V 310. Pantikapaion.Epitaph (?) of Theodore, IV-Vth centuries C.E.

Monument

Type

Stele. 

Material

Coarse-grained spongy limestone. 

Dimensions (cm)

H.46.0, W.27.0, Th.13.0.

Additional description

Stele of irregular shape; on the front - carved cross with flaring arms. Fully preserved. 

Place of Origin

Pantikapaion. 

Find place

Kerch. 

Find context

Extension of Gospitalnaya Street, south end, property of V. Ivanov. 

Find circumstances

December 1908, chance find. 

Modern location

Unknown. 

Institution and inventory

Unknown. 

Autopsy

Non vidi. 

Epigraphic field

Position

In lower corners between the arms of the cross. 

Lettering

Lapidary. Rectangular epsilon, rounded theta. 

Letterheights (cm)

6.0–7.0.

Text

Category

Epitaph (?). 

Date

IV-Vth centuries C.E. 

Dating criteria

General appearance. 

Editions

L1. Shkorpil1909, 30–31, № 14. 

Edition

Θε(όδωρος?).

Diplomatic

ΘΕ

EpiDoc (XML)

<div type="edition" xml:lang="grc">
   <ab>
      <lb n="1"/><expan><abbr>Θε</abbr><ex cert="low">όδωρος</ex></expan>.
   </ab>
   </div>
 
Apparatus criticus

1: Θ(εὸς) ἐ(λέησον) (?)Shkorpil

Translation

Theodore (?)

 

Commentary

The reading of the abbreviation offered by Shkorpil has no parallels, however, a similar case is attested on a vessel from the nearby Stara Zagora in Bulgaria ((Beševliev 1964, № 204; IV–Vth century), where we find ΘΕ vacat Θεοδώρου κόμητος, that is, theta and epsilon represent an abbreviation of the name Theodore (rejected by Shkorpil), by analogy with ΙΩ representing Ioannes. We may also compare a monogram from Tepe-Kermen (V 207).

It is quite possible that the monument is a tombstone of very crude workmanship.

 

Images

 Photograph of face

(cc)© 2015 Andrey Vinogradov (edition), Irene Polinskaya (translation)
You may download this inscription in EpiDoc XML. (This file should validate to theEpiDoc schema.)