Description (Inscription)
Inscription: 'SUM PELICAN DEI'.
Event Date
Author: Esther Laver

Context (Found together / assemblage)
See 1938.387.2 for impression of the seal.
Event Date
Author: Esther Laver

Context (Display)
Previously mounted on perspex display board (along with impression, 1938.387.2) with handwritten label: 'BRONZE SEAL ?C. 1300. PELICAN IN PIETY 'SUM PELICANDEI' DREDGED FROM R. CAM AT REACH'.
Event Date
Author: Esther Laver

Context (Field collection)
Found: Dredgings of the River Cam at Reach, Cambridgeshire
Event Date
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

Description (Physical description)
Description for 1938.387[.1-2]: 'Hexagonal shaft; SUM PELICAN DEI; A Pelican in Piety.'
Event Date 1938
Author: maa

Context (Analysis)
Attached to reverse of Catalogue Card is an extract from a letter reading: 'His mouth too wide. It is one of those rather poor efforts which I think date somewhere about 1300 but which may well be later or even earlier. The legend seems to have got a bit bungled. The verse in the Vulgate (psalm CI verse 7) is 'Similis factus sum pelicano solitudinis' On a seal you have in the Museum the last word is Dei. Here the engraver, if I interpret the thing aright, has left out the first two words, and the o of pelicano, making pelican the nominative (pelicanus). In this way he has made sense of this abbreviated legend although he has gone some way from the original. If you do acquire the matrix I should very much like to see it. Yours very sincerely, H. S. Kingsford'
Event Date 1938
Author: maa

Context (References)
Lethbridge, T. C. and O'Reilly, M. (1939). 'Archaeological Notes;. Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, vol. 38. pp. 164-169. Pl. II.d-e
Event Date 1939
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

Description (Physical description)
Anonymous conical seal matrix of copper alloy. Circular face; hexagonal handle, ending with a collar and pierced trefoil terminal. No orientation mark. On the die, a pelican in piety is depicted; the central design is separated from the inscription by a beaded line. The inscription reads '*SUM PELICAN DEI' ('I AM THE PELICAN OF GOD').
Event Date 13/11/2023
Author: Esther Laver