Evidence ID
E01239Saint Name
John the Baptist : S00020
John, Apostle and Evangelist : S00042Saint Name in Source
Ἰωάννης
ἸωάννηςType of Evidence
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)
Archaeological and architectural - Cult buildings (churches, mausolea)Evidence not before
400Evidence not after
500Activity not before
400Activity not after
500Place of Evidence - Region
Aegean islands and Cyprus
Aegean islands and Cyprus
Aegean islands and CyprusPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
Kalymnos
Mirties
PanormosPlace of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Kalymnos
Salamis
Σαλαμίς
Salamis
Salamis
Farmagusta
Far
Κωνσταντία
Konstantia
Constantia
Mirties
Salamis
Σαλαμίς
Salamis
Salamis
Farmagusta
Far
Κωνσταντία
Konstantia
Constantia
Panormos
Salamis
Σαλαμίς
Salamis
Salamis
Farmagusta
Far
Κωνσταντία
Konstantia
ConstantiaCult activities - Places
Cult building - independent (church)Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
Prayer/supplication/invocationCult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Other lay individuals/ peopleSource
The inscription (W. 1.10 m; L. 0.49 m; letter height 0.07 m) was found by Mario Segre in the autumn of 1937, during excavations in the narthex of a ruined late antique basilica at Melitzaka in the area of Mirties/Panormos. The mosaic is decorated with geometrical patterns.
The mosaic was edited within the frame of a larger project, as Segre had been asked by a governor of the Aegean Islands, to edit a corpus of inscriptions from the Cyclades. He started the work in Kalymnos, as he knew the island from his earlier surveys. The first results were published in 1938, but Segre's work was interrupted by World War II and his premature death in Auschwitz in 1944. After the war Segre's manuscript of the corpus of inscriptions from Kalymnos, together with our mosaic, was revised and edited as a special issue of Annuario della Scuola archeologica di Atene e delle missioni italiane in Oriente by Giovanni Pugliese Carratelli in 1952.Discussion
The inscription contains an invocation of God as the Lord/Κύριος by a certain Anatolios, described as the founder of a church dedicated to John (unspecified). It is not explicitly stated that the church, where the inscription was found, is meant here, but the form of the inscription, the mosaic floor in the narthex, makes this highly probable. As a modern church, dedicated to St. John (again unspecified), was constructed over the southern aisle of the ancient sanctuary, Segre plausibly argued for the continuity of cult of the saint at the site.
For other inscriptions, with similar formulas referring to the foundation of the place of cult of a saint as the primary identity marker of a person, see: E00710, E00902, E01026.Bibliography
Edition:
Segre, Mario, "Tituli Calymnii", Annuario della Scuola archeologica di Atene e delle missioni italiane in Oriente 22-23, N.S. 6-7, (1944-1945 [1952]), no. 230.
Segre, M., "Relazione preliminare sulla prima campagna di scavo nell'isola di Calino agosto-novembre 1937", Memorie pubblicate a cura dell'Istituto storico-archeologico F.E.R.T. e della r. deputazione di storia patria per Rodi 3 (1938), 35-36.
Further reading:
Halkin, F., "L'Egypte, Chypre, la Crète et les autres îles grecques. La Grèce continentale et les pays balkaniques. L'Italie et la Sycylie", Analecta Bollandiana 70 (1952), 121.
Kiourtzian, G., "Pietas insulariorum", [in:] Eupsychia: mélanges offerts à Hélène Ahrweiler, vol. 2 (Série Byzantina Sorbonensia 16, Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 1998), 376.
Reference works:
Bulletin épigraphique (1939), 280.
Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 12, 386.
