V 98. Cherson.Calendar inscription, Xth - early XIth century C.E.
Monument
Type
Small panel.
Material
Marble.
Dimensions (cm)
H.12.5, W.11.5, Th.3.5.
Additional description
Broken into pieces, two fragments survive. Fragment 1 is broken on all sides, Fragment 2 (?) preserves the bottom.
Place of Origin
Cherson.
Institution and inventory
, no inventory number.
Fragment1
Find place
Sevastopol (Chersonesos).
Find context
Unknown.
Find circumstances
Before 1925.
Modern location
Sevastopol, Crimea.
Institution and inventory
National Preserve of Tauric Chersonesos, 3347.
Autopsy
May 1999, August 2001, September 2002, September 2003, September 2004, September 2005, September 2006, September 2007.
Fragment2
Find place
Sevastopol (Chersonesos).
Find context
Citadel (?), room I, rubble fill.
Find circumstances
1970s-1990s, excavations of I. A. Antonova.
Modern location
Unknown.
Institution and inventory
Unknown.
Autopsy
Non vidi.
Epigraphic field
Position
On the front.
Lettering
Lapidary style, letters with serifs. Alpha with slanting crossbar, beta with bottom underline, delta with projecting right diagonal. Ligature tau-omicron, abbreviation sign.
Letterheights (cm)
1.2–1.8.
Text
Category
Calendar inscription.
Date
Xth - early XIth century C.E.
Dating criteria
Palaeography, explicit date.
Editions
Unpublished.
[---]. τὸ · ἐ[πίγειον? ---],
[ἡμέρ]ᾳδ´· [τὸ ἐπίγειον? ---],
.. ? .. η´ .. ? ..
5.. ? .. η´ .. ? ..
.. ? ..
[τῇ π]α(ρασκευῇ) vac. 2 litt. τὸ ἐ[πίγειον? ---],
[ἡμέρ]ᾳ ε´ τὸ ἐ[πίγειον? ---],
[---] σαββ(άτῳ) · τὸ ἐ[πίγειον? ---],
10[---] τὸ ἐπήγε[ιον? ---]
[π]α(ρασκευῇ)· vac. 2 litt. ἠν[δ(ικτιῶνος?) ..]´.
<div type="edition" xml:lang="grc">
<ab>
<lb n="1"/><date><gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character"/> τὸ
ἐ<supplied reason="lost" cert="low">πίγειον</supplied>
<gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character"/>,
<lb n="2"/><gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character"/><gap reason="illegible" quantity="1" unit="character"/> τὸ ·
ἐ<supplied reason="lost" cert="low">πίγειον</supplied> <gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character"/>,
<lb n="3"/><supplied reason="lost">ἡμέρ</supplied>ᾳ<num value="4">δ</num>· <supplied reason="lost" cert="low">τὸ
ἐπίγειον</supplied> <gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character"/>,
<lb n="4"/><gap reason="illegible" extent="3" unit="character"/> <num value="8">η</num>
<gap reason="illegible" extent="3" unit="character"/>
<lb n="5"/><gap reason="illegible" extent="7" unit="character"/> <num value="8">η</num>
<gap reason="illegible" extent="3" unit="character"/>
<lb n="6"/><gap reason="illegible" extent="2" unit="character"/>
<lb n="7"/><supplied reason="lost">τῇ</supplied>
<expan><abbr><supplied reason="lost">π</supplied>α</abbr><ex>ρασκευῇ</ex></expan> <space quantity="2" unit="character"/>
τὸ ἐ<supplied reason="lost" cert="low">πίγειον</supplied> <gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character"/>,
<lb n="8"/><supplied reason="lost">ἡμέρ</supplied>ᾳ <num value="5">ε</num> τὸ
ἐ<supplied reason="lost" cert="low">πίγειον</supplied> <gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character"/>,
<lb n="9"/><gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character"/> <expan><abbr>σαββ</abbr><ex>άτῳ</ex></expan> ·
τὸ ἐ<supplied reason="lost" cert="low">πίγειον</supplied>
<gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character"/>,
<lb n="10"/><gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character"/> τὸ
ἐπήγε<supplied reason="lost" cert="low">ιον</supplied>
<gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character"/>
<lb n="11"/><expan><abbr><supplied reason="lost">π</supplied>α</abbr><ex>ρασκευῇ</ex></expan>· <space quantity="2" unit="character"/>
<expan><abbr>ἠν<supplied reason="lost">δ</supplied></abbr><supplied reason="lost"><ex cert="low">ικτιῶνος</ex></supplied></expan>
<num atLeast="11"><gap reason="lost" quantity="2" unit="character"/></num></date>.
</ab>
</div>
Translation
... e[pigeion (?)]... e[pigeion (?).., on] Wednesday, [epigeion (?)] ... 8.., ... 8 ... e[pigeion (?)... on] Friday; e[pigeion (?)... on] Thursday; e[pigeion (?).. on] Saturday; e[pigeion (?)... on]; epige[ion... on] Friday in[diction].
Commentary
The photograph of the inscription was kindly passed on to me by I. A. Antonova. At the National Preserve of Tauric Chersonesos, I could neither locate the monument, nor any information about it. A note on the back of the photograph reads "Room I, rubble fill," which suggests that the monument was not found in a stratified deposit.
The text appears to be a calendar: days of the week (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday) are mentioned. It probably belongs together with V 30.
1-4. The first four lines consist of the repetition of the word τὸ ἐπήγε[... with different days of the week. For this word, the only suitable restoration is τὸ ἐπίγειον, which is attested as an astronomical term (see Stephanus, s.v.). The specific meaning of this text could be illuminated by a specialist in Byzantine astronomy.
Beta with bottom underline is attested in Crimea in only one dated inscription - V 243 (in Latyshev's drawing of № 48 it is given incorrectly) and is typical for the end of IXth-Xth centuries; at the same time, in V 30, which is similar to our inscription, we find palaeographic parallels with inscriptions of the XIth century (see comm.).
© 2015 Andrey Vinogradov (edition), Irene Polinskaya (translation)
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