Johannes, monk, kouboukleisios and abbot of the monastery of the Theotokos of Arai (in Greater Armenia), 1045-1064. Seal (Lead, 23 mm, 8.20 g, 12 h). MHP - ΘV Nimbate Mother of God 'Nikopoios' facing, holding medallion of Christ on her chest with both hands. Rev. +ΘKЄR,Θ, / IW AX K૪R૪K, / S KAΘHΓ૪MЄ/N, MON, THC V/ΠЄPAΓ, ΘK૪ / THC APAI in six lines. Wassiliou-Seibt, Sammlung Boersema, 43a (this seal). A.-K. Wassiliou-Seibt and G. Boersema: The Orthodox Monastery of the Virgin of Arayi: Evidence for Byzantine Ecclesiastical Policy in Greater Armenia (1045–1064), in: E. Bonfiglio and C. Rapp, Armenia and Byzantium without Borders. Mobility, Interactions, Responses, Leiden & Boston 2023, p. 298-299, fig 10.1 (this seal). Extremely rare, one of only two known examples, and of great importance to the history of Byzantine Armenia. Scrape on the obverse, otherwise, good very fine.


This remarkable seal attests the existence of an orthodox monastery at Mount Ara (Arayi) in Greater Armenia, an extinct vulcano located to the north-northwest of Yerevan. The monastery must have been founded after the fall of Ani to the Byzantines in 1045 and may have been part of the Byzantine ecclesiastical policy to impose the ascendency of Byzantine Orthodoxy over the Armenian Apostolic Church. In any case, the monastery did not flourish for a long time as the Seljuk conquest in 1064 ended Byzantine influence in the region. However, the monastery might have continued to exist as an Armenian institution, as in the 13th century, we hear of a ‘monastery of the flowers’ in the same location. This may have been a continuation of the originally Byzantine orthodox institution.