Material: Local stone
Object type: Facade
Text: One line inscription on the north wing of the east facade, on the second layer of the footing of the building. w 59 x h 4.8 cm
Letters:
Embossed capital Asomtavruli writing mixed with Nuskhuri. L (ⴊ) is from the Nuskhuri alphabet, M (ⴋ) and N (ⴌ) are transitional to Nuskhuri script. The abbreviation mark is a long straight crossbar. Edges are dotted.
4.8Date: 945 (internal date, lettering)
Findspot: Ateni Sioni
Original location: Ateni Sioni
Text type:Unknown
Editor(s): Nodar Shoshiashvili, Marie-Félicité Brosset
Publication details:ილიას სახელმწიფო უნივერსიტეტი, ლინგვისტურ კვლევათა ინსტიტუტი; დოკუმენტი ვრცელდება Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 ლიცენზიით.
Translation (ka)
ქრისტე, შეიწყალე ატენის სარქალი, რომელმაც შექმნა ეს ზღუდე ქორონიკონით 165 წელს.
Translation (English)
Christ, have mercy on the chef herdsman of Ateni, who built this wall in 165 according to Choronikon.
Commentary
The reading of these two words as “Ateni herdsman” is proposed by G. Abramishvili. Inscription is in Asomtavruli script mixed with the Nuskhuri alphabet. No sign of separation of the words except the last three words that are distanced from each other. Inscription includes the date - Georgian Chronicle რჲე. Marie Brosset explains that the date named in the inscription corresponds to 1477, while Barnaveli considers that on the basis of paleographic data (low and round shape letters characteristic to X century, Ⴀ and Ⴒ are well circled and lower foot is bended to the right, the letter Ⴢ has dots at the end of the edges and the abbreviation mark is stretched to all over the words) the dating of the inscription should be taken to the 13th cycle in which case we will receive 165+780=945 years.
Images
Fig. 1. Ateni Sioni