The ancient area of Lydia has yielded a particularly rich epigraphical
harvest of Greek-Roman Antiquity. Inscriptions were found on the surface
of ancient sites, during archaeological excavations or discovered in the
course of construction work. Over the past decades Hasan Malay (former
professor at the Ege University, Izmir) travelled frequently in that
region and took copies and photographs of many inscribed stones which
were often brought to his attention by inhabitants of remote villages;
he also arranged the stones' transport to museums. Further inscriptions
were brought to light during a rescue excavation organised by him of the
sanctuary of Thea Larmene. From this collection Hasan Malay and Georg
Petzl (former professor at the Cologne University) present in this ETAM
volume more than 200 unpublished inscriptions, which refer to the
religious life. The earliest ones belong to the Hellenistic period, the
majority of them were written in the Roman Imperial period, the latest
ones date from the Christian Antiquity. The texts belong to various
categories: A Lex Sacra, a report on the financing of the mysteries of
Artemis, a hymn, a number of oracles, boundary stones, honorific,
building and funerary inscriptions, and, above all, dedications, amongst
which a good number of confession inscriptions (with the so far only one
written in verses). The material is presented according to a
geographical order, the accompanying map helps to locate the individual
sites. A number of rural sanctuaries are dealt with in special chapters
(XVI; XXI-XXIII; XXV); anepigraphic finds (reliefs and sculptures),
which were made in these places, are attached in appendices. All the
documents - many of them outstanding in novelty - are illustrated by
photographs, translated and furnished with commentaries. Detailed
indices will be welcomed by the reader wishing to get an overview of the
rich material.
