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CLOSEByzantine Seals as a Historical Source
Christos Malatras
Research coordinator
Christos MalatrasAssociate Researcher
Seals, mostly lead bullae, have emerged in recent years as a significant source for the study of the Byzantine past. This programme includes, on the one hand, the publication of lead seals held in various museum or private collections around the world, with a focus on unpublished material. On the other hand, the programme also engages with the theoretical study of seals, particularly concerning the scope and manner of their use, and ultimately the identification and analysis of their owners.
- Christos Malatras, Teaching Digital Byzantine Sigillography: First Experiences and Future Strategies, Digital Medievalist 17 (2024), 1-25.
- Christos Malatras, Signed, Sealed, Delivered – Digital Approaches to Byzantine Sigillography, Information Technology 66.6 (2024), 206-220 (in collaboration with Claes Neuefeind, Jan Bigalke, Maria Teresa Catalano, Sviatoslav Drach, Sofia Efthymoglou, Pia Evening, Martina Filosa, Marcel Schaeben, Claudia Sode).
- Christos Malatras, Remarks on the collection of Byzantine lead seals of the Barber Institute of Fine Arts (University of Birmingham): mobility, networks, and identity in eastern Pontos, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 48.2 (2024), 207-234.
- Christos Malatras, The Byzantine lead seals from the Museum of Pera, Gephyra 26.2 (2023), 197–216 (in collaboration with Nilgün Elam and Yavuz Selim Güler).
- Christos Malatras, Selected lead seals from an unpublished private collection in Germany, REB 81 (2023), 297-323.
- Christos Malatras, Review of ‘Maria Campagnolo-Pothitou and Jean-Claude Cheynet, Sceaux de la collection Zacos au musée d’art et d’histoire de Genève. Milan: 5 Continents Editions, 2016. Pp. 523’, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 42 (2017), 174-176.
- Christos Malatras, Criteria for identification and the demography of seal owners in Byzantium (7th-9th centuries), in SignEt signatures et estampilles Marques d’identification et de validation dans le Proche-Orient médiéval, 19-21 October 2025, Cairo.
- Christos Malatras, H Κόρινθος στη μέση βυζαντινή εποχή μέσα από τη σφραγιστική, in the XIIth Meeting of Greek Byzantinists, 25-28 September 2025, Rethymno (Greece).
- Christos Malatras, Lead Seals from the Collection of the Museum of Antiocheia of Pisidia (Yalvaç), in XIIIth International Symposium of Byzantine Sigillography, 27-29 March 2025, Cologne.
- Christos Malatras, Lead seals and Byzantine digital studies, seminar in ABC of European Heritage: Archaeology of the Byzantine Commonwealth, 10-13 June 2024, Rzeszów (Poland).
- Christos Malatras, Changes in Civil Administration During the Emergence of the Thematic System (7th–9th Centuries), in the 24th International Congress of Byzantine Studies, 22-27 August 2022, Venice and Padua.
- Christos Malatras, Networks and mobility of the state functionaries during the Dark Ages, in Arbeitstagung der deutschen Arbeitsgemeinschaft zur Förderung Byzantinischer Studien, 17–18 February 2022, Münster (Germany).
- Christos Malatras, Byzantine lead seals and the mobility of functionaries in the Early Medieval period, lecture in Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, 10 January 2022 (Germany).
- Christos Malatras, Lead seals and communication networks in the Byzantine world, lecture in University of Marburg, 2 December 2021 (Germany).
- Christos Malatras, The contribution of sigillography to the Byzantine institutional history, in Bizans Sigillografisi Çalıştayı for Bizantolog and the Stavros Niarchos Center for Late Antique and Byzantine Studies (GABAM), Koç University, 20-21 September 2021 (online). Accessible online at:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UidA1OdCQ58&ab_channel=Bizantolog
- Christos Malatras, Byzantine lead seals as a source for Byzantine institutional history, lecture in the Institute for the History of Ancient Civilizations (IHAC), 2 December 2020, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, Κίνα (online).
- Christos Malatras, Βυζαντινές σφραγίδες από το Barber Institute of Fine Arts in Ι΄ Συνέδριο Ελλήνων Βυζαντινολόγων, 27-30 November 2019, Ioannina.
- Christos Malatras, 2023-2024 (winter semester): International Seminar “Approaching Byzantium through seals: a digital exhibition” organised by the Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies of the University of Cologne. The design and the content of the seminar was organized by me, while the participants (25 in total, Phd students and early career scholars) were chosen after an open call and evaluation.
Research coordinator
Christos MalatrasAssociate Researcher