Engraved bloodstone gem with an inscription

Terms of use

The low-resolution images published on this Website are made available under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY-NC-ND). For more details: Fitzwilliam Terms of Use

This licence does not include any images of works that are still in copyright. Artistic copyright extends from the life of the artist to 70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the artist died.

Download this image

For further information on use of images or to license a high resolution version, please contact our image library who can discuss terms and fees.

Engraved gems. Magical amulet. Obverse: the anguipede as described in CG 509 but with the shield shown in profile. Strangely formed letters scattered over the surrounding field, apart from a possible initial digamma, make up the name Abrasax and Iao. Reverse: a stele or small building with pitched roof standing on a low platform. In the triangular pediment is a star; inscribed on the stele itself (under the pediment) are four indecipherable signs. Another star rests underneath the whole structure. Intaglio cutting, bloodstone, 23 mm x 18 mm, circa 200-circa 400 AD. Roman Imperial.

Image data

Accession Number: CG 510
Photograph copyright © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Aperture: f/32.0
Focal length: 105
Camera: NIKON D800
Photographer name: Jaymes Sinclair
Image height: 1025 pixels
Image width: 684 pixels
Processed with: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.4 (Windows)
Filesize: 331.29kB
Exposure time: 1/15
ISO Speed: 100
Fnumber: 32/1
Captured: 2014:04:24 16:09:30

Key words

3rd Century 4th Century AD amulet antiquity bloodstone building engraved gem Fitz_ANT gemstones gravestone green incised intaglio intaglio cutting magical amulet pediment Roman Roman Imperial signs stars stele symbolic symbols

Citation for print

This page can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:


            The Fitzwilliam Museum (2025)
            "Engraved bloodstone gem with an inscription"
            Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/image/media-201407 Accessed: 2025-12-05 19:39:08

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this page on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:


            {{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/image/media-201407
            |title=Engraved bloodstone gem with an inscription
            |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2025-12-05 19:39:08|publisher=The
            University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/images/media-201406

Bootstrap HTML code for reuse

To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:

<div class="text-center">
    <figure class="figure">
        <img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/ant/ant46/CG_20510_1_201404_jas244_dc2.jpg"
        alt="Magical amulet"
        class="img-fluid" />
        <figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Engraved bloodstone gem with an inscription</figcaption>
    </figure>
</div>