Original scientific paper
From the Epitaph of Priest Ivan to That of Queen Jelena
Mirjana Matijević-Sokol
; Odsjek za povijest Filozofskog fakulteta Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Abstract
The article analyses selected early Christian epitaphs, mostly from the cemeteries of Salona, and some medieval tombstone inscriptions showing strong late Classical tradition, aimed to establishing time horizons, that is, appearance and usage of particular styles. By following up formulas (depositus/deposita, hic iacet, his requiescit etc., symbolic and verbal invocation formulas) and the manners of dating (Consular era, indictional system, Christian era) found in early Christian and medieval epitaphs, established is a relative chronology that
is of particular importance in determining the time of creation of some monuments that are hard to date. Attention is paid to the inscription of the priest Juraj on the sarcophagus discovered recently in Zadar, dated by the researcher in the early Middle Ages, that is, the early 9th century, whereas the radio-carbon analysis of the four deceased persons in the
sarcophagus has established none of them being even close to that time. This analysis has shown that the oldest deceased can be dated to the late 6th or the early 7th centuries. This also dates the epitaph and its formal and alphabetic structures, which agrees with the
results reached by comparison with other inscriptions. Some of the formulas appearing in the late Classical period became epigraphistic common places with time, found present in early medieval Croatian inscriptions as well, like, for instance, the epitaphs of the queen
Jelena and several archbishops of Split.
Keywords
epitaph; priest Ivan; priest Juraj; abbess Ivana; queen Jelena; Hic iacet
Hrčak ID:
186050
URI
Publication date:
8.9.2017.
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