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Gertrude Bell’s Resolution of a Disputed Inscription

Year 2020, Volume: 20, 1 - 26, 25.11.2020
https://doi.org/10.37095/gephyra.708896

Abstract

One inscribed tombstone was placed at Appa station on the Ottoman Railway line from İzmir to Dinar. The inscription was published by three different copyists in the course of eleven years. Each person who transcribed the inscription, Georg Weber, William Mitchell Ramsay and Georges Cousin, made no acknowledgement of each other. Moreover, each transcription and reconstruction differed from the other in more lines than the number of lines in which they were in agreement; the provenance for the stone was credited to different locations and the minimal description of the form of the stone left considerable doubt as to the tombstone’s design. No sketch or photograph was provided. The names on the epitaph have been harnessed by the Lexicon of Greek Personal Names to a site (Sanaos) to which none of the three published editions actually tied the inscription. The dispute may have been left unresolved, but for a photograph taken by Gertrude Bell in 1907. She never published it, but, for her, it was the fitting compensation for a failed visit to the site of Colossae. By careful enhancement of the photograph and close study of its contents, the three disputed elements — the form of the tombstone, its original location and the wording of the inscription — can be resolved to a high degree of probability. The restored inscription becomes particularly valuable for a name that may connect with one of the (in)famous features of Colossian religious life — the worship of angels.

Supporting Institution

Charles Sturt University

References

  • W. F. Ainsworth, Travels in the Track of the Ten Thousand Greeks; being a Geographical and Descriptive Account of the Expedition of Cyrus and of the Retreat of the Ten Thousand Greeks as related by Xenophon, London 1844.
  • C. Humann et al., Altertümer von Hierapolis, Berlin 1898.
  • J. G. C. Anderson, Summer in Phrygia I, JHS 17, 1897, 396-424.
  • J. G. C. Anderson, A Summer in Phrygia: II, JHS 18, 1898, 81-128, 340-344.
  • K. Baedeker, Konstantinopel und Kleinasien: Handbuch für Reisende, Leipzig 1905.
  • W. J. Beamont, Journal of a Visit to the Seven Churches of Asia, Warrington Library Museum and Archives Ms 706, 1855.
  • N. Belayche, Angeloi in Religious Practices of the Imperial Roman East, Henoch 32.1, 2010, 44-65.
  • N. Belayche, Les dédicaces ‘au divin (τῷ Θειῷ)’ dans l’Anatolie impériale, in: M. de Souza – A. Peters-Custot, F.-X. Romanacce (eds), Le sacré dans tous ses états. Catégories du vocabulaire religieux et sociétés, de l’Antiquité à nos jours, Saint-Étienne 2012, 181-194.
  • G. L. Bell, Syria: The Desert and the Sown, London 1907.
  • M. G. Brennan, The Travel Diary of Robert Bargrave, Levant Merchant 1647–1656, London 1999.
  • W. H. Buckler – W. M. Calder, Monumenta Asiae Minoris Antiqua: Vol VI, Monuments and Documents from Phrygia and Caria, Manchester 1939.
  • A. H. Cadwallader, Two New Inscriptions, a Correction and a Confirmed Sighting from Colossae, EpigrAnat 40, 2007, 109-118.
  • A. H. Cadwallader, The Reverend Doctor John Luke and the Churches of Chonai, GBRS 48/3, 2008, 319-338.
  • A. H. Cadwallader, St Michael of Chonai and the Tenacity of Paganism, in: D. Kim and S. Hathaway (eds), Intercultural Transmission throughout the Medieval Mediterranean: 100-1600 CE, London / New York 2012, 37-59.
  • A. H. Cadwallader, Fragments of Colossae: Sifting through the Traces, Adelaide 2015.
  • A. H. Cadwallader, One Grave, Two Women, One Man: Complicating Family Life at Colossae, in: A. H. Cadwallader (ed.), Stones, Bones and the Sacred: Essays on Material Culture and Ancient Religion in Honor of Dennis E. Smith, Atlanta, GA 2016, 157-194.
  • A. H. Cadwallader, ‘As if in a Vision of the Night …’ Authorising the Healing Spring of Chonai, in: B. Neil and E. Anagnostou-Laoutides (eds), Dreams, Memory and Imagination in Byzantium, Leiden 2018, 265-92.
  • A. H. Cadwallader, Wealthy, widowed, astute and beneficent: Claudia Eugenetoriane and the second century revival of the Colossian mint, in: J. R. Harrison et al. (eds), New Documents Illustrating the History of Early Christianity, Volume 12, Grand Rapids, MI 2021, forthcoming.
  • S. Colvin, Names in Hellenistic and Roman Lycia, in: S. Colvin (ed.), The Greco-Roman East: Politics, Culture, Society, Cambridge 2004, 44-84.
  • G. Cousin, Kyros le Jeune en Asie Mineure (Printemps 408-Juillet 401 avant Jésus-Christ), Nancy 1904.
  • G. Daux, Notes de lecture, BCH 100, 1976, 201-234.
  • T. Drew-Bear, Nouvelles Inscriptions de Phrygie, Zutphen 1978.
  • B. Duman, Anaua’nin (Sanaos) Lokalizasyonu Üzerine Düşünceler, Pamukkale Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi 1, 2008, 43-64.
  • D. Emrys-Evans, Notes on the Consonants in the Greek of Asia Minor, CQ 12, 1918, 162-170.
  • M. Greenhalgh, Constantinople to Córdoba: Dismantling Ancient Architecture in the East, North Africa and Islamic Spain, Leiden 2012.
  • M. Greenhalgh, The Demands of Modernity: Filching the Building Blocks of the Ancient World, Leiden 2013.
  • M. Greenhalgh, Plundered Empire: Acquiring Antiquities from Ottoman Lands, Leiden 2019.
  • W. A. Hawley, Asia Minor, London / New York 1918.
  • A. Herring, Photographing Magnesia on Meander: Image, Exhibition and Excavation, History of Photography 39, 2015, 71-87.
  • D. Hogarth et al., Guide to Greece, the Archipelago, Constantinople, the Coasts of Asia Minor, Crete and Cyprus, London 1908.
  • G. H. R. Horsley and J. M. Luxford, Pagan Angels in Roman Asia Minor: revisiting the epigraphic evidence, AS 66, 2016, 141-83.
  • G. Howell, Queen of the Desert: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell, London 2015.
  • M. P. C. Jackson, A Critical Examination of Gertrude Bell’s Contribution to Archaeological Research in Central Asia Minor, in: P. T. Collins and C. Tripp (eds.), Gertrude Bell and Iraq: A Life and Legacy, Oxford 2017, 47-76.
  • A. Joanne – É. Isambert, Itinéraire descriptif, historique et archéologique de l’Orient v.1 Turkey, Paris 1881.
  • A. L. J. de Laborde, Voyage de l’Asie Mineure, Paris 1838.
  • É. Le Camus, Voyage aux Sept Églises de l’Apocalypse, Paris 1896.
  • É. Le Camus, Colosses, in: F. Vigouroux (ed.), Dictionnaire de la Bible Vol C–F, Paris 1899, 860–866.
  • É. Le Camus, Notre Voyage aux pays biblique: Haute Palestine, Syrie, Asie Mineure, Grèce, Paris 1889.
  • P.-E. Legrande – J. Chamonard, Inscriptions de Phrygie, BCH XVII, 1893, 241-93.
  • P. M. Fraser – E. Matthews (eds.), Lexicon of Greek Personal Names, 5 volumes, Oxford 1987-2018.
  • M. S. Macrakis, Introduction, in: M. S. Macrakis (ed.), Greek Letters: From Tablets to Pixels, New Castle, DE 1996, xiii–xxviii.
  • H. Malay – C. Tanrıver, The Cult of Apollo Syrmaios and the Village of Parloai near Sattai, North-Eastern Lydia, in: M-P. de Hoz – J. P. Sánchez Hernández – C. M. Valero (eds.), Between Tarhuntas and Zeus Polieus: Cultural Crossroads in the Temples and Cults of Graeco-Roman Anatolia, Leuven, 2016, 171-84.
  • S. Mitchell, Further thoughts on the cult of Theos Hypsistos, in: S. Mitchell – P. Van Nuffelin (eds), One God. Pagan Monotheism in the Roman Empire, Cambridge, 2013, 168-197.
  • R. Parker, Theophoric Names and the History of Greek Religion, in S. Hornblower and E. Matthews (eds.), Greek Personal Names: Their Value as Evidence, Oxford 2000, 53-79.
  • G. Quandt, De Baccho ab Alexandri Aetate in Asia Minore Culto, Halle 1913.
  • W. M. Ramsay, The Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, JHS 4, 1883, 370-436.
  • W. M. Ramsay, The Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, Vol. I, Oxford 1895.
  • W. M. Ramsay, The Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, Vol. II, Oxford 1897.
  • W. M. Ramsay, A Country Town of Lycaonia. A Description of the Conditions of Christian life under the Eastern Empire, Journal of the Transactions of the Victoria Institute 41, 1909, 36-46.
  • W. M. Ramsay – G. L. Bell, The Thousand and One Churches, London 1909.
  • E. Renan, Histoire des origines du Christianisme, Vol. 3, Paris 1869.
  • M. Ricl, Hosios kai Dikaios 2. Analyse, EpigrAnat 19, 1992, 71-102.
  • M. Ricl, Newly published and unpublished inscriptions for Hosios and Dikaios and their contribution to the study of the cult, in: E. Winter (ed.), Vom Euphrat bis zum Bosporus. Kleinasien in der Antike. Festschrift für Elmar Schwertheim zum 65. Geburtstag, Bonn 2008, 563-579.
  • T. Ritti, Museo Archaeologico di Denizli-Hierapolis Catalogo delle iscrizione greche e latine, Naples 2008.
  • P. Rycaut [Ricaut], The Present State of the Greek and Armenian Churches Anno Christi 1678, London 1679.
  • J. Strzygowski, Kleinasien, ein Neuland der Kunstgeschichte, Leipzig 1903.
  • A. Svoboda, The Seven Churches of Asia: with twenty full-page photographs taken on the spot, historical notes, and itinerary, London 1869.
  • C. Şimşek, Kolossai, Arkeoloji ve Sanat 107, 2002, 3-17.
  • P. Thonemann, The Maeander Valley: A Historical Geography from Antiquity to Byzantium, Cambridge 2011.
  • S. V. Tracy, Attic Letter-Cutters of 229 to 86 B.C., Berkeley 1990.
  • H. von Aulock, Münzen und Städte Phrygiens, Vol. 1, Tübingen 1984.
  • G. Weber, Die unterirdische Lauf des Lykos bei Kolossai, MDAI(A) 16, 1891, 194-199.
  • G. Weber, Bas-reliefs de Laodicée et de Tripolis, Rev. arch 20, 1892, 288–290.
  • G. Weber, Inschriften aus Sued-Phrygien, MDAI(A) 18, 1893, 206-207.
  • C. Wilson, Handbooks for Travellers: Asia Minor, Transcaucasia, Persia, etc, London 1895.

Tartışmalı Bir Yazıt İçin Getrude Bell’in Çözümü

Year 2020, Volume: 20, 1 - 26, 25.11.2020
https://doi.org/10.37095/gephyra.708896

Abstract

İzmir’den Dinar’a giden Osmanlı tren yolu hattı üzerindeki Appa istasyonuna yazıtlı bir mezar taşı konulmuştu. Bu yazıt 11 yıllık bir süre zarfında üç farklı kişi tarafından kopyalanarak yayımlanmıştır. Yazıtın transkripsiyonunu yapan Georg Weber, William Mitchell Ramsay ve Georges Cousin birbirlerinden habersizdi. Üstelik, her transkripsiyon ve rekonstrüksiyon uyum içinde oldukları satır sayısından daha fazla sayıda birbirinden farklıydı. Taşın menşei değişik yerlere atfedilmişti ve taşın şeklinin çok kısa tasvir edilmesi mezar taşının nasıl tasarlandığı konusunda büyük bir şüphe bırakmıştı. Herhangi bir çizim ya da fotoğrafı da verilmemişti. Mezar yazıtındaki isimler ‘Lexicon of Greek Personal Names’ tarafından bu üç yayımlı edisyonun aslında bağ kurmadığı bir yere (Sanaos) konulmuştu. Gertrude Bell tarafından 1907 yılında çekilen bir fotoğraf olmasaydı bu tartışma çözümsüz kalabilirdi. O, bu yazıtı hiç yayımlamadı ama onun için yazıt Kolossai yerleşimine yaptığı başarısız bir ziyaretin uygun bir telafisi olmuştu. Fotoğrafın dikkatli bir şekilde kalitesinin artırılması ve içeriğinin sıkı bir şekilde çalışılmasıyla üç tartışmalı konu – taşın şekli, orijinal yeri ve yazıtın yazılış biçimi – büyük bir olasılıkla çözüme kavuşturulabilmektedir. Okunan yazıt, Kolossai dini yaşamının ünlü/ünsüz özelliklerinden biri olan meleklere tapınım ile bağlantı kurabileceğimiz bir isim için özellikle değerli hale gelmiştir.

References

  • W. F. Ainsworth, Travels in the Track of the Ten Thousand Greeks; being a Geographical and Descriptive Account of the Expedition of Cyrus and of the Retreat of the Ten Thousand Greeks as related by Xenophon, London 1844.
  • C. Humann et al., Altertümer von Hierapolis, Berlin 1898.
  • J. G. C. Anderson, Summer in Phrygia I, JHS 17, 1897, 396-424.
  • J. G. C. Anderson, A Summer in Phrygia: II, JHS 18, 1898, 81-128, 340-344.
  • K. Baedeker, Konstantinopel und Kleinasien: Handbuch für Reisende, Leipzig 1905.
  • W. J. Beamont, Journal of a Visit to the Seven Churches of Asia, Warrington Library Museum and Archives Ms 706, 1855.
  • N. Belayche, Angeloi in Religious Practices of the Imperial Roman East, Henoch 32.1, 2010, 44-65.
  • N. Belayche, Les dédicaces ‘au divin (τῷ Θειῷ)’ dans l’Anatolie impériale, in: M. de Souza – A. Peters-Custot, F.-X. Romanacce (eds), Le sacré dans tous ses états. Catégories du vocabulaire religieux et sociétés, de l’Antiquité à nos jours, Saint-Étienne 2012, 181-194.
  • G. L. Bell, Syria: The Desert and the Sown, London 1907.
  • M. G. Brennan, The Travel Diary of Robert Bargrave, Levant Merchant 1647–1656, London 1999.
  • W. H. Buckler – W. M. Calder, Monumenta Asiae Minoris Antiqua: Vol VI, Monuments and Documents from Phrygia and Caria, Manchester 1939.
  • A. H. Cadwallader, Two New Inscriptions, a Correction and a Confirmed Sighting from Colossae, EpigrAnat 40, 2007, 109-118.
  • A. H. Cadwallader, The Reverend Doctor John Luke and the Churches of Chonai, GBRS 48/3, 2008, 319-338.
  • A. H. Cadwallader, St Michael of Chonai and the Tenacity of Paganism, in: D. Kim and S. Hathaway (eds), Intercultural Transmission throughout the Medieval Mediterranean: 100-1600 CE, London / New York 2012, 37-59.
  • A. H. Cadwallader, Fragments of Colossae: Sifting through the Traces, Adelaide 2015.
  • A. H. Cadwallader, One Grave, Two Women, One Man: Complicating Family Life at Colossae, in: A. H. Cadwallader (ed.), Stones, Bones and the Sacred: Essays on Material Culture and Ancient Religion in Honor of Dennis E. Smith, Atlanta, GA 2016, 157-194.
  • A. H. Cadwallader, ‘As if in a Vision of the Night …’ Authorising the Healing Spring of Chonai, in: B. Neil and E. Anagnostou-Laoutides (eds), Dreams, Memory and Imagination in Byzantium, Leiden 2018, 265-92.
  • A. H. Cadwallader, Wealthy, widowed, astute and beneficent: Claudia Eugenetoriane and the second century revival of the Colossian mint, in: J. R. Harrison et al. (eds), New Documents Illustrating the History of Early Christianity, Volume 12, Grand Rapids, MI 2021, forthcoming.
  • S. Colvin, Names in Hellenistic and Roman Lycia, in: S. Colvin (ed.), The Greco-Roman East: Politics, Culture, Society, Cambridge 2004, 44-84.
  • G. Cousin, Kyros le Jeune en Asie Mineure (Printemps 408-Juillet 401 avant Jésus-Christ), Nancy 1904.
  • G. Daux, Notes de lecture, BCH 100, 1976, 201-234.
  • T. Drew-Bear, Nouvelles Inscriptions de Phrygie, Zutphen 1978.
  • B. Duman, Anaua’nin (Sanaos) Lokalizasyonu Üzerine Düşünceler, Pamukkale Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi 1, 2008, 43-64.
  • D. Emrys-Evans, Notes on the Consonants in the Greek of Asia Minor, CQ 12, 1918, 162-170.
  • M. Greenhalgh, Constantinople to Córdoba: Dismantling Ancient Architecture in the East, North Africa and Islamic Spain, Leiden 2012.
  • M. Greenhalgh, The Demands of Modernity: Filching the Building Blocks of the Ancient World, Leiden 2013.
  • M. Greenhalgh, Plundered Empire: Acquiring Antiquities from Ottoman Lands, Leiden 2019.
  • W. A. Hawley, Asia Minor, London / New York 1918.
  • A. Herring, Photographing Magnesia on Meander: Image, Exhibition and Excavation, History of Photography 39, 2015, 71-87.
  • D. Hogarth et al., Guide to Greece, the Archipelago, Constantinople, the Coasts of Asia Minor, Crete and Cyprus, London 1908.
  • G. H. R. Horsley and J. M. Luxford, Pagan Angels in Roman Asia Minor: revisiting the epigraphic evidence, AS 66, 2016, 141-83.
  • G. Howell, Queen of the Desert: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell, London 2015.
  • M. P. C. Jackson, A Critical Examination of Gertrude Bell’s Contribution to Archaeological Research in Central Asia Minor, in: P. T. Collins and C. Tripp (eds.), Gertrude Bell and Iraq: A Life and Legacy, Oxford 2017, 47-76.
  • A. Joanne – É. Isambert, Itinéraire descriptif, historique et archéologique de l’Orient v.1 Turkey, Paris 1881.
  • A. L. J. de Laborde, Voyage de l’Asie Mineure, Paris 1838.
  • É. Le Camus, Voyage aux Sept Églises de l’Apocalypse, Paris 1896.
  • É. Le Camus, Colosses, in: F. Vigouroux (ed.), Dictionnaire de la Bible Vol C–F, Paris 1899, 860–866.
  • É. Le Camus, Notre Voyage aux pays biblique: Haute Palestine, Syrie, Asie Mineure, Grèce, Paris 1889.
  • P.-E. Legrande – J. Chamonard, Inscriptions de Phrygie, BCH XVII, 1893, 241-93.
  • P. M. Fraser – E. Matthews (eds.), Lexicon of Greek Personal Names, 5 volumes, Oxford 1987-2018.
  • M. S. Macrakis, Introduction, in: M. S. Macrakis (ed.), Greek Letters: From Tablets to Pixels, New Castle, DE 1996, xiii–xxviii.
  • H. Malay – C. Tanrıver, The Cult of Apollo Syrmaios and the Village of Parloai near Sattai, North-Eastern Lydia, in: M-P. de Hoz – J. P. Sánchez Hernández – C. M. Valero (eds.), Between Tarhuntas and Zeus Polieus: Cultural Crossroads in the Temples and Cults of Graeco-Roman Anatolia, Leuven, 2016, 171-84.
  • S. Mitchell, Further thoughts on the cult of Theos Hypsistos, in: S. Mitchell – P. Van Nuffelin (eds), One God. Pagan Monotheism in the Roman Empire, Cambridge, 2013, 168-197.
  • R. Parker, Theophoric Names and the History of Greek Religion, in S. Hornblower and E. Matthews (eds.), Greek Personal Names: Their Value as Evidence, Oxford 2000, 53-79.
  • G. Quandt, De Baccho ab Alexandri Aetate in Asia Minore Culto, Halle 1913.
  • W. M. Ramsay, The Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, JHS 4, 1883, 370-436.
  • W. M. Ramsay, The Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, Vol. I, Oxford 1895.
  • W. M. Ramsay, The Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, Vol. II, Oxford 1897.
  • W. M. Ramsay, A Country Town of Lycaonia. A Description of the Conditions of Christian life under the Eastern Empire, Journal of the Transactions of the Victoria Institute 41, 1909, 36-46.
  • W. M. Ramsay – G. L. Bell, The Thousand and One Churches, London 1909.
  • E. Renan, Histoire des origines du Christianisme, Vol. 3, Paris 1869.
  • M. Ricl, Hosios kai Dikaios 2. Analyse, EpigrAnat 19, 1992, 71-102.
  • M. Ricl, Newly published and unpublished inscriptions for Hosios and Dikaios and their contribution to the study of the cult, in: E. Winter (ed.), Vom Euphrat bis zum Bosporus. Kleinasien in der Antike. Festschrift für Elmar Schwertheim zum 65. Geburtstag, Bonn 2008, 563-579.
  • T. Ritti, Museo Archaeologico di Denizli-Hierapolis Catalogo delle iscrizione greche e latine, Naples 2008.
  • P. Rycaut [Ricaut], The Present State of the Greek and Armenian Churches Anno Christi 1678, London 1679.
  • J. Strzygowski, Kleinasien, ein Neuland der Kunstgeschichte, Leipzig 1903.
  • A. Svoboda, The Seven Churches of Asia: with twenty full-page photographs taken on the spot, historical notes, and itinerary, London 1869.
  • C. Şimşek, Kolossai, Arkeoloji ve Sanat 107, 2002, 3-17.
  • P. Thonemann, The Maeander Valley: A Historical Geography from Antiquity to Byzantium, Cambridge 2011.
  • S. V. Tracy, Attic Letter-Cutters of 229 to 86 B.C., Berkeley 1990.
  • H. von Aulock, Münzen und Städte Phrygiens, Vol. 1, Tübingen 1984.
  • G. Weber, Die unterirdische Lauf des Lykos bei Kolossai, MDAI(A) 16, 1891, 194-199.
  • G. Weber, Bas-reliefs de Laodicée et de Tripolis, Rev. arch 20, 1892, 288–290.
  • G. Weber, Inschriften aus Sued-Phrygien, MDAI(A) 18, 1893, 206-207.
  • C. Wilson, Handbooks for Travellers: Asia Minor, Transcaucasia, Persia, etc, London 1895.
There are 65 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Journal Section Research Articles
Authors

Alan Cadwallader 0000-0003-3423-1125

Publication Date November 25, 2020
Submission Date March 25, 2020
Published in Issue Year 2020 Volume: 20

Cite

APA Cadwallader, A. (2020). Gertrude Bell’s Resolution of a Disputed Inscription. Gephyra, 20, 1-26. https://doi.org/10.37095/gephyra.708896
AMA Cadwallader A. Gertrude Bell’s Resolution of a Disputed Inscription. GEPHYRA. November 2020;20:1-26. doi:10.37095/gephyra.708896
Chicago Cadwallader, Alan. “Gertrude Bell’s Resolution of a Disputed Inscription”. Gephyra 20, November (November 2020): 1-26. https://doi.org/10.37095/gephyra.708896.
EndNote Cadwallader A (November 1, 2020) Gertrude Bell’s Resolution of a Disputed Inscription. Gephyra 20 1–26.
IEEE A. Cadwallader, “Gertrude Bell’s Resolution of a Disputed Inscription”, GEPHYRA, vol. 20, pp. 1–26, 2020, doi: 10.37095/gephyra.708896.
ISNAD Cadwallader, Alan. “Gertrude Bell’s Resolution of a Disputed Inscription”. Gephyra 20 (November 2020), 1-26. https://doi.org/10.37095/gephyra.708896.
JAMA Cadwallader A. Gertrude Bell’s Resolution of a Disputed Inscription. GEPHYRA. 2020;20:1–26.
MLA Cadwallader, Alan. “Gertrude Bell’s Resolution of a Disputed Inscription”. Gephyra, vol. 20, 2020, pp. 1-26, doi:10.37095/gephyra.708896.
Vancouver Cadwallader A. Gertrude Bell’s Resolution of a Disputed Inscription. GEPHYRA. 2020;20:1-26.