ECG003. Sepieti Limestone Plaque

Material: Limestone

Object type: Plaque

Decoration:

Text: Greek capital on the fragment of the tile. Letters of 3 lines are visible, from the 4th line only the upper parts of only 2 letters can be seen. w 26 x h 21 cm

Letters:

Inscription with deep and distinct letters. First 2 lines are more tight, the third has more space between letters. The first line has larger letters than the second. The height and width of the letters are mostly equal. The vertical size of the lines I-II are approximately 4 cm. The diameter of the full circle is 3,5 cm. The height of the letter ρ in the 3rd line is approx. 5 cm. and the diameter of ο is bigger in the width than in the height (4,5 and 4 cm).

4-5

Date: VI-VII AD (lettering)

Findspot: Sepieti The plaque has been found during the expeditions of Nokalakevi while excavating the surrounding area of Archangel Church in the village of Sephieti.

Original location: Sepieti

Last recorded location(s): Sepieti

Text type:Unknown

Editor(s): Tinatin Kaukhchishvili

Publication details:Ilia State University, Institute of Linguistic Studies; დოკუმენტი ვრცელდება Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 ლიცენზიით.

Translation (ka)

სალოცველად მონისა კლიმენტისა და მახლობელთა მისთა.

Translation (English)

For the blessing of the servant of the God Klimentos and for his close people.

Commentary

The word γούλου present in the inscription catches our attention for its manner of writing, that is instead of the word δούλου, - this can be explained by the interchange of guttural and dental phonemes characteristic for Greek during all periods of its development. The personal name Κλήμεντος is restored. The inscription can be dated according the letters (Α, Δ, C, Υ), usage of ω instead of ο is quite frequent formula (ὑπὲρ εὐχῆς).

Bibliography

ყაუხჩიშვილი, 2004 თინათინ ყაუხჩიშვილი, საქართველოს ბერძნული წარწერების კორპუსი, 122

Images

   Fig. 1. Sepieti plaque, 1989