... 1st of April, Sunday, in the year six thousand nine hundred and 11, in the 11th indiction.

 

Latyshev's edition was based on an estampage made by A. I. Markevich.

All that remains of the text is a detailed date. Latyshev failed to calculate the date of the week - it was Sunday. April 1st is the memory day for St. Mary of Egypt: in 1403, it fell on the fifth Sunday of the Great Fast (Lent), which was also dedicated to the same saint. Perhaps because of this rare coincidence, the date was chosen for the consecration of the building. The spelling of the year date is attested in another Theodorite inscription — V 243 (1425 C.E., Partenit).

As far as we can tell from the material and the careful dressing of the stone, the inscription should be classified as a building inscription (the only example that is close in script (but more simple in design) is a tombstone - V 189 - dated to half a century later), but it is impossible to tell what exactly was built and who built it in 1403. We should point out three details, however. Firstly, there had been an earlier structure on the spot before a palace was built in 1425. Secondly, this inscription belongs to a new tradition of Theodorite epigraphy of the XVth century, characterized by relief ornate script carved between relief lines. Moreover, this inscription is the oldest in this tradition. Finally, in contrast to the majority of other examples in this group, this one is made on marble, which is paralleled by the earlier V 177. Thus, somewhere at the turn of the XIVth and XVth centuries, a significant cultural change had taken place, also affecting the epigraphic tradition. The change was probably related to the disappearance of centurions (cf. V 176, V 177) and the rise of a new princely dynasty. Since the date of V 177 is 1391-1401, we could surmise that the change took place a decade before the first building project of the new dynasty.