Uploaded November 2022 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
An Anatolian Studies Virtual Seminar with Nikos Tzivikis
What were the material realities of Christian prayer for the early byzantine population in Anatolia? What position did written language and its depiction hold in this process? In 2016 an early Byzantine ceramic plate bearing an inscription with parts of the text of the Lord’s Prayer was found in the excavations at Amorium, one of the most important Byzantine cities of Anatolia. This small inscribed plate fragment allows us to revisit such questions. During our seminar, the graffito inscription will be discussed in detail and in light of the identification of the text with the Lord’s Prayer as preserved from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, making it an extremely rare find in the surrounding of Asia Minor. The inscribed vessel will be examined as an object within its possible context, ecclesiastical, domestic or other, through comparison with other known examples of inscriptions bearing the Lord's Prayer text. Finally, we will elaborate on the possible uses of the Lord’s Prayer in day-to-day life and the materiality of prayer for Christians during the early Byzantine period between the fourth and seventh centuries.
An Anatolian Studies Virtual Seminar with Nikos Tzivikis
What were the material realities of Christian prayer for the early byzantine population in Anatolia? What position did written language and its depiction hold in this process? In 2016 an early Byzantine ceramic plate bearing an inscription with parts of the text of the Lord’s Prayer was found in the excavations at Amorium, one of the most important Byzantine cities of Anatolia. This small inscribed plate fragment allows us to revisit such questions. During our seminar, the graffito inscription will be discussed in detail and in light of the identification of the text with the Lord’s Prayer as preserved from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, making it an extremely rare find in the surrounding of Asia Minor. The inscribed vessel will be examined as an object within its possible context, ecclesiastical, domestic or other, through comparison with other known examples of inscriptions bearing the Lord's Prayer text. Finally, we will elaborate on the possible uses of the Lord’s Prayer in day-to-day life and the materiality of prayer for Christians during the early Byzantine period between the fourth and seventh centuries.
