V 319. Bosporus.Epitaph of Theodote, 1065 C.E.
Monument
Type
Panel.
Material
White marble.
Dimensions (cm)
H.11.0, W.21.5, Th.2.6.
Additional description
Front is polished. Left side is broken off, chipped along the edges.
Place of Origin
Bosporus.
Find place
Kerch.
Find context
Unknown.
Find circumstances
Before 1931.
Modern location
Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Institution and inventory
State Hermitage, ω 1291.
Autopsy
November 2004.
Epigraphic field
Position
On the front.
Lettering
Lapidary. Letters are decorated with serifs and elongated. Almond-shaped epsilon, theta and omicron, mu and nu have short central hastae. Ligatures: tau-omicron-upsilon, tau-eta, eta-nu, tau-omega, eta-mu; superscript diacritics, abbreviation marks, irregular aspiration.
Letterheights (cm)
2.15.
Text
Category
Epitaph.
Date
1065 C.E.
Dating criteria
Explicit date.
Editions
L1. Zalesskaya1988, 207, fig. 10.
<div type="edition" xml:lang="grc">
<ab>
<lb n="1"/><supplied reason="lost"><g ref="#stauros"/>Ἐκοιμήθη
ἡ</supplied> δούλη τοῦ
<roleName><expan><abbr>θ</abbr><ex>εο</ex><abbr>ῦ</abbr></expan></roleName>
Θεοδότη
<date><expan><abbr>μην</abbr><ex>ὸς</ex></expan>
<rs type="month" ref="oct">Ὀκτω<lb n="2" break="no"/><supplied reason="lost">βρίου</supplied></rs>
<supplied reason="lost">εἰς</supplied>
<supplied reason="lost">τὰ</supplied> <num value="26">κς</num>,
<expan><abbr>ἡμ</abbr><ex>έρα</ex><abbr>ς</abbr></expan>
<num value="4">δ</num>, <expan><abbr>ἰν</abbr><ex>δικτιῶνος</ex></expan>
<num value="4">δ</num>, <expan><abbr>ἔτ</abbr><ex>ου</ex><abbr>ς</abbr></expan>
<num value="1654">ςφοδ</num></date> <g ref="#stauros"/>
</ab>
</div>Apparatus criticus
2: [εἰς τὴν] κς´, ἡμέρᾳZalesskaya
Translation
Fell asleep: a servant of God, Theodote, on the 26th of October, Wednesday, in the 4th indiction, in the year 6574.
Commentary
In 1931, the monument had arrived from Kerch to the State Academy for History of Material Culture, and in 1985 it was transferred to the State Hermitage. The panel was probably meant to be set in a wall near the burial of Theodote. Such funerary plaques are known in the Northern Black Sea region in the X-XIth centuries (cf. V 336).
1.On the formula, see Introduction IV.3.F.e. The name Theodote is known from two Bosporan inscriptions of the I century C.E., however, its absence from Early Byzantine epigraphy of the region suggests its reappearance under Christian influence: 9 saints of this name are known (see Delehaye 1902, 1093).
1-2. October 26, 1065 was indeed Wednesday.
2. It is unlikely that the date of the month would be indicated by εἰς τὴν because there are no such examples in the Northern Black Sea region (cf. V 226), in contast to well attested εἰς τά (V 164, V 167, V 168, V 197, V 201, V 215).
Despite chronological proximity to V 340 (1078 C.E., Taman peninsula), our inscription is quite different in palaeographic features.
Images
© 2015 Andrey Vinogradov (edition), Irene Polinskaya (translation)
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