Çelikbaş noted that the inscription on the pendant reads “Our Lord has overcome evil” and said: “Why was this pendant, this amulet, found here? In fact, it has to do with the military character of Hadrianopolis. We have previously identified evidence of a cavalry unit here through archaeological finds. Solomon is also known as the commander of armies. We understand that he was also considered as a protective figure for the Roman and Byzantine cavalry at Hadrianopolis.”The photos (see also the video) are not great, but it looks to me as though the translation of the front inscription is very free.Çelikbaş said: “The front depicts the Prophet Solomon and mentions God’s triumph over evil, while the back bears the names of our four holy angels: Azrael, Gabriel, Michael, and Israfil. This is also very significant. No similar artifact has been found in Anatolian archaeology to date. Only one comparable example in terms of depiction has been found in Jerusalem. The appearance of two similar artifacts over such great distances indicates that this area was an important religious center in antiquity. Based on the fonts of the inscriptions and stratigraphic data from our studies, we date the artifact to the fifth century A.D.”
The inscription is in Greek. Starting after the hole on the left side, I see ΘΕΟΣΟΝΙΚΟΝΤΔ. There may also be a couple of letters before the hole, but I would need a better photo to be sure. I see two words with an article between, θεοϛ o νικον and then two letters (ΤΔ) that don't make sense as a word. Perhaps an abbreviation? Given the image on the front and the attempted translation in the article, I'm going to speculate that they stand for τον διαβολον. If we allow for some flexible spelling, the whole inscription would thus say "(?) God is the one conquering t(he) d(evil)." That's the best I can do with the information at hand.
Unfortunately, there is no photo of the back of the object, which bears the angel names.
The article doesn't address the question of its social provenance. Knowing nothing about fifth century Hadrianopolis, I would not rule out either a Jewish or a Christian origin. The wording sounds more Christian to me.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.