Stone.

Type of monument: Cornice. Material: Limestone. Description and condition: Re-used ancient cornice. Obverse side weathered. Dimensions: H. 0.38, W. 0.49, Th. 0.24. Autopsy: non vidi.

— Find place: Chersonesos. Find circumstances: 1899, excavations of K.K. Kostsyushko-Valyuzhinich. Find context: Fortification walls, southern sector, inner face of wall.

Modern location: Unknown.

Text field:

Faces code: f1. Style of lettering: Lapidary. Alpha with slanted crossbar, lambda with protruding left vertical, mu with curved hastae, nu with curved crossbar, sigma with serifs. Letterheights: 0.02–0.03.

Text:

Origin of text: Chersonesos. Document type: Building inscription. Date: 1462 or 1472 CE. Dating criteria: Historical context.

Editions: L1. Kostsyushko-Valyuzhinich 1901, 40–41, № 2; 1.1. Vinogradov 2011a, 222–224, № 4.

+ Ἀνεκε̣νίσθη ἐ̣[κ] β̣ά̣θρον
τὸ θεο]φ[ύλ]ακτον κέντ[ρον (pro κάστρον (?))
κ]αὶ ἕ̣τ[αι]ρ̣α̣ [ὀχυρώματα e.g.
τῆ̣[ς Χερσωνίας (?) ... μετὰ
κ]ὲ λοι[πῶν (?), ὑπὸ ἡμερῶν e.g. Ἰσαά-
κο̣υ̣ α[ὐ]θ[έν]τ<ο>υ [πόλεως Θ]ε-
ο[δώρους (καὶ) πα]ρ̣[αθαλασσίας, μη-
νὶ Μαρ]τ(ίου) α[ι’, ἰ]ν[δ(ικτιῶνος) ..´, ἔτους] ς̣[Ϡο´ resp. ς̣[Ϡπ´.
...]M.

Orig.: 6: Α.Θ..ΤΑΥ.

Apparatus criticus: 1–8: + Ἀνεκαινίσθη ... θεοφύλακτον (?) ... ὑψηλότατον (?) Latyshev.

Translation:

Renovated from the foundations, the God-guarded citadel (?) and other fortifications (?) of Chersonia (?) ... together with other (?), in the days of (?) Isaak the lord of the city Theodoron and of its coastline, 11th of March, in the ... indiction, year 6970 (or 6980) ...

Commentary:

The article authored by Kostsyushko-Valozhinich but published on behalf of the editor (i.e. V.V. Latyshev) offered the reading of three words but noted that the inscription consisted of eight lines. The drawing of the inscritpion in Latyshev's archive, preserved in the St Petersburg branch of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Ф. 110. Оп. 1. Д. 98. Л. 431), is not accompanied by a transcription. Descriptions of letter-forms are taken from this drawing. The inscription was found with no. 4.

Line 1. In the formula "renovated from the foundations" the term ἀνεκενίσθη apparently indicates not consecration but a rebuilding from ruins of some citadel (see commentary to no. 169).

Lines 2–5. The attribute "God-guarded" is reconstructed hypothetically. The term θεοφύλακτος (cf. Nos. 163, 168), in the region of the Northern Black Sea, is attested as a standard epithet of the city of Theodoron, and serves as the basis for attributing this inscription to Theodoron. The late Byzantine date of the inscription is suggested by the shape of the alpha with the slanted crossbar and upward extension of the right vertical, as well as by the nu with the S-shaped crossbar, for which there is a parallel in no. 214 (1427 CE).

Lines 5–7. The title of the ruler can be reconstructed from other 15th-century inscriptions from Theodoron. Judging by the remains of the letters he was Isaak (see commentary to no. 12, where the same name occurs).

Line 8. At the end of the line stigma is clear: this can only signify a year. A sampi should have followed, after which there is enough space only for one more letter, signifying a decade. Because there is a great likelihood that the inscription was comissioned by Isaak of Mangup (see above), who ruled between 1459 and 1475, the missing letter could have been either an omicron or a pi, which correspond to 6970 and 6980, from the creation of the world, i.e. 1462 and 1472 CE.