E04568: Fragmentary Greek inscription, published only in part, referring to *Mary (Mother of Christ, S00033), and apparently from a church dedicated to her. Found at Kyaneai (Lycia, south-west Asia Minor). Probably 6th c.

online resource

posted on 2018-01-10, 00:00 authored by pnowakowski

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.

History

Evidence ID

E04568

Saint Name

Mary, Mother of Christ : S00033

Related Saint Records

https://oxford.figshare.com/articles/Mary_Mother_of_Christ/13729186

Type of Evidence

Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)

Language

Greek

Evidence not before

500

Evidence not after

600

Activity not before

500

Activity not after

600

Place of Evidence - Region

Asia Minor

Place of Evidence - City, village, etc

Kyaneai

Place of evidence - City name in other Language(s)

Kyaneai Nicomedia Νικομήδεια Nikomēdeia Izmit Πραίνετος Prainetos Nicomedia

Cult activities - Places

Cult building - independent (church)

Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs

Prayer/supplication/invocation

Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Ecclesiastics - bishops

Source

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.