Rare Crusade Era Seal Discovered in Jerusalem

Hello, Ats. I came across this today and thought it might be of interest to the ATS crowd. Apparently a seal, which is said to be about 800yrs old has been found in Jerusalem. This cliffside Monastery was founded by St. Sabas in the Judaen desert.

This type of ancient seal was also known as a bulla in Latin. It consisted of two blank lead disks that would have been hammered together with a string between them. Opening the letter would cause obvious damage to the bulla, which was intended to discourage unauthorized people from breaking the seal.

I thought this is an interesting find. Check it out.

www.nbcnews.com...

Impressive and ancient.

An incredible relic from the dark ages.

a reply to: lostbook

It's beautiful! Nice find!

One side of a lead seal from the days of the Crusades bears the image of a bearded St. Sabas holding a cross

The other side of the seal bears an inscription identifying it as "the seal of the Laura of the Holy Sabas."

The 800-year-old seal was probably once fixed to a document delivered to the farm from a sprawling cliffside monastery in the Judean Desert that was founded by St. Sabas ("Mar Saba" in Aramaic) and once housed hundreds of monks.

a reply to: lostbook
Interesting - Thanks!
Oddly - to me - it looks like the figure is wearing headphones.

a reply to: WanDash

I see it too!

Odd..

a reply to: WanDash

Everybody knows that the Crusaders had a huge shortwave radio network, which they used to broadcast market data and coded instructions to the agents of their international financial network. Every Templar outpost was equipped with a transceiver, and a roster of specially-trained knights were instructed in its use. The knight on the seal would have been one of them, hence the headphones.

Of course, all this was top secret and only the higher orders of the Order really understood what was going on. The junior knights who operated the radios were spun a story about angelic couriers carrying messages back and forth, who delivered their reports through the strange, glowing, obviously holy devices the knights were shown and taught to use.

The seal is really a sort of ID carried by the radio operators, which let them into the closely-guarded vaults and chambers where the radio equipment was hidden away.

originally posted by: Astyanax
a reply to: WanDash

Everybody knows that the Crusaders had a huge shortwave radio network, which they used to broadcast market data and coded instructions to the agents of their international financial network. Every Templar outpost was equipped with a transceiver, and a roster of specially-trained knights were instructed in its use. The knight on the seal would have been one of them, hence the headphones.

Of course, all this was top secret and only the higher orders of the Order really understood what was going on. The junior knights who operated the radios were spun a story about angelic couriers carrying messages back and forth, who delivered their reports through the strange, glowing, obviously holy devices the knights were shown and taught to use.

The seal is really a sort of ID carried by the radio operators, which let them into the closely-guarded vaults and chambers where the radio equipment was hidden away.

Are you serious, or is this satire of some sort?

originally posted by: Jennyfrenzy
a reply to: lostbook

It's beautiful! Nice find!

One side of a lead seal from the days of the Crusades bears the image of a bearded St. Sabas holding a cross

The other side of the seal bears an inscription identifying it as "the seal of the Laura of the Holy Sabas."

The 800-year-old seal was probably once fixed to a document delivered to the farm from a sprawling cliffside monastery in the Judean Desert that was founded by St. Sabas ("Mar Saba" in Aramaic) and once housed hundreds of monks.

So if I was a spy in those days all I would have to do is press clay into the images to get a negative,
then pour hot lead into the clay,and voila!! Images duplicated in lead,easy.
I can open the letter,read it and then put on my newly made seal.

Those were the days...

a reply to: AngryCymraeg

Look at the 'cross' in the background of the seal. Close inspection reveals it to be a cruciform antenna of the type often used by ham radio operators nowadays.

"read it ",,,lol ok get another Knight apparently this one can read,,,,upstairs with ya,, go,,, lol


a reply to: Silcone Synapse

originally posted by: Astyanax
a reply to: AngryCymraeg

Look at the 'cross' in the background of the seal. Close inspection reveals it to be a cruciform antenna of the type often used by ham radio operators nowadays.

well i dont know about u but i see,,




run ,,our cover is blown!

lol

i know wrong era,, lol

originally posted by: Astyanax
a reply to: AngryCymraeg

Look at the 'cross' in the background of the seal. Close inspection reveals it to be a cruciform antenna of the type often used by ham radio operators nowadays.

The Crusaders were Christian. Chances are that there was bound to be a cross somewhere on it. There is no evidence whatsoever that they had radio. Or anything electronic.

I came to this thread expecting to find a fossilized seal (the kind that lays around icebergs and docks), and see a very nice little relic of a past age. Nice, and thanks for the thread.

Guess nowadays our internet names are our seals.

Accidental multiple post (1)

a reply to: AngryCymraeg

The Crusaders were Christian. Chances are that there was bound to be a cross somewhere on it.

Yeah, great cover, eh? Nobody ever guessed about the radio, they just thought, 'hey, Templars, crosses, whaddya expect?' and never looked any further.

Of course the Templars were really the first multinational bank and they financed a lot of wars, so the whole religious thing was made up to cover that. Have you read Foucault's Pendulum[/I] by Umberto Eco? You'll find a lot about the Templars in there.