Commemorative Inscriptions Research Articles

‘First’ or ‘Solemn’ Communion Images in France, 1885–2021

Arguably, the ‘first’ or ‘solemn’ communion, later also called ‘profession of faith’, was a rite of passage for generations of French eleven- or twelve-year-old children. It remained virtually unchanged, under these different names, until the early 1970s, when it gradually fell into decline. Friends, relatives, and even state school teachers, were customarily given small religious images with a commemorative inscription on the reverse, stating the communicant's name as well as the date and place of the ceremony. This article analyses a small private collection of such ‘popular’ objects and discusses the evolution in their representations of lived religion in a secular country where a strong Roman Catholic tradition has given way to a post-Christian society.

THE TITLES AND EPITHETS RECEIVED BY THE QARAMANIDS ACCORDING TO THE INSCRIPTIONS

In Turkey, there are a few carved inscriptions (tombstones, building and commemorative inscriptions) belonging to the Qaramanids in the provinces of Antalya, Larende, Ermenak, Konya, Laranda, Niğde, and Aksaray. Most of these inscriptions were published between 1911 and 1912 by the Turkish scholar Halil Edhem Eldem (1861-1938), who was the director of the Museum of Antiquities in Istanbul in 1910. In addition to them, the late Turkish historian Mükrimin Halil Yinanç (1900-1961), from Istanbul University, recorded copies of the inscriptions belonging to the Anatolian Seljuks and Anatolian Principalities, including that of the Qaramanids into the daftars (notebooks). These notebooks, which have not been published yet, are protected by the family of the deceased Professor Refet Yinanç (1939-2019). Most of the inscriptions, I used in this article, are basically based on these two sources.
 The Qaramanids, a Turkish-Islamic State and politically opposed to the Ottomans, used Turkish, Arabic and Persian words as titles and epithets. They inherited most of these titles and epithets from the Anatolian Seljuks. While emphasizing the Central Asian Turkish roots with the Turkish words they used, they also emphasized that they supported Islam and the caliphate with Arabic words. With these words, they openly stated that they were the helpers of Islam and Muslims and that they were engaged in jihad. In addition to making conquests in the name of Islam, they also declared that they were fighting against polytheism and atheism. They always expressed their support for the caliph. Karamanoğlu Ibrahim Bey II declared himself as a caliph. They claimed that they were the heirs of the Iranian shahs with Persian words. They stated that they attach importance to justice and bestowal. They clearly wrote in the inscriptions that they were protecting the believers but were the enemies of the unbelievers.

The Laws of Hammurabi: At the Confluence of Royal and Scribal Traditions by Pamela Bartash

Reviewed by: The Laws of Hammurabi: At the Confluence of Royal and Scribal Traditions by Pamela Bartash Ben Dewar (bio) The Laws of Hammurabi: At the Confluence of Royal and Scribal Traditions Pamela Bartash Oxford University Press, 2020. x + 320 pp. $99 hardcover. The monograph under discussion is an "histoire totale" (3) of the Laws of Hammurabi and the stele bearing it, investigating the ideological messages present in the text and image, the scribal culture that influenced the text's composition, and the reception of the Laws in later periods. Bartash's core argument is that Mesopotamian law collections were written by taking a series of stock legal situations and improvising a series of statutes based on them that expressed the scribe's own notions of what was fair and just. The Laws merged this tradition with that of royal inscriptions to create an innovative new expression of royal power. In chapter one, Bartash argues that the image on the stele alters the standard investiture scene in several ways to present Hammurabi as closer in status to the god Shamash. Furthermore, pairing this image with an unusually long text in an archaiz generalization ing, top-to-bottom script creates an original and eye-catching monument. Chapter two focuses on three textual traditions relating to justice that were pre-existent when the Laws was written: acts of equity described in royal hymns and inscriptions, social reform edicts, and law collections. Bartash analyses the content and rhetoric of these three types of text, arguing that they all demonstrate the role of justice in royal legitimation, but do so in different ways. Chapters three and four explore how the Laws' author combined the traditions discussed in chapter two into a new expression of royal justice. Chapter three analyses the Laws as a royal inscription, analysing how the author engaged with the discourse practices of Mesopotamian commemorative inscriptions. Chapter four compares the Laws with other law collections to argue that it is more complexly structured than its earlier counterparts. Bartash argues that, like the authors of earlier law codes, the Laws' scribe [End Page 209] improvised a series of example statutes based on his knowledge of legal texts and terminology internalised during scribal education. However, the Laws' scribe innovatively structured their improvised statutes, demonstrating a more complex conceptualisation and systematisation of law and implying a number of legal principles. The Laws therefore marks an important step, Bartash argues, towards the generalization and abstraction of law. Bartash demonstrates the conceptualization and systematization present in the Laws in chapter five, which uses the adoption statutes from the Laws as a case study for the concepts discussed in chapter four. Chapter four ends with an excursus on scribes and their education. The placement of this section is slightly confusing. The excursus outlines scribes' internalisation of the discourse practices and streams of tradition engaged in chapter four. One would therefore expect it to be placed earlier in the book. This is, however, a minor criticism, and the reader does not feel lost for not having read the excursus before chapter four. Chapter six tackles the important question of the legal authority of the Laws. Previous scholarship has often debated whether the Laws represents the law as it was practiced in Mesopotamia by identifying legal cases in royal letters or archival records that mirror circumstances described in the Laws. Bartash argues that this methodology applies modern conceptions of legal precedent to a culture whose legal system did not operate on precedent, and emphasizes the consistency of law while ignoring the need for discretion in the adjudication of individual legal cases. Bartash instead focuses on the flexibility of Mesopotamian law; the Laws is not a written record of the code actually enforced, but one scribe's expression of their own ideas—formed through intensive engagement with pre-existing legal literature—on what is fair and just. This novel approach to the Laws resolves many of the problems surrounding the nature of the Laws, and greatly improves our understanding of Mesopotamian law. Chapter seven explores the reception of the Laws in later periods. First, Bartash considers instances of scribal improvization in later law collections. She argues that the exportation of the...

Inscription in the Speech Paradigm of Society: on the Issue of Inscription Classification.

One of historically established traditions adopted in society is the act of presenting an artifact by a person / group of people / organization / association to another person / group, etc. In the traditions of many nations, the communicative act of congratulating a person or donating them a memorable thing is accompanied by signing (inscribing) the gift. The article deals with the issue of classifying inscriptions – a dedication and / or commemorative inscription with an autograph – as a specific genre of written speech. The texts of the inscriptions have specific features textwise and genrewise. The article provides grounds for classifying inscriptions that have a variety of structural and semantic textual expressions. In the article, the characteristic features of the giver, addressee, and their social roles are determined, the generalized textual semantics of the inscriptions is specified, examples of gifts carrying such inscriptions are given.

СИМВОЛІКА ОЛЕКСАНДРІВСЬКОЇ КОЛОНИ У ПАРКУ ІМЕНІ Т. Г. ШЕВЧЕНКА В ОДЕСІ

Purpose. The article is devoted to the analysis of the Alexander Column symbolism in the Taras Shevchenko Park in Odessa. Methodology. Field study and bibliographic research, synthesis and analysis, historical method, and method of analogies are used in that work. Results. Achievements and a number of reforms carried out by Emperor Alexander II and his role in the history of the Russian Empire are analyzed. The historical facts, contributing to the creation of the Alexander Park and the Alexander Column, dedicated to the memory of the emperor, on the 10th anniversary of his tragic death, are investigated. The architectural and artistic decoration of the monument has been analyzed in detail and it symbolic meaning has been deciphered. The functional purpose of this object is to preserve the memory and high social status of the personality of Alexander II in history, his place in the royal dynasty. These are personal symbols, such as a medallion with the profile of the sovereign and commemorative inscriptions on marble plaques. These are different types of status symbols: secular (crown, sword, scepter), indicating a high imperial status and continuity of power, and religious (Vladimir Monomakh's hat) – a symbol of God's anointing to power. The symbols of the apotheosis, the transition to the kingdom of heaven, are double-headed eagles with wreaths. The coat of arms of Odessa, surrounded by laurel and oak branches, is a symbol of memory and gratitude of the inhabitants of Odessa. The Alexander Column depicts elements of royal power from different historical periods, with an indication of the continuity and divinity of the imperial power. Scientific novelty. For the first time a study of the symbolism of the Alexander Column in Odessa was carried out in a detailed level. All symbols are correlated in time and reflect the philosophy of the era and the continuity of generations and royal power in the history of the state. Practical significance. The Alexander Column is located today on the main visual axis, the main alley of the Taras Shevchenko Park. Being on a hill, it also acts as a pronounced dominant, attracting the attention of visitors to the park. In addition to the aesthetic and compositional significance, it bears historical and memorial value

Memories Carved in the Wall : A 16th-Century Type of Funerary Monuments in Transylvania

Graves for the deceased were usually cut into the floor of churches, created in churchyard cemeteries or in the newly established public cemeteries in Transylvania in the sixteenth century. Not all graves were marked with stone funerary monuments. Wooden memorials were presumably widespread, but no contemporary sources inform about these. Grave markers from the cemeteries are simple or coped headstones and coffin-shape stones, preserved for example in Cluj (Kolozsvár) and Târgu Mureş (Marosvásárhely). These gravestones display commemorative inscriptions and simple imagery. A funerary inscription recently discovered in Ocna Mureş (Marosújvár) was carved into an ashlar within the external buttress supporting the choir of the church. This stone bearing an inscription represents a specific type of funerary monument from early modern Transylvania, most examples of which are known from Cluj. The paper presents these stone memorials: who and why chose this form of commemorating the dead.

Writing for Local Government Schools: Authors and Themes in Song-dynasty School Inscriptions

AbstractA hallmark of the Song dynasty's achievements was the creation of a national network of state-sponsored local schools. This engendered an exponential growth of commemorative inscriptions dedicated to local government schools. Many authors used these inscriptions as an avenue to expound and disseminate their visions of schools and education. Using the methods of network analysis and document clustering, this article analyzes all the inscriptions extant from Song times for local government schools. It reveals a structural schism in the diffusion of ideas between the Upper Yangzi and other regions of the Song. It also demonstrates the growing intellectual influence of Neo-Confucian ideologues that gradually overtook that of renowned prose-writers. Methodologically, this article provides an example of how diverse digital methods enable us to handle a large body of texts from multiple perspectives and invite us to explore connections we might not have otherwise thought of.

Artistic Features of the Round Topped New Kingdom Individuals Stelae in Serabit EL-Khadem

Sinai became since the Archaic Period, the main supplier of turquoise, and remained so during the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms. That was why South Sinai was the destination of many mining missions that documented commemorative inscriptions on the rocks of the mountains surrounding the mines, the roads leading to them, or on the sandstone stelae. The current study focuses on the artistic features of the round-topped New Kingdom individuals’ stelae in Serabit El-Khadem in South Sinai. The first table illustrates the main information of forty-five studied stelae followed by an analytical study of their artistic features; such as the scenes of the round top (first register) that contain symbols like the winged sun-disk and the wDAt eye, hieroglyphic inscriptions, or sometimes kept plain. Then, the study deals with the body of the stela (second register), discusses royal and individuals clothing, headdresses, beards, necklaces, sandals, altars, and offerings. Besides, the research focuses on the scenes of the bottom of the stela (third register) which mainly advertises the position of the owners of the stelae in the scene. The study ends with a conclusion that reiterates the most important results of the current study.

Ancient States and Infrastructural Power: Europe, Asia, and America ed. by Clifford Ando and Seth Richardson

Reviewed by: Ancient States and Infrastructural Power: Europe, Asia, and America ed. by Clifford Ando and Seth Richardson Walter Scheidel Ancient States and Infrastructural Power: Europe, Asia, and America. Edited by clifford ando and seth richardson. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017. 309 pp. This volume addresses the question of how—and how autonomously—the rulers and political elites of ancient states exercised power over the populations and territories to which they laid claim. The discussion is structured around Michael Mann's twin concepts of "infrastructural power"—the state's capacity to penetrate civil society and implement decisions—and "despotic power," which allowed its agents to act without consultation or negotiation with civil society constituencies. Premodern states are commonly considered to have been rather deficient in the first of these types of political power, and this is certainly true if conditions in more modern societies serve as our principal frame of reference. Yet, even many centuries ago, central authorities needed to be able to maintain a certain degree of control in order to sustain the force generation and extractive activities that were required for preserving their position and deterring rivals. This collaborative project is designed to explore state capacity empirically by means of a series of historical case studies that are theoretically informed by Mann's ideal types (as well as by some cognate theorizing), which have been largely neglected by students of the ancient world. It thus seems unhelpful that readers need to make it to chapters 2 and 4 to encounter actual definitions of Mann's key concepts, which Clifford Ando's introduction curiously withholds [End Page 447] (most notably on page 9). The geographic and chronological range is impressive: while the volume concentrates on western Eurasia—with seven chapters covering the Mediterranean, Mesopotamia, and Iran—one chapter each is devoted to early China and the Inca empire, an addition that is particularly welcome in view of the all-too-common exclusion of New World societies from what counts as "ancient history." Although one could always ask for more—early imperial China has much more to offer and pre-Islamic South Asia would surely have been worth a look – this is a promising start. If there is a common theme that runs through the volume, sometimes clearly developed and sometimes more obliquely implied, it is the evolution of infrastructural power over time. Seth Richardson, building on his earlier work on what he calls the "presumptive state," stresses the weakness of centralized state power in the Old Babylonian period: notwithstanding rulers' expansive rhetoric, territory was poorly defined and formal law was of little import. Even so, exaggerated claims to power helped build up real capabilities, which gradually surfaced in subsequent stages of Mesopotamian state formation. Emily Mackil paints a more optimistic picture for archaic Greece. Drawing on evidence that is centered on the island of Crete, she argues that early written laws that often concerned themselves with private property rights served to define territoriality and played a significant role in the emergence of small polities with growing infrastructural capacity. The historical record is (even) more tenuous for Western Zhou China, where—as Wang Haicheng maintains on the basis of elite-facing commemorative inscriptions on bronze vessels—direct political control was confined to the capital regions and most territories were run by aristocratic elites to whom power had been delegated. How this affected the scope of royal powers remains unclear. Turning to the much better documented mature Roman empire, Ando analyzes administrative attributions that drew rural communities into the institutional framework of nearby cities and imperial regulations that imposed road maintenance on local residents. These were among the mechanisms that extended the reach of the center by establishing both infrastructural and despotic power "in mutually constitutive ways" (p. 119). The evolutionary theme features very prominently in John Weisweiler's chapter in which he discusses the expansion of Roman governmental capacity in response to the shocks of the third century C.E. Marrying inclusive rhetoric with greater, if costly, penetration of civil society, a bundle of reforms amplified the despotic dimension of the emperor's persona, decentered established aristocratic elites, and drew in new constituents via fiscal, legal, and [End Page...

Inscriptions on Military Flags in Poland: An Attempt at Forming a Typology

The Polish version of the article was published in Roczniki Humanistyczne 56 (2008), issue 2.
 This article is an attempt at systematizing the body of inscriptions that accompanied the heraldic and iconographic inscriptions on Polish military flags and standards in the course of past centuries. It presents the suggestion of dividing them into four groups. The first comprises property inscriptions, giving information about who the flag belonged to, who its owner was or who used it. In the second group are inscriptions called ‘funding’ ones; they contain data referring to the funders or makers of those objects. Commemorative inscriptions were included in group three; they commemorated important events connected with the history of the unit or with its tradition. The fourth group consists of inscriptions in the form of sentences, mottos or apostrophes, usually having a lofty and solemn character. In practice, inscriptions belonging to different groups often appear side by side on the same flag. Usually they contain important information and ideological content.

“On Commemorative Inscription”: Fourth Workshop of the New Frontiers in the Study of Medieval China, Reed College, May 17—19, 2018

REPORT “ON COMMEMORATIVE INSCRIPTION”: FOURTH WORKSHOP OF THE NEW FRONTIERS IN THE STUDY OF MEDIEVAL CHINA, REED COLLEGE, MAY 17–19, 2018 JESSEY CHOO AND ALEXEI DITTER The fourth workshop of the New Frontiers in the Study of Medieval China series was held on May 17–19, 2018, at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. The three-day workshop was organized by Jessey Choo (Rutgers University), Alexei Ditter (Reed College), and Yang LU (Peking University), and funded by the Tang Research Foundation , with additional assistance provided by the Office of the Dean of Faculty and the Chinese Department of Reed College. The workshop brought together sixteen U.S. and international scholars studying medieval China and representing various disciplines: Sarah M. Allen (Williams College), Stephen Bokenkamp (Arizona State University), Peter Bol (Harvard University ), K.E. Brashier (Reed College), Jessey Choo (Rutgers University-New Brunswick ), Timothy Davis (Brigham Young University), Alexei Ditter (Reed College), Patricia Ebrey (University of Washington), Michael Hoeckelmann (University of Manchester; now University of Edinburgh), Terry Kleeman (University of Colorado, Boulder), Wei-cheng Lin (University of Chicago), Houbin Liu (Renmin University, China), Jenny Chao-Hui Liu (Princeton University), Yang LU (Peking University), Christopher Nugent (Williams College), Gil Raz (Dartmouth College), Hyong Rhew (Reed College), James Robson (Harvard University), Rui SHI (Peking University ), Jonathan Skaff (Shippensburg University), and Xin WEN (Princeton University ). In addition, four graduate students received travel awards to attend—Shan (Zoe) Lin (UC-Davis), Lance Pursey (University of Birmingham), Wei Wu (Arizona State University), and Dongshan Zhang (University of Chicago). The fourth workshop continued discussions begun during the 2017 Symposium in Beijing of textuality and materiality of manuscripts and inscriptions produced between the 5th through 10th centuries. It opened with Yang LU’s presentation, titled “Textuality and Materiality in Medieval Chinese Studies: Reflections on its Conceptual Framework,” which expanded upon the workshop’s focus on the textual, material, and environmental contexts for production and consumption of these materials. Within the context of studying medieval inscriptions, Lu defined “textuality” as how texts are constructed to convey particular sets of meanings and “materiality” as the physical expression of the text. He asserted that textuality and materiality are interrelated: when interpreting the text and the object on which it was inscribed, aspects such as the positioning of the text within its physical environment and how the text exists as a material object (regardless of its original intent and Tang Studies, 36. 1, 150–154, 2018© T’ang Studies Society 2018 DOI 10.1080/07375034.2018.1535238 meaning) are significant. He urged participants to pay more attention to the processes by which medieval inscriptions were produced and consumed, especially the background and self-reproduction of communities of producers and viewers. Finally, he suggested that scholars consider how changes in the cultural and terrestrial landscape of which inscriptions were a part alter what they convey and how they have been interpreted. Two panels of papers followed Yang LU’s presentation. The first panel featured papers by Gil Raz, Houbin Liu, and Christopher Nugent, the second by Sarah Allen, Wei-cheng Lin, and Jonathan Skaff. James Robson and Stephen Bokenkamp served as co-discussants for both. In “‘True Forms’ and ‘True Faces’: Daoist and Buddhist Discourse on Images,” Gil Raz examined several stelae featuring combinations of Daoist and Buddhist images. Together with the accompanying inscriptions, these images (which appear on different faces of the stele or sometimes side by side) reveal Daoist and Buddhist deliberations on the meaning of and ways to materialize or visualize a form (xing 形) that truly (zhen 真) captures the image (xiang 象) of the Buddha’s and Lord Lao’s faces (rong 容). Raz argued that Daoist iconographic practice first emerged within local communities where the donors were aware of Buddhist discussions on imagemaking , and that the terms used by inscriptions to refer to the images in turn demonstrate Daoist influences on Buddhist discussions. Christopher Nugent’s “Layered Learning in a Children’s Primer Found at Dunhuang ,” focused on one Dunhuang manuscript text, P. 2578, of the early 6th c. Kaimeng yaoxun 開蒙要訓. Nugent identified three distinct stages and hands in the manuscript’s production: initial copying of the text by one individual and the addition of homophones and punctuation (the latter often...

“On Commemorative Inscription”: Fourth Workshop of the New Frontiers in the Study of Medieval China, Reed College, May 17–19, 2018

“On Commemorative Inscription”: Fourth Workshop of the New Frontiers in the Study of Medieval China, Reed College, May 17–19, 2018

Iron Age Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions. By Annick Payne. Writings from the Ancient World 29. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2012. Pp. xii + 124. $22.95 (paperback).

The texts, presented in chapter 2, are organized according to genre: bilinguals, funerary and commemorative inscriptions, building inscriptions, dedicatory inscriptions, and miscellanea (such as the AŠŠUR letters). Payne’s focus on the texts as literary works is also visible in the individual introductions, footnotes, and especially the grouping of sentences in paragraphs in the translations. The translations are fortunately executed in idiomatic English instead of following the original Luwian sentence structure (a practice which is relatively common in specialist publications but which may obscure the meaning of the text as intended by the ancient author). CHLI often leaves words untranslated but still provides translations in the commentaries. Payne has usually incorporated these suggestions in her translation, duly provided with questions marks. This too has increased text comprehension. She additionally has improved the translations based on her own insights and post-CHLI literature.

A Commemorative Album with the Correspondence of Josef Suk

A commemorative album with the correspondence of Josef Suk (1874-1935) belon­ged to his son. It contains both commemorative inscriptions made by persons who were in contact with the composer Josef Suk, and also correspondence addressed to the composer, and later to his grandson - the violinist Josef Suk (1929-2011). The album contains a total of 237 items. The article draws attention to certain figures from politics (T. G. Masaryk, František Drtina), authors and poets (Otakar Březina, Antonín Sova, Karel Václav Rais), painters (Hugo Boettinger, František Bílek, Otakar Nejedlý, Čenĕk Kvíčala, Adolf Kašpar), musicians (Václav Talich, Jaroslav Kocian, Vítĕzslav Novák, George Szell, Vladimír Helfert, and Suk’s pupils - Pavel Bořkovec, Julius Kalaš, Jaroslav Jezek, Emil Hlo- bil, Bohuslav Martinů, Miroslav Pone, Dalibor C. Vačkář, Vladimír Štĕdron, Mihovil Logar), and other persons.

Self-immolation, Resistance and Millenarianism in Medieval Chinese Buddhism

Accounts of Buddhist monks and laymen who made offerings of their bodies by fire or other means often hint at larger themes of resistance to state authority and millenarian or Utopian hopes on the part of religious communities. I will put some of these sources, drawn from hagiographical collections and commemorative inscriptions, into dialogue with each other and with other historical materials in order to reveal some of the larger forces at work behind (apparently) individual acts of self-immolation.

Spomenik ninskom biskupu Francescu Grassiju u Chioggi: prilog najranijoj aktivnosti venecijanskog kipara Paola Callala

Spomenik ninskom biskupu Francescu Grassiju u Chioggi: prilog najranijoj aktivnosti venecijanskog kipara Paola Callala

Self-Representation in Old Kingdom Quarrying Inscriptions at Wadi Hammamat*

Lists of names, filiations and titles in the commemorative expedition inscriptions at Wadi Hammamat from the reign of Pepi I are juxtaposed with contemporary personal inscriptions from the same site to show that some of the officials mentioned in the commemorative inscriptions at this quarry also appear in additional texts there, which highlight their connections with colleagues or their broader family affiliations. The emphasis given to family configurations at this particular site and time probably reflects a group of expedition leaders who had brought their sons with them and wished to enhance their career prospects by commemorating their participation in this prestigious expedition.

A Living Language of the Dead? French Commemorative Inscriptions from Late Medieval England

Commemoration of the dead in the French language was common in later medieval England but in the absence of a published corpus these inscriptional materials are little studied and poorly understood. By drawing together evidence from existing tombs, monumental brasses, and records of lost epitaphic material, the chronology, geographical spread, and textual traditions of French commemoration are revealed. This uncovers a significant body of evidence for the period 1390 to 1480 that offers parallels with the continued use of the French language into the fifteenth century within other social, professional, cultural, and administrative networks. Further, this newly constituted corpus establishes the extent of the production of French language commemorative materials in workshops in London and the regions, and the intersections of epigraphical texts and other forms of francophone textual activity in England.

Datacja rzymskich inskrypcji sakralnych: kryteria wewnętrzne

Dating of Roman Sacral Inscriptions: Internal Criteria (Summary) Epigraphy has developed many methods aimed at establishing a more or less precise foundation date of a given inscription. The present article concentrates on the so-called internal criteria of dating connected with the content of engravings. Basing on the collection of sacral inscriptions from ancient Aquileia, I intend to indicate which elements of engravings are significant in directly or indirectly establishing a foundation date (or period) of an inscription. The example of Aquileia suggests that while researching the chronology of religious life in chosen Roman cities one may expect that the share of inscriptions dated in an unqualified way will not exceed several percent within a collection of epigraphic material from a given cult centre. In such a case, it is necessary to use inscriptions dated indirectly, basing on clues that can be found in the content and the form of engravings. The least precise dating method is concerned with external criteria, such as the type of material used in inscriptions, their decoration and paleographic features. A more precise date indication can be established by analysing inscriptions with reference to particular elements that constitute their content as well as manner of expression (orthography, style, abbreviations, formulas). A mention of a famous, historical person in an inscription is a valuable means of accuracy improvement in dating. Of course, there are cases of inscriptions made many years after the death of the person mentioned, which may result in incorrect dating; however, this fallacy concerns mainly commemorative inscriptions and to a lesser extent sacral ones. All tituli sacri from Aquileia that mention historical persons are contemporary to them. The dating of these inscriptions was facilitated by their content as they contain terms connected with Roman army and administration. Extended names of army units or offices and officials of various ranks present in the engravings are often the only premise for establishing their terminus post quem. Nevertheless, it is worth remembering that the onomastic criterion should be deemed complementary to other dating premises. The complementarity of various apparently meaningless elements is often the only way to establish the chronology of such invaluable sources as Roman sacral inscriptions.

Family Space: Buddhist Materiality and Ancestral Fashioning in Mogao Cave 231

The diverse integration of family references into the visual program of ninth-century Buddhist caves at Mogao, Dunhuang, marks a turning point in the construction of religious space in medieval China. The examination of Mogao Cave 231 demonstrates the intersection of figural, epigraphic, and decorative references to family patronage, including ancestor portraits, commemorative inscriptions, and depictions of domestic furniture, found throughout the caves. These open multiple perspectives onto the function of cave temples as a hybrid space that bridges the representation of image, object, and architecture as well as the relation between ancestral commemoration and Buddhist devotion.