Inscribing Caria: The Perseverance of Epigraphic Traditions in Late Antiquity

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When early Christians visited or appropriated former pagan sanctuaries, they were confronted with numerous ancient inscriptions on stelai and bases, as well as on the temple structure itself: dedications, lists of priests, and documents adorning temple architraves, antae, and walls. These texts, both at the time of their original carving and in late antiquity, served to define sanctuaries, their role within the polis, and their connection with local history. However, not all ancient Greek temples bore inscriptions. This essay proposes that the habit of inscribing temples with texts written in both Greek and the native Carian language began as a particularly Carian phenomenon in the late classical period. The habit then spread to other regions of Asia Minor and Greece in the Hellenistic period, but a particular association of sacred architecture with inscribed text persisted in Caria through the Roman period, as can be seen at sites such as Gerga, and continued into late antiquity, when the reuse of older inscriptions or the addition of Christian graffiti to temple walls helped to create new Christian spaces.