Material: Stone
Object type: Tomb
Decoration:
Inscription has 4 christograms: 1st - on top of the first line on the left side (Α†ω), 3 - below the inscription (the 4th line is partially written between these christograms). From the three chrisograms the central is similar to the first one: Α†ω; left one misses A, and the right one only maintains the cross (letters are wiped out). The inscription can be dated to early Christian period according to its content, text structure, shape of the letters (Α, Ε, С, Ш, Ф).
Text: Greek capital inscription is quite damaged, located on the left inner wall of Tsilkani underground tomb, built with slab stones. The inscription lettered from the upper-right angle. Total area: 2,66 m. -2,98 m. (that is the entire width of the west wall). w 2,66 - 2,98 m
Letters:
Colors of the inscription are black and red. We presume that at first the text was done with red color and the black is secondary (the red letters are visible within the black ones in some of the cases). Besides the 4 main lines and christograms, there are some black color prints on the plaster, thus, there was something more written except what is given currently. Time difference present in the main inscription as the IV line is written later, this difference in time scale may not be big.
The letters are not equal: 1st line mainly 11 cm height, 2nd - 10,5 cm., 3rd - 10,5 cm. 4th is unequal and represented with rather narrow handwriting. The letters are right-angled (exceptional is round shaped ω in the chrisogram), α is represented with a broken crossbar. The entire inscription is quite wide. No grammatical mistakes or medieval Greek forms. One ligature for ΜΕ.
11 - 10,5Date: IV-V AD (context lettering)
Findspot: Tsilkani
Original location: Tsilkani
Last recorded location(s): Tomb in Tsilkani
Text type:Unknown
Editor(s): Tinatin Kaukhchishvili
Changes history:2019-04-25 TK ფოტო, რედაქტირება, თარგმანის კოდირება
Publication details:Ilia State University, Institute of Linguistic Studies; დოკუმენტი ვრცელდება Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 ლიცენზიით.
Translation (ka)
მე, ტიკასმა და ბერმა, ჩემმა ამბა ფარანუსესმა გავაკეთეთ ეს აკლდამა თლილი ქვებისგან ჩვენთვის. პაპრიუპასი(?) ისდიგერდესი(?) ასევე აქ განისვენებენ.
Translation (English)
I, Tikas and the priest, my father Pharanuses built this tomb with slab stones. Papriupas (?) Isdigerdes (?) are also buried here.
Commentary
The number of christograms does not give any meaningful data. The 1st christogram at the beginning of the inscription is the only appellation to Christ; the christograms present symmetrically below have ornamental function, they end the text. Similar christograms are noticeable in every period of Christianity. Α and ω are the symbols of the Christ, that originates from St John, Book of Revelation (1,8; 21,6): ἐγὼ εἰμι τὸ ἄλφα καὶ τὸ ὦ, λέγει κύριος ὁ θεός (I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, says the Lord God). The tomb is designated for the Christian priests. It was built by Tikas (who appears to be head of the monastery, no specific definition) and Pharanuses (a priest and head of the monastery, close person to Tikas). Couple of more men had been buried in the same tomb, seemingly the priests of the same rate. The names that are given in the inscription (Τικᾶς, Φαρανούσης) are not of the Greco-Roman origin (Φαρανούσης i.e. Φαρναούσης are Iranian), but apparently represented with Grecism form. The restored versions (Παπριοῦπας, Ἰσδιγέρδης) are also of Iranian structure. The quantity of Iranian names in the Greek inscriptions of Tsilkani speaks about the intense communications between Iberia and Iran.
Bibliography
ყაუხჩიშვილი, 2004: საქართველოს ბერძნული წარწერების კორპუსი, 213-214
Images
Fig. 1. Tomb from Tsilkani, 2016