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Inscriptions from Macedonia1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 October 2013

J. M. R. Cormack
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Extract

1. Edessa. This inscription is still where Leake first reported it, in the courtyard of the Metropolitan Church, the Dormition of the Virgin, built into the south end of the west wall of the Γραφεῖον of the Δεσπότης. Although it has been published half a dozen times, the text has never been read correctly in its entirety, largely because its height from the ground makes the taking of a photograph or the making of a squeeze, let alone a study of the letters, very difficult. I was fortunate to be able to examine it in situ, and the accompanying photograph of a squeeze will facilitate the establishment of the text (Plate 5).

It is a rough block, c. 0·46 m. in height and 0·50 m. in width, with a moulding all round, the first line being engraved on the upper moulding. The letters are irregular, measuring on an average 0·025 m. in ll. 1–6 and 0·01 m. in ll. 7–18. The letter-forms, especially important in a dated inscription, are noteworthy. Alpha, delta, and lambda have short tails on the apex; in ll. 1–6 epsilon is square, in ll. 7–18 lunar; similarly in ll. 1–6 sigma is square, in ll. 7–18 lunar. The forms of mu and omega are to be noted; see the accompanying photograph. There are no ligatures.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 58 , November 1963 , pp. 20 - 29
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1963

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References

2 Reinach, S., RA 1889, ii. 112Google Scholar, commenting on Bormann's publication: ‘Comme les copies que l'éditeur a eues sous les yeux sont mauvaises, il serait utile qu'un voyageur prît des estampages ou des photographies de ces textes.’

3 Another example of this confusion of kappa and chi occurs conversely in another inscription, from Kavalla. It was first published by Heuzey, , Mission archéologique de Macédoine (1876) 21Google Scholar, no. 5 and Monuments grecs i. 4. 27, repeated in Dumont-Homolle, , Mélanges d'archéologie et d'épigraphie, 448Google Scholar, no. 110, and Demitsas, op. cit. 757, no. 975, commented on by Wilhelm, A. in Jahreshefte iii (1900) 47–48Google Scholar, and finally republished by Bakalakis, G. in AE 1936, 32–33.Google Scholar The first word in l. 4 is clearly seen from the photograph to be nevertheless, I feel sure that Wilhelm was right, and that, whatever the spelling, the building dedicated was a room for archives (normally spelled ), and not a store for sacrificial meat; has found its way into LS9addenda. Cf. also Collart, P., Philippes (1937) 109–10Google Scholar, n. 1.

4 Ch. Makaronas, I., in Μακεδονικά ii. 37Google Scholar, has related how the old Metropolis, a Byzantine church of the eleventh century, which housed the epigraphic collection of Verria, was taken over for use as a stable by the occupying forces in October 1941, and how in March 1942 the antiquities were removed and thrown into a pit in the courtyard, the larger stones, e.g. the three letters of Demetrius (Cormack, J. M. R.BSA xl (1939–1940) 14–16)Google Scholar, being broken in the process. In 1947 B. G. Kallipolitis rescued the material and stored it in the church of Panayia Kyriotissa.