Bullae (sig. bulla), are clay or bitumen impression of seals that are usually attached to documents or parcels (or the strings used to bound them) and show the identity of the author or witness of the document or the owner of the merchandise. The Middle Persian word for bulla, gil muhrag is known to us from an Iranian loanword in Aramaic Talmud (N. Frye). A number of clay bullae from the Sasanian era have been discovered at various Sasanian sites such as Takht-e Suleiman (D.Huff) and Qasr-e Abu Nasr (P. Harper). These have been of much importance in identifying these sites as Sasanian remains (D. Huff). Sasanian bullae have also been discovered from Transoxiana, bearing inscriptions in Sogdian (N. Frye). Bullae are important in Sasanian onomastics, assisting us in identifying personal names, government offices, and religious positions (R. Frye).

          Important collections of bullae, discovered in unknown sites and presented by dealers, now exist in the Pahlavi Archive of the University of California, Berkeley, and Freie Universtät Berlin (G. Azarpay; D. Weber). The UC Berkeley collection, residing in the Bancroft Library, is a collection of 390 bullae and 260 manuscripts that have been dated to the period AD 600-888 using C14 dating method. This collection mainly consists of economic documents and receipt for goods, which await preparation and publication by Prof. Ph. Gignoux and Dr. R. Gyselen. Most of the bullae in this collection are separated from the manuscripts, but 82 documents still have their bullae attached, with two of the manuscripts each having two clay bullae attached. (G. Azarpay). The Berlin collection is also awaiting publication by D. Weber in a forthcoming issue of Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum. Smaller collections, including 71 bullae and a number of manuscripts in California Museum of Ancient Art have also been partially studies and published by Prof. Ph. Gingnoux.

(Entry by Khodadad Rezakhani)

Bibliography:

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Gyselen, R. “Catalogue des sceaux, camées et bulles sassanides de la Bibliothèque Nationale et Musée du Louvre, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, 1993.

Huff, D. “Technological Observations on Clay Bullae from Takht-i Suleiman”, Mesopotamia XXII, Firenze 1987.

Huff, D. “Taķt-e Sulaimān “, Encyclopaedia Iranica, Ed. Ehsan Yarshater, (online edition, www.iranica.com)

Lerner, J., Christian Seals of the Sasanian Period, Istanbul 1977.

Lerner, Judith A. and P. Oktor Skjaervo. “Some Uses of Clay Bullae in Sasanian Iran: Bullea in the Rosen and Museum of Arts Collections,” Res Orientales, Vol. X, 1997.

Shaked, S., “Jewish Sasanian Sigillography,” Au carrefour des religions, Mélanges offerts à Philippe Gignoux, Res Orientalis VII, pp. 239-256.

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