Thursday 7 March 2024, 5pm
Online and In person | Seminar Room, Radcliffe Humanities Building
Registration for in-person or online attendance, please contact Michele Bianconi (michele.bianconi@classics.ox.ac.uk)
Speaker: Dr Rostyslav Oreshko
In the spring 2021, a local farmer ploughing a field just to the north-west of the ruins of the Gordion citadel hit with the share of his tractor a fairly large stone block, discovering the longest and arguably the most interesting Phrygian inscription coming from the region (cf. Oreshko-Alagöz 2023 and Oreshko 2023). The first pleasant surprise was that the inscription mentions the name of Gordion (in the form Gordiyoy), bringing a solid epigraphical confirmation of the identity of the site (although nobody really doubted it). The second, much more unexpected discovery was the presence in the text of the names of two Hellenistic kings, Antiochus and Seleucus, probably as a part of a dating formula. Moreover, their combination and order suggested a rather precise dating of the inscription to ca. 275 BC, which makes it one of the youngest specimens of the Old-Phrygian writing tradition. Lastly, the text turned out to contain a tantalising reference to the inhabitants of Pergamon in Mysia (Perkamaneiś). Besides its historical importance, this reference shed light on the peculiar alphabet and ductus of the inscription typical not for central Anatolia but for the more westerly regions of Mysia and Bithynia, implying that the ‘author’ (or the ‘scribe’) of the text come namely from the region of Pergamon. This combination of clues allows the inscription to be identified as the first unambiguous monument of the language spoken in Mysia.
In this talk, Dr Rostyslav Oreshko will focus on linguistic features of the text, from interpretation of separate words to the dialectal features distinguishing the dialect of the inscription it that of central Anatolia and to the presence of Lydian elements in the text. He will also touch upon on the problem of linguistic attribution of the two texts of the so-called ‘Bithynian group’, the Vezirhan (B-05) and the Üyücek inscription (B-04), and finally on the general question of sociolinguistic situation in Mysia and the neighbouring regions in the early Hellenistic period.
For further information, please contact Michele Bianconi (michele.bianconi@classics.ox.ac.uk) or Philomen Probert (philomen.probert@wolfson.ox.ac.uk).
Ancient Anatolia Network
