V 118. Bakla.Epitaph of an unknown, 1283 C.E.
Monument
Type
Blocks.
Material
Limestone.
Additional description
The front is lightly worked. Fully preserved.
Place of Origin
Bakla.
Find place
Bakla.
Find context
Cruciform church, burial vault below the central area, south wall, 140-150cm above the floor.
Find circumstances
1978, excavations of V.E. Rudakov.
Modern location
In situ.
Institution and inventory
In situ, no inventory number.
Autopsy
Non vidi.
Epigraphic field 1
Position
Among other graffiti.
Lettering
Graffito; elongated angular letters.
Text 1
Category
Epitaph.
Date
1283 C.E.
Dating criteria
Explicit date.
Editions
Unpublished.
<div type="textpart" subtype="section" n="1">
<ab>
<lb n="1"/>Δοῦλοι <expan><abbr>τ</abbr><ex>οῦ</ex></expan>
<roleName><expan><abbr>θ</abbr><ex cert="low">εοῦ</ex></expan></roleName>.
</ab>
</div>Translation
Servants of God (?).
Commentary
The names of the deceased are missing. Perhaps they were not transcribed by Rudakov.
Images
Epigraphic field 2
Position
Among other graffiti.
Lettering
See epigraphic field 1.
Text 2
Category
Epitaph.
Date
1283 C.E.
Dating criteria
Explicit date.
Editions
Unpublished.
<div type="textpart" subtype="section" n="2">
<ab>
<lb n="1"/><date><num value="6792">ςψϞ<unclear>β</unclear></num> <note>?</note>,
<expan><abbr>μ</abbr><ex>ηνὶ</ex></expan>
<rs type="month" ref="nou"><expan><abbr>Ν</abbr><ex>οε</ex><abbr>βρ</abbr><ex cert="low">ίου</ex></expan></rs>
<num atLeast="11"><gap reason="lost" quantity="2" unit="character"/></num></date>.
</ab>
</div>Translation
year 6792 (?), ... of November
Commentary
Symbols represented on the drawing of Rudakov (1980, 121-129, fig. 3) are undoubtedly letters. Their execution is very poor, but we still can make some sense of them.
There is a definite psi in this text, and together with the neighboring symbols, it might be a numeral, designating the year; ΜΝΒΡ that follows, might read "month of November" (cf. V 2.3).
A reference to XIIIth century in the burial vault, filled in, according to Rudakov, at the time of the construction of the single-apse church, does not fit in well with the discoverer's hypothesis of a XIIth-century date for the destruction of the cruciform church - it might be useful to re-examine the dates proposed by Rudakov for the finds from the complex of the first church.
Images
© 2015 Andrey Vinogradov (edition), Irene Polinskaya (translation)
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