Material: Local stone
Object type: Altar stele
Dimensions: w 40 x h 115 x d 50 cm
Text: Six line inscription. All of the four sides of the upper part of the altar-steel is embossed and the first line of the inscription is there. The height of the embossed part is 12 cm, the area of the inscription 55×40. w 40 x h 115 cm
Letters: Engraved Asomtavruli inscription. 4-5
Date: 995 AD
Findspot: Phia church of St. Theodor The deserted village Phia (Aspindza Municipality) is located near Vardzia, 5 km from Khertvisi Castle, 20-22 km from Aspindza to the south, on the right side of the River Mtkvari. The small church of St Theodore is located on the north-west side of the deserted village, on a mountainside. Two inscriptions of the X century were found there in 1949 by G. Gaprindashvili. Altar-stele was embedded in the floor of the altar area, but G Gaprindashvili took it out in the yard of the church to take a photographe.
Original location: Phia church of St. Theodor
Last recorded location(s): Phia church of St. Theodor
Text type:Unknown
Editor(s): Nodar Shoshiashvili, Valeri Silogava
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
I, Chqari and my brothers placed this church, it was 215 according to Choronikon.
Commentary
According to the Corpus of Georgian Inscriptions by Nodar Shoshiashvili the inscription #150. The building inscription should belong to the ktetor or the chief ktetor of the church. The latter seems more plausible. Valeri Silogava pays attention to the fact that the inscription contains the word “placed” instead of “built” while referring to building the church as it happens in most of the cases (this might be caused by the fact that the inscription is located on the altar-stele stone that was “placed” and not “built”). The paleographic data of the inscription are noticeable, firstly, naming the date is the basis to give the date to the inscription unlike the other inscriptions without any information about the date, then, the letter L is represented with Asomtavruli (in the word “sakhelita” - 1st line) and with Nuskhuri (“eklesiai” - 4th line) - this represents mixing the Asomtavruli alphabet with Nuskhuri (in terms of the letter L earlier than any other letters) which is considered to start from the X century. The inscription does not contain the marks of separation or abbreviation. No spaces between the words.
Bibliography
შოშიაშვილი, 1980 ნოდარ შოშიაშვილი, ქართული წარწერების კორპუსი, 269-270
სილოგავა, 2013 ვალერი სილოგავა, სამცხის ლაპიდარული ეპიგრაფიკა, 118-169
Images
Fig. 1.