ASIA MINOR. Uncertain. Circa 4th-6th centuries. Amulet (Lead, 42 mm, 18.30 g). Deity standing on a lion to left, facing an attendant standing to right; in upper left field, pellet and a decoration beneath the exergue line; all within decorated border. Rev. Blank. Leu Web Auction 15 (2020), 1382. Pierced and with some edge chipping, otherwise, very fine.


Several deities from antiquity were portrayed in association with lions, especially solar deities. The imagery on our amulet resembles the Anatolian sun god, Sandan, who is portrayed on coins of the Seleucids and on the Roman provincial coinage of the Cilician city of Tarsus. Some hardstone amulets, too, portray Helios standing on a lion, as well as a winged deity usually described as Pantheos