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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2013
Through the kindness of Professor K. T. Erim of New York University I have the opportunity to offer the following note on a fragment of a Lydian inscription found recently during his excavations at Aphrodisias in Caria. The description and details of the archaeological context I owe to Professor Erim and to Miss Joyce Reynolds.
The fragment (inv. no. 68.357) came to light in July 1968, re-used in one of the ruined modern houses on the northern slope of the so-called acropolis when they were being demolished in preparation for the full-scale excavation of the Theatre there. It is of medium- to coarse-grained marble, greyish in colour, probably from the Aphrodisias quarries themselves, and measures 0·11 × 0·75 × 0·165 m.; no original edges survive, but it is likely that the original left edge was very close to the surviving left edge.
What remains of the inscribed surface is approximately trapezoidal in shape and carries traces of three lines of text; in the first only the lower tips of the letters survive and these cannot be securely interpreted, but in the second five complete letters (ave. 0·025 m. high) can be read, although they have suffered from slight surface chipping, and in the third the upper two-thirds of five letters survives and these also can be read perfectly well. The inscription was firmly and deftly, if lightly, cut, with trenches c. 0·001 deep, very slightly triangular in profile and showing some tendency to broaden a little on the base line. Judging from the position of the last letters in Il. 2, 3, it seems probable that each line ended with a completed word.
1 I have followed the standard numeration for Lydian inscriptions, accepted also by Gusmani, R., Lydisches Wörterbuch (Heidelberg, 1964) 249 f.Google Scholar; for photographs see Buckler, W. H., Sardis vi part ii: Lydian Inscriptions (Leiden, 1924).Google Scholar
2 On various aspects of the prehistory and the protohistory of Lydia see Carruba, O., ‘Lydisch und Lyder’ in Mitteilungen des Instituts für Orientsforschung viii (1963) 398 f.Google Scholar
3 Cf. PW A, xiii, col. 2122 f., Ramsay, W. M., The Historical Geography of Asia Minor (London, 1890) map opp. p. 104.Google Scholar As indicated by Robert, J. and Robert, L. in La Carie ii (Paris, 1954) 18 ff.Google Scholar, the problem involved was already apparent in antiquity. Strabo xiii 629 comments on the difficulty of precise definition of the regions of Phrygia, Caria, Lydia and Mysia, the confusion being enhanced because the Roman provincial subdivisions did not follow ethnic boundaries; and a number of cities are attributed by ancient authors now to one, now to another (cf. on Tabae, Robert l.c.). In fact Ptolemy v 2. 18 describes Aphrodisias as Lydian and Steph. Byz. s.v. as Lydo-Carian, although it was—and is—normally regarded as a Carian city and became the metropolis of Caria. It is satisfactory that there is now archaeological evidence to confirm this literary tradition of a Lydian element in the population. (Note by J. R.)
