V 17. Cherson.Building inscription of unknown and Sabbatios, 1167–1198 C.E.
Monument
Type
Panel.
Material
Limestone.
Additional description
Flaked and broken into small pieces, of which 28 survive, and some can be joined into 8 fragments, two of them yielding legible sequences.
Place of Origin
Cherson.
Find place
Sevastopol (Chersonesos).
Find context
North sector, Block IX, Room 10, stone fill.
Find circumstances
1983, excavations of S.G. Ryzhov.
Modern location
Sevastopol, Crimea.
Institution and inventory
National Preserve of Tauric Chersonesos, 214/37068.
Autopsy
September 2009.
Fragment1
Dimensions (cm)
H.33.5, W.20.5, Th.6.0.
Fragment2
Dimensions (cm)
H.9.5, W.5.0, Th.5.0.
Fragment3
Dimensions (cm)
H.3.0, W.5.5, Th.1.5.
Fragment4
Dimensions (cm)
H.14.0, W.14.5, Th.4.0.
Fragment5
Dimensions (cm)
H.7.0, W.6.0, Th.3.0.
Fragment6
Dimensions (cm)
H.6.0, W.7.0, Th.3.5.
Fragment7
Dimensions (cm)
H.6.5, W.5.5, Th.3.0.
Fragment8
Dimensions (cm)
H.4.5, W.4.5, Th.1.2.
Epigraphic field
Position
On the front.
Lettering
Lapidary. Letters are elongated, especially in the top part of the inscription. Some alphas with a slanting crossbar, and some with a loop; delta with extended horizontal raised to mid-letterheight; mu with short central hastae; upsilon with and without tails at the tops of strokes. Ligature: alpha-nu-eta; abbreviation; irregular diacritics.
Letterheights (cm)
3–5.2.
Text
Category
Building inscription.
Date
1167–1198 C.E.
Dating criteria
Palaeography, explicit date.
Editions
1. Vinogradov2011, 227–229, № 6.
<div type="edition" xml:lang="grc">
<ab>
<lb n="1"/><g ref="#stauros"/> <unclear>Δ</unclear>ηὰ
<supplied reason="lost" cert="low">βοηθείας</supplied>
τ<supplied reason="lost">οῦ</supplied>
<lb n="2"/><roleName><expan><abbr>κ</abbr><ex>υρίο</ex><abbr>υ</abbr></expan></roleName>
ἡμῶν
<expan><abbr>Ἰ</abbr><ex>ησο</ex><abbr><unclear>ῦ</unclear></abbr></expan>
<supplied reason="lost"><expan><abbr>Χ</abbr><ex>ριστο</ex><abbr>ῦ</abbr></expan></supplied>
<lb n="3"/>ἀνη<unclear>γ</unclear>έρθη <supplied reason="lost">ὁ
ναὸς</supplied>
<lb n="4"/>ὁ
<expan><abbr><unclear>θ</unclear></abbr><ex>εοτό</ex><supplied reason="lost"><abbr>κ</abbr><ex>ο</ex></supplied><abbr>ῦ</abbr></expan> δι<supplied reason="lost">ὰ</supplied> κ<supplied reason="lost">όπου</supplied>
<lb n="5"/>Γ<gap reason="lost" quantity="3" unit="character"/>ου, υἱο<supplied reason="lost">ῦ</supplied> <gap reason="lost" quantity="3" unit="character"/>
<lb n="6"/><gap reason="lost" quantity="3" unit="character"/> καὶ Σαμ<unclear>β</unclear><supplied reason="lost">ατίου</supplied>
<lb n="7"/><gap reason="lost" quantity="3" unit="character"/> <date><expan><abbr>ἠ<supplied reason="lost">ν</supplied>δ</abbr><ex>ικτιῶνος</ex></expan> <num value="2">β</num></date> <g ref="#stauros"/>
</ab>
</div>Translation
With the [help (?)] of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, a [church] of the Mother of the Lord was built, through the efforts of G[...], the son of [...] and Sabba[tios], in the 2nd indiction.
Commentary
Ten more fragments survive where individual letter strokes can be discerned.
2. Compare with the formula in V 16.
3. The building formula ἀνηγέρθη occurs nowhere else in the Northern Black Sea area, but is widely used in Byzantine epigraphy elsewhere (no fewer than 26 examples, according to PHI7 Database).
7. On the name Sabbatios (here Sambatios), and the phonetic dissimilation here, see commentary to V 282. The script is similar to that of the tombstone of Petronios (V 68) and therefore also most likely dates to the end of the XIIth C.E. The 2nd indiction in this period fell in the years 1167-1168, 1182–1183 and 1197–1198. The inscriptions most likely refers to the small Church 22 ("Northern basilica") in the same Block IX (see Romanchuk 2000, 236).
Images
© 2015 Andrey Vinogradov (edition), Irene Polinskaya (translation)
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