V 59. Cherson.Image-related inscription, V or IX–XIIth centuries C.E.
Monument
Type
Small panel.
Material
White fine-grained marble.
Dimensions (cm)
H.10.0, W.9.0, Th.2.5.
Additional description
On the front is a frame in relief, with traces of an image in relief inside the frame; polished; on the back is a ledge in relief. Broken off on the right and top, cut on the bottom.
Place of Origin
Cherson.
Find place
Unknown.
Find context
Unknown.
Find circumstances
Unknown.
Modern location
Sevastopol, Crimea.
Institution and inventory
National Preserve of Tauric Chersonesos, 82/36504.
Autopsy
May 1999, August 2001, September 2002, September 2003, September 2004, September 2005, September 2006, September 2007.
Epigraphic field
Position
On the frame (at the bottom of the panel).
Lettering
Lapidary. Letters are accentuated with serifs and lean slightly to the right; hastae are slightly curved. Alpha with straight crossbar.
Letterheights (cm)
1.5.
Text
Category
Image-related inscription.
Date
V or IX–XIIth centuries C.E.
Dating criteria
Palaeography.
Editions
Unpublished.
<div type="edition" xml:lang="grc">
<ab>
<lb n="1"/><supplied reason="lost"> Ὁ <roleName>ἅγιος</roleName></supplied>
<lb n="2"/>Κ<unclear>α</unclear><supplied reason="lost" cert="low">πίτων</supplied>.
</ab>
</div>Translation
[Saint] Ka[piton].
Commentary
The relief inside the frame looks like the right-hand side of the upper half of a human torso, with a flexed right arm held out in front of the chest in a gesture of benediction or simply holding a cross. The figure's proportions allow us to restore the original width of the stone - about 0.2m. In this case, the inscription is most likely image-related. It might have started on the frame at the top of the panel face, or inside the frame on either side of the figure in relief. In that case, kappa and alpha should indicate the beginning of a name, which judging by the width of the stone would have consisted of 6-7 letters. On what looks like a miniature icon we most likely see the depiction of Saint Kapiton who was a revered saint of Cherson (see Latyshev 1906a; Vinogradov 2010a).
Such miniature marble icons were typical for Early Byzantine Cherson (see V 31), although the crudeness of depiction precludes the possibility of stylistic analysis. A slight elaboration of the kappa (curved hastae, cf. V 11 and V 68) might suggest the Middle Byzantine period, but the straight crossbar of the alpha (cf. V 5, V 6, V 10, V 81, V 283) compels us to date the inscription to the Vth century C.E.
Images
© 2015 Andrey Vinogradov (edition), Irene Polinskaya (translation)
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