V 173. Theodoro.Building inscription of unknown persons, 1179 C.E.
Monument
Type
Capital.
Material
Limestone.
Dimensions (cm)
H.18.0.
Additional description
Round capital with basket-weave ornament and torus. Broken on the top and right; the surface is chipped.
Place of Origin
Theodoro.
Find place
Mangup.
Find context
Basilica by the water reservoir.
Find circumstances
1984, excavations of V.A. Sidorenko.
Modern location
Simferopol, Crimea.
Institution and inventory
Central Museum of Tavrida, 14628.
Autopsy
September 2005.
Epigraphic field
Position
On the torus.
Lettering
Graffito; minuscule letters of varying height. Ligature upsilon-pi.
Letterheights (cm)
0.6–1.2.
Text
Category
Building inscription.
Date
1179 C.E.
Dating criteria
Explicit date.
Editions
L1. Sidorenko2010, № 18; 2. Vinogradov2011, 239–240, № 12.
<div type="edition" xml:lang="grc">
<ab>
<lb n="1"/><expan><abbr><supplied reason="lost">Ἀ</supplied><unclear>ν</unclear>ανεόθ</abbr><ex>η</ex></expan>
ἠ<supplied reason="lost">ς</supplied> <supplied reason="lost">τοὺς</supplied>
Βαρζάρους ὑπὸ <expan><abbr>τ</abbr><ex>ο͂ν</ex></expan>
<w part="I">ἀσ<supplied reason="lost">τυ</supplied></w>
<gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character" cert="low"/>
<lb n="2"/><date> <expan><abbr>ἔτ</abbr><ex>ους</ex></expan> <num value="6687">ςχπζ</num>,
<supplied reason="lost">μηνὶ</supplied> <rs type="month" ref="iun">Ἰουλήου</rs> <num value="29">κθ</num>,
<expan><abbr>ἠ<unclear>ν</unclear></abbr><supplied reason="lost"><abbr>δ</abbr><ex>ικτιῶνος</ex></supplied></expan>
<num value="7"><supplied reason="lost">ζ</supplied></num></date>.
</ab>
</div>Apparatus criticus
1-2: … Κ(ύρι)ε βο[ήθει] … Sidorenko
Translation
Renovated in Barzaroi by the citi[...] in the year 6687, on the 29th of July, in [the 7th] indiction.
Commentary
When preparing my first edition, I was not aware of an earlier edition by Sidorenko. The inscription occupies only one side of the capital - this was probably the side that was most visible. A cutter started with the use of lapidary script (cf. the shape of alpha), but then switched to cursive, probably out of a habit for writing on parchment.
1.The formula of this inscription is known elsewhere in the Northern Black Sea region in V 6 (Cherson, 487-488 C.E.). A near contemporary inscription from Mesembria, 1059–1067 C.E., about the reconstruction of a church (Beševliev 1964, № 159), also uses the same formula. Since the capital comes from a church, it could refer to the reconstruction of the basilica which dates either to the second half of the VIth century (Sidorenko 2010), or to the VII-Xth centuries (Sidorenko 1991, 328–329). Letters at the end of the line might be indicating that the wall was renovated by the city's residents.
2. July 29, 1179 was Sunday.
Barzaroi, as a district of Mountainous Crimea is mentioned in V 175. It turns out therefore that this was the name of an area west of Mangup, a conclusion which the second mention of the toponym does not undermine.
Images
© 2015 Andrey Vinogradov (edition), Irene Polinskaya (translation)
You may download this inscription in EpiDoc XML. (This file should validate to theEpiDoc schema.)