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P.V. Kuzenkov (Sevastopol), Yu.M. Mogarichev (Simferopol) – Epitaph of the Comites of Abraham and Cosmas in the “Temple with a Baptistery” (Inkerman, Crimea): Towards Dating the Temple

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Abstract

The “Church with a Baptistery” is located on the southern cliff of the Monastery Rock in Inkerman. This is one of the cave churches of the mountainous Crimea. The temple is a singlenave basilica. It has a baptistery, a burial vault arranged in the north, and a separate tomb near the northern wall, decorated with a niche with a Greek inscription. The inscription mentions the comites Abraham and Cosmas, who died one after the other and were buried in the same tomb. The rooms of the temple were decorated with paintings, the nature of which allowed the construction to be attributed to the 13th–14th cc. However, the date in the inscription above the tomb, by all indications contemporary with the temple, has not been reliably read till now. At present, most of the inscription has been lost, but careful analysis of the existing tracings and a photograph from 1937 allows us to discern the date of death of the buried – the first and second months of 6829 A.M. Thus, the tomb is dated to the autumn of AD 1320, and the “temple with the baptismal font” itself can, with a high degree of probability, be dated to the beginning of the 14th c.

Keywords

Crimea, Mountainous South-Western Taurica, Inkerman, cave churches, frescoes, inscriptions.

Pavel V. Kuzenkov, Sevastopol State University, Sevastopol, Russia, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Yuriy M. Mogarichev, Sevastopol State University, Sevastopol, Russia; Crimean Republican Institute of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education, Simferopol, Russia, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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