V 119. Bakla.Graffito, VIII–IXth centuries C.E.

Monument

Type

Wall block. 

Material

Limestone. 

Dimensions (cm)

H.28.0, W.90.0, Th.unknown.

Additional description

On the front is an image of a horse with stripes on its neck, perhaps representing a cord. Broken. 

Place of Origin

Bakla. 

Find place

Bakla. 

Find context

Foot of the settlement, burial vault, wall. 

Find circumstances

1984, survey of I.A. Baranov. 

Modern location

Simferopol, Crimea. 

Institution and inventory

Central Museum of Tavrida, no inventory number. 

Autopsy

Non vidi. 

Epigraphic field

Position

Over the image of a horse. 

Lettering

Graffito. Alpha with a loop, tau with serifs. 

Text

Category

Unknown. 

Date

VIII–IXth centuries C.E. 

Dating criteria

Archaeological context. 

Editions

Unpublished. 

Edition

[---]Ο̣ΤΑΧΙ [---]
Μαν̣[---].

Diplomatic

[---].ΤΑΧΙ[---]
ΜΑ.[---]

EpiDoc (XML)

<div type="edition" xml:lang="grc">
   <ab>
      <lb n="1"/><gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character"/><orig><unclear>Ο</unclear>ΤΑΧΙ</orig> <gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character"/>
      <lb n="2"/><seg part="I">Μα<unclear>ν</unclear></seg><gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character"/>.
   </ab>
   </div>

Translation

[...]otakhi[...] Man[...

 

Commentary

Lines of text are widely spaced. A few Greek letters that are preserved apparently belong to the non-Greek names of those buried in the burial vault. They might be Turkic names because a block with a carved Turkic tamga was also found in the burial. It is unclear why Baranov (1990, 129, fig. 50) considers this inscription dedicatory. Baranov finds parallels for horse images on bricks from Sarkel and stone blocks from Mayatskoye settlement.

For the archaelogical context, see Baranov 1990, 129.

 

Images

 Photograph of face 1(from ??)

(cc)© 2015 Andrey Vinogradov (edition), Irene Polinskaya (translation)
You may download this inscription in EpiDoc XML. (This file should validate to theEpiDoc schema.)