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The inscriptions of the Georgian Monastery in Bi’r el-Qutt and their chronology
Authors: Besik Khurtsilava
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The article analyzes the chronology of the inscriptions discovered on the site of the excavations of St. Theodore Georgian monastery in Bi’r el-Qutt near Jerusalem. Three inscriptions in Georgian and one in foreign (Greek or Latin) language were dated to the V–VI centuries by different researchers. The reason for this dating was the fact of mention
in the inscriptions the names of famous people, in particular the church figure Peter the Iberian (411–489), his grandfather Bakur (+416), the father Buzmir (+438) and Abba Anthony the companion of the Saint Simeon Stylites (VI century). Based on known historical data, the author has revised the chronology and proved that the inscriptions belong to different periods of the Byzantine period. Namely, inscriptions №1 and №4 refer to the first half of the VI century. The inscription №2, where the living king of Iberia Buzmir and his son Peter the Iberian is mentioned, was made in the late 30-ies of the V century. The inscription №3, where is mentioned alive and without any regalia the grandfather of Peter the Iberian, the famous Roman military dignitary and later the king of Iberia Bakur the Great can be
attributed to 388–392 years, i.e. to time of the founding of the St. Theodore Monastery in Bi’r el-Qutt. In addition, the article focuses on the problem of clarifying the secular name of Peter the Iberian before monastic tonsure in various editions of the life encountered as Nabarnug and Murvanos. Thus, in the inscription №2 name Maruan is fixed which is probably the ancient Arabic equivalent of the Greek word «petros» (stone, rock), that can be explained by the influence of people speaking on the Syro-Arab koine.