Gaby Abousamra and Helen Giunashvili Objects with Aramaic Inscriptions from Dedoplis Gora: Issues of Current Linguistic-Paleographic Studies (1st C. BC - 1st C CE)
Events
Information about speakers:
Gaby Abousamra is a Professor at the Lebanese University, Department of Archeology in Beirut. He received his PhD at the Sorbonne, Practical School of High Studies (2002) in Old Semitic paleography. He is the author of several monographies (such as Bénédictions et Malédictions dans les inscriptions phénico-puniques, Bibliothèque de l'université Saint-Esprit 48 (2005) ; Nouvelles stèles funéraires phéniciennes, (with André Lemaire), Beyrouth, (2014), and nearly 100 scientific articles.
Dr. Helen Giunashvili is associate researcher at the G. Tsereteli Institute of Oriental Studies. As a visiting schoral, she worked in a number of foreign universities, among them in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Her researches concern Iranian-Georgian cultural-linguistic relations of different periods, she has published a number of academic works on these issues. She currently carries out the project on the corpus of Old Aramaic epigraphy of Georgia.
Annotation
they present most valuable source of Ancient Aramaic writing type and also shed light on a number of important issues of pre-Christian Iberia and its interrelations with Semitic, Iranian and Hellenistic cultural nations.
Old Aramaic was one of chief written languages of Ancient East Georgia (Iberia) before adoption the Christianity (IV c AD). A number of original Aramaic inscriptions were found in Armazi, Dedoplis Gora and Mtskheta, the capital of Iberia and its vicinity, as well as in other ancient historical points of Central Georgia. These inscriptions were engraved on different objects: steles (an epitaph and victory stele), wine-pitchers and household items, stones of sanctuary buildings, and sarcophagi, silver-plates, bowls, jewels, and bone plates. These materials could be dated by the period III c BC – III-IV c. AD. The greater part of these Aramaic inscriptions is executed in a variety of the North-Mesopotamian type of Aramaic script, known as “Armazian” (G. Tsereteli), one of the outgrowths of the Imperial Aramaic writing, widely used in Achaemenian Empire.
In 1986-1989, during excavations at Dedoplis Gora, a number of artifacts with Aramaic inscriptions (3 wine-pitchers’ fragments (I c BC), a bulla (I c AD), 8 small bone or deer antler plates (I c AD)) were found. Some of them (wine-pitchers’ inscriptions) present the most ancient Armazian writing (“Early Armazian”), while others (a bulla and bone plates inscriptions) reveal Classical Armazian script type. The presentation deals with new readings and interpretations of these inscriptions in the light of contemporary epigraphic studies.
Format: off line
Working language: English
Time: March 28, 16:00-17.30
Location: Ilia State University, 201/202 meeting hall of Building S, G. Tsereteli Street N3
Attendance is free.
2023