empire, until finally in 1018 A.D. Bulgaria fell and the whole of Macedonia was incorporated into the Byzantine Empire as the province of Bulgaria. Macedonia was ultimately to fall to the Islamic Ottoman Empire in the first half of the fifteenth century. For the next five centuries Macedonia remained part of the Ottoman Empire.

The initial period of Ottoman rule saw the complete desolation of the plains and river valleys of Macedonia. The Christian population there was slaughtered, escaped to the mountains or was forcefully converted to Islam. Towns destroyed during the conquest were repopulated with Turkish Muslim settlers. At the conclusion of World War I and the dismembering of the Ottoman Empire, Macedonia was incorporated with the rest of Serbia into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, Slovenes (later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia). After the fall of the Soviet Empire late in the twentieth century, Slavic Macedonia became the Republic of Macedonia. Greek Macedonia remains of course, part of Greece.

SHIPPING: These antiquities come from a number of collections which by and large originated here in Eastern Europe. As well, additional specimens are occasionally acquired from other institutions and dealers, principally in Eastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean. All of these artifacts are now in the United States and are available for immediate delivery via U.S. Mail. All purchases are backed by an unlimited guarantee of satisfaction and authenticity. If for any reason you are not entirely satisfied with your purchase, you may return it for a complete and immediate refund of your entire purchase price. A certificate of authenticity (COA) is available upon request.

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