ECG068. Bolnisi Sioni Cathedral, inscription of Elia of Bolnisi

Material: Local stone

Object type: Door base

Dimensions: w 65 x h 20 cm

Text: Eight line inscription is engraved on the stone of the south door foundation of Bolnisi Cathedral. w 107 x h 45 cm

Letters: Engraved Asomtavruli inscription 3

Date: IX AD

Findspot: Bolnisi Sioni Bolnisi Sioni Cathedral is located in Kvemo Kartli, 9 km away from city Bolnisi to the south, 1 km distance from the village Bonis-Khachini. The inscription was discovered during the archaeological expedition held by the Cultural Heritage Preservation Committee supervised by Levan Muskhelishvili in 1937.

Original location: Bolnisi Sioni

Last recorded location(s): Bolnisi Sioni

Text type:Unknown

Editor(s): Nodar Shoshiashvili

Changes history:2019-10-29 Eka Kvirkvelia ტექსტის სრული კოდირება, მეტამონაცემების სრული კოდირება, ბმულებით დაკავშირება ავტორიტეტულ წყაროსთან

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

Translation

Christ, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, by the aid of the Holy Theotokos and St Gregory, I, humble Elia of Bolnisi became worthy of priesthood at the church of St Gregory. There was no midnight service ordained in this church. I prescribed it for Sundays and distribute the communion wine for chanting to God. May God glorify Lord David and his sons and Lord Abul. From now on, whoever after me decides to cancel this midnight service or changes the communion wine of this church for monks may be condemned by God and by the church. Whoever abolishes it, must be punished by the law

Commentary

According to the Corpus of Georgian Inscriptions by Nodar Shoshiashvili the inscription #137. The inscription does not contain any mark of separation but there are spaces between the words (in some of the cases words are joined, or one word is split into two parts). Multiple words have the abbreviation marks (with different signs, including ბოლოკვეცილით), some words that were expected to be shorten by abbreviation, are remained without abbreviation mark. The abbreviation mark is a medium size horizontal line. The inscription is dated according to the paleographic data: Ⴁ, Ⴗ, Ⴘ with open arch; Ⴄ, Ⴅ, Ⴊ, Ⴂ have additional horizontal line leaned to the left; Ⴂ has a complex foot.

Bibliography

შოშიაშვილი, 1980 ნოდარ შოშიაშვილი, ქართული წარწერების კორპუსი, ლაპიდარული წარწერები, 248-250

სარჯველაძე, დანელია, 1997 კორნელი დანელია, ზურაბ სარჯველაძე, ქართული პალეოგრაფია, 20-21

ბროსე, 1840 M. Brosset, Explications, 420-421

ბროსე, 1854 M. Brosset, Lettres de M. Bartholomaei, relatives aux auntiquités géorgienns, 323-325

ბართოლომეი, 1887 J. Bartholomaei, Letter, M. Brosset, Bibliographie analytique des oeuvres de Marie-Felicité Brosset, 132

მუსხელიშვილი, 1938 ლევან მუსხელიშვილი, ბოლნისი, 329-341

ჩუბინაშვილი, 1940 Н. Г. Чубинашвили, Болнисский сион, 74-75

Images

   Fig. 1.