По-моему, все сразу согласились, что такой распил, когда задача была поставлена, можно было сделать и в античную эпоху. Но уже сама постановка задачи необычна и нетривиальна, выбор материала - уникального ставит дополнительные вопросы. Ведь для древних этот медальон был так, обычный медяк, чуть крупнее тех же сестерциев
или драхм Адриана...
О днако, как видите, на один из вопросов, е сть ли другие примеры распилов, мы получили очень интересный ответ. Так что польза от этого, даже для эрудитов,  - несомненна.

На Крите есть музей со знаменитыми фресками из Кносского дворца.
В этом музее меня больше всего поразила бронзовая пила. Она была хорошо разведена, чтобы полотно не заедало. А ведь это - инструмент
приблизительно  датируется 12-13 веком до Р.Х.  Стоит его увидеть. Интересно было бы знать, когда была изобретена лучковая пила. Наверное, была известна уже в Древнем Египте.

Может быть, при помощи того же лука, подсыпая абразив под вращающаемую тетивой ось?  Крутили так месяцами...

Professor Toynbee mentions a sawn bronze of Pius on page 120-121 of "Roman Medallions".

"One use of medallions for purposes other than those of ornament and decoration has been revealed in a most striking manner by the recent excavations in the Pan¬filo and Verano Catacombs." On both of these sites excavations in galleries un¬touched since ancient times have brought to light coins (both Roman and Greek imperial) and medallions affixed to the plaster on the walls surrounding the loculi or the terra-cotta slabs which covered their openings. Other pieces were found in the earth on the floor of the galleries, some with wall-plaster still adhering to one side, a proof that they had fallen from their original positions on the walls. In the Panfilo Catacombs the coins, which are of bronze and silver and number fifty-six in all, range from Trajan to Maxentius, the medallions, of which six are in bronze and one in silver, range from Hadrian to Valerian and Gallienus. The proportion of medallions to coins is high, in view of the formers' comparative rarity; and a similar proportion is to be observed in the pieces of the Verano find, where five medallions, three of bronze and two of silver, ranging from Commodus to Numerianus, have been discovered. As Serafini points out, the object of those who fixed these coins and medallions to the Catacomb walls cannot have been to mark the date of the burials, since pieces of Emperors widely separated from one another in time were found clustered round the same loculus. They must have been set there to serve as guides to relatives and friends of the deceased, enabling them to identify the resting place of particular individuals whose remains they had come to visit or venerate. All the medallions found fixed to the walls had their obverse facing the visitor, with the exception of one bronze of Antoninus Pius in the Panfilo Catacombs, the flan of which had been sliced through down the centre, so that both obverse and reverse could be fixed to the wall and exposed to view." The choice of the obverse, rather than of the reverse, type for exhibition may have been due to the fact that a portrait head or bust was easier to distinguish in the dim light than a more complicated reverse design; or else to Christian aversion to the display of pagan scenes and deities. The exceptional display of Pius' Minerva and Prometheus reverse type may possibly be explained by supposing that the piece in question was a specially valued and famous family possession. I t is obvious, indeed, that these medallions were regarded as precious heirlooms, handed down in the family from one generation to another and preserved with the greatest care. In fact, two of the Panfilo bronze medallions, one of Lucius Verus" and the other of Albinus were found in a quite remarkably fine state of preservation, cherished from the date of their issue in 164 to 165 and 193 to 197 respectively to be affixed century later, in something approaching mint condition, to the walls of a Christian tomb. These discoveries are of the first importance, for it is more than likely that the many hundreds of bronze medallions of known or very probable Catacomb provenance, the exact position of which when found no one troubled to record, were fixed in a similar manner to the walls of galleries, revealing this same attitude of respectful care and appreciation on the part of medallion owners and their heirs gifts. An interesting parallel to the Catacomb finds came to light at Dunapentele (Intercisa) on the Danube in 1926, where a bronze medallion of Antoninus Pius in splendid condition was found in a late fourth-century grave."

68 E. g. G II, tavv. 92, no. 3 (Albinus); 139, no. 2 (Constantius GaJlus). Vienna Nr. 21893 has three holes punched through it.
   69 C. Serafini. op. cit. Vide supra pp. 59 f

Поздравляю всех участников обеих дискуссий в этой ветке. Мы все обогатились знаниями. Всегда бы так! Теперь будел знать, где искать медальоны для наших коллекций...

Обсуждал вчера с женой художественные достоинства аутентичных медальонов и фальшивок. Для человека искусства всё очевидно. Даже на аверсе разница заметная. На подлиннике император преисполнен величия, а на фальшаках какой-то пучеглазый кретин.