A slab from Izmir with two peacocks. Depictions of peacocks in Byzantine architectural sculpture of Asia Minor.

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Laflı E., Buora M.

VESTNIK VOLGOGRADSKOGO GOSUDARSTVENNOGO UNIVERSITETA. SERIIA 4. ISTORIIA. REGIONOVEDENIE. MEZHDUNARODNYE OTNOSHENIIA, cilt.27, sa.6, ss.171-210, 2022 (ESCI, Scopus)

Özet

In this paper a marble slab from the Archaeological Museum of Izmir in western Turkey will be presented, which was originally published by Anastasios K. Orlandos in 1937 and its inscription was re-considered by Georg Petzl in 1990. Its epigraphy mentions a formerly unknown episcopos, Euethios, who was probably bishop of Smyrna during the Early Byzantine period. On this occasion, a brief review of the depiction of peacocks or two antithetic peacocks flanking a vase in the marble architectural sculpture of Byzantine Asia Minor will be presented, in order to assign a more concise date for the slab from Izmir. An accompanying catalogue with several examples of peacock depictions from Asia Minor was made and a marble plate with a peacock depiction from Skopje, Macedonia is also included. Authors’ contribution. In this article Ergün Laflı gives a detailed description of this inscribed plate which is a valuable historical document, while Maurizio Buora analyses its inscription and will make its epigraphic assessment as well as a systematic examination of the iconography of peacocks in the marble architectural sculpture of Byzantine Asia Minor through over thirty examples in Turkish museums.

Key words: marble slab, bishop, peacocks, peacocks flanking a vase, Izmir, western Asia Minor, Turkey, Turkish museums, Early Byzantine period, Byzantine architectural sculpture, Byzantine epigraphy.