BYZANTINE EMPIRE: Private seal, 10th-11th century, lead seal (7.42g), DOCBS—, Zeno—, nimbate bust of St. Michael facing, holding scepter and globe // Syriac legend ‘BRHM (Abraham) / ‘MR’ / BTSh’ / MLH’ (salt/sailor) / …, a remarkable piece, VF, RR.
Syriac started as a branch of Aramaic in the 1st century AD, reaching its broadest use in the 4th-8th century. But by about the 14th century the vernacular language had been widely replaced by others, notably Arabic, though it survives as a liturgical language in the Syriac Orthodox Christian Church. It uses its own alphabet, derived from Aramaic, as on the reverse of this seal. Only a small number of lead seals are known with Syriac inscriptions (e.g., about a dozen examples out of a total of more than 15,000 in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection).