The painting is damaged. When recorded, only parts of the head of a young man were preserved.
Label of the painting:
Μιχαὴλ
ΚΙ
'Michael'
Text: Laminger-Pascher 1992, no. 117.
Evidence ID
E00936Saint Name
Michael, the Archangel : S00181Saint Name in Source
ΜιχαήλType of Evidence
Images and objects - Wall paintings and mosaics
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)Evidence not before
400Evidence not after
900Activity not before
400Activity not after
900Place of Evidence - Region
Asia MinorPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
BarataPlace of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Barata
Nicomedia
Νικομήδεια
Nikomēdeia
Izmit
Πραίνετος
Prainetos
NicomediaCult activities - Use of Images
- Public display of an image
Source
Remnants of a picture of a young man with a painted Greek inscription (label), on plaster in Church 8 at Yukari Kaya Assar (between Kaya Sarın and Candar, area of Barata, Lykaonia, central Asia Minor), on a wall, to the right of the northern entrance. When recorded, only part of the head was visible. The inscription was positioned above and at the left of the head. Seen by William Ramsay in 1905 and 1908.Discussion
William Ramsay supposed that the painting showed *Michael the Archangel and that the letters KI could be remnants of a misspelt epithet of Michael, e.g. ἀρχιστράτηγος / 'the commander-in-chief'. Gertrude Laminger-Pascher supposes, by contrast, that our inscription ends with the name of a supplicant. Though interesting, this idea is unconvincing, as the position of the inscription (upper left corner) is characteristic of labels of saints in early Byzantine wall paintings, not of dedicatory inscriptions.
Dating: probably 5th-6th or 9th-10th c. (based on other inscriptions and paintings from this region).Bibliography
Edition:
Laminger-Pascher, G. (ed.), Die kaiserzeitlichen Inschriften Lykaoniens, vol. 1: der Süden (Denkschriften, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Philosophisch-Historische Klasse. Ergänzungsbände zu den tituli Asiae Minoris 15; Denkschriften, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Philosophisch-Historische Klasse 232, Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1992), no. 117.
Bell, G.L., Ramsay, W.M., The Thousand and One Churches (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1909), 538, no. 26.
Inscriptiones Christianae Graecae database, no. 710: http://www.epigraph.topoi.org/ica/icamainapp/inscription/show/710
