Evidence ID
E01267
Type of Evidence
Inscriptions - Inscribed objects
Images and objects - Other portable objects (metalwork, ivory, etc.)
Images and objects - Lamps, ampullae and tokens
εὐλογία ἁ(γίῳ) [Ἰ]ωάν<ν>η
ἁ(γίῳ) Jardé Dürrbach Grégoire Orlandos, perhaps ἁ(γίου)
'The blessing of Saint John.'
Text: Jardé & Dürrbach 1905, 256.
Cult PlacesPilgrimage
RelicsAmpullae, eulogiai, tokens
Cult Related Objects
Cult building - unspecified
Activities accompanying CultProduction and selling of eulogiai, tokens
Use of ImagesPrivate ownership of an image
Non Liturgical ActivityPilgrimage
Appropriation of older cult sites
Visiting graves and shrines
RelicsAmpullae, eulogiai, tokens
Contact relic - other
Making contact relics
Cult Related ObjectsAmpullae, flasks, etc.
Source
An inscribed disc, made of terracotta. Found near the monastic establishment of Porinos Oikos on Delos, in the autumn of 1903, during the excavations of the École française d'Athènes, financed by Joseph Florimond Loubat, a French and American bibliophile and antiquarian. The inscription runs around the object in mirror-writing, and in four sectors delimited by a cross in the centre of the disc.Discussion
Auguste Jardé and Félix Dürrbach, the first editors of the object, reasonably identified it as a bread-stamp, used to prepare eulogia, small blessed items (e.g. bread rolls) given to pilgrims in sanctuaries, based on the use of mirror-writing and the inscribed formula. They concluded that one of the churches on Delos had been dedicated to St. John (though which John is unspecified), mentioned in the inscription.Anastasios Orlandos suggested that the church, named on the stamp, was the basilica in Porinos Oikos, constructed by the conversion of a building that probably served as the 'Thesmophorion' in pagan times. The building was 13 m wide and 14,80 m long and was oriented, which allowed for the easy extension with an apse (see: Orlandos 1936, 86-88). Whether it was really the sanctuary, that produced our stamp, is disputable.
The disc was probably made before the 8th c., when Delos was abandoned. The exodus could have started already in the mid-6th c. as no sculptures and coins later than this date have been found on the island (see: Orlandos 1936, 70). In later times the island became a refuge for pirates, so the stamp is unlikely to date from this period. Delos was resettled by Hospitaler Knights of St. John, but only in the 14th c.
Bibliography
Edition:IGC - Grégoire, H (ed.), Recueil des inscriptions grecques chrétiennes d'Asie Mineure, vol. 1 (Paris: Leroux, 1922), no. 213.
Jardé, A., Dürrbach, F., "Fouilles de Délos exécutées aux frais de M. Le Duc de Loubat (1903). Inscriptions (suite)", Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 29 (1905), 256.
Further reading:
Kiourtzian, G., "Pietas insulariorum", [in:] Eupsychia: mélanges offerts à Hélène Ahrweiler, vol. 2 (Série Byzantina Sorbonensia 16, Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 1998), 367.
Orlandos, A.K., "Délos chrétienne", Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 60 (1936), 86-88.
Images
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From: Jardé & Dürrbach 1905, 256.
Record Created By
Paweł Nowakowski
Date of Entry
10/04/2016
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00020 | John the Baptist | [Ἰ]ωάν<ν>η | Uncertain | S00042 | John, the Apostle and Evangelist | [Ἰ]ωάν<ν>η | Uncertain |
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Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Paweł Nowakowski, Cult of Saints, E01267 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E01267