μ]ήτηρ παρθένος ΕΜ. . . . .[
].σαντα τὸν μόνον ἐκ μη[τρὸς
[- - -] Mother, the Virgin [- - -] the only one from the Mother [- - -].
Text: read from the photograph published in Kolb 1993: 634.
Evidence ID
E04568Saint Name
Mary, Mother of Christ : S00033Type of Evidence
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)Evidence not before
500Evidence not after
600Activity not before
500Activity not after
600Place of Evidence - Region
Asia MinorPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
KyaneaiPlace of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Kyaneai
Nicomedia
Νικομήδεια
Nikomēdeia
Izmit
Πραίνετος
Prainetos
NicomediaCult activities - Places
Cult building - independent (church)Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
Prayer/supplication/invocationCult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Ecclesiastics - bishopsSource
The inscription is on a block with a relief on the front face, and an Ionic volute on the right-hand side, found at Kyaneai by Austrian archaeologists in the 1890s but then lost. Rediscovered by Frank Kolb and his team in 1990, next to a large basilica in the northern sector of the agora, which is in the western part of the acropolis.
See Kolb 1993: 630 for a description of the find-spot.
Only a photograph of this inscription has been published (Kolb 1993: 634), with an announcement that a proper publication would follow, in the fourth part of the second volume of the Tituli Asiae Minoris. In 2006 Werner Tietz noted that the publication is still pending.Discussion
Frank Kolb says that this is a building inscription commemorating the construction of a basilica dedicated to the Virgin Mary under bishop Synesios (see PCBE 3, Synesios). The name of the bishop is not visible in the photograph.Bibliography
Edition:
Tituli Asiae Minoris II/4 (forthcoming).
Kolb, F., "Überlegungen zur spätantiken und byzantinischen Besiedlung Zentrallykiens", in: K. Dietz, D. Hennig, H. Kaletsch (eds.), Klassisches Altertum, Spätantike und frühes Christentum. Adolf Lippold zum 65. Geburtstag gewidmet (Würzburg: , 1993), 630, 634.
Further reading:
Altripp, M., "Die Basilika des Bischofs Synesios (Kirche E)", in: F. Kolb (ed.), Die Siedlung von Kyaneai in Zentrallykien, vol. 1: Öffentliche Bauten und Wohnareale (Lykische Studien 9, Bonn: R. Habelt, 2010), 296, n. 4.
Destephen, S., Prosopographie du Diocese d'Asie (325-641) (Prosopographie chrétienne du Bas-Empire 3, Paris: Association des amis du centre d'histoire et civilisation de Byzance, 2008), s.v. Synesios.
Tietz, W., "Die lykischen Städte in der Spätantike", in: J.-U. Krause, Ch. Witschel (eds.), Die Stadt in der Spätantike - Niedergang oder Wandel? Akten des internationalen Kolloquiums in München am 30. und 31. Mai 2003 (Stuttgart: Steiner, 2006), 275, note 91.
Reference works:
Chroniques d'épigraphie byzantine, 340.
