The Portrait Medal from Burnum

Abstract

The collection of ancient glass in the Archeological Museum in Zadar includes a fine round portrait medal, found in the area of the former Roman garrison at Burnum (pl. I). It is made of three layers of which the back one is of blue colour. The medal belongs to glass phalerae »Vindonissa« and was worked into an ornamented metal frame which had on its back side a clasp (fig. 3). The medal is indirectly related to a finding of a fragment of a Roman stone stele, also found at Burnum, which shows analoguous phalerae and a kind of net on which decorations were fixed (fig. 2). They are dated to be from the early period of the Roman Empire, and it is believed that the portrait on the medal is one of Emperor Tiberius. The unique medal from Burnum is among other things interesting also for the reason that the boundary of the distribution of portrait medals — EmonaPoetovio-Carnuntum-Brigetio — established by research so far has now to be extended far into the south — to the Roman province of Dalmatia.