Ergun Lafli’s scientific contributions

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 In this article Ergün Laflı gives a detailed description of this inscribed plate which is a valuable historical document, while Maurizio Buora analyses its inscription and makes its epigraphic assessment as well as a systematic examination of the iconography of peacocks in the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

The article publishes a small group of globular lamps from the museum of Mersin in coastal Cilicia. The lamps are clearly of local Asia Minor production, largely corresponding to a type designated as "Kragenlampe" and dated to the 2nd–1st century BC.

During the early Byzantine period numerous objects with sacred inscriptions became souvenirs in the hands of pilgrims, returning to their homes. Particularly in Jerusalem - or in Syria - were made terracotta oil lamps with a specific formula of blessing. It mentions both the Blessed Virgin as “Theotokos” and a certain John, who we do not know whether he was a saint or the manufacturer of these lamps. The archaeological museum of Hatay in southeastern Turkey preserves a lamp of this type, probably dating to the sixth century AD or shortly afterwards

This paper presents some thirty unpublished bronze lamps that are housed in local museums of Cilicia, Hatay and Mardin in southern Turkey. The chosen methodology of this paper is to compare these lamps typologically, dating them by reference to the extensively published examples by Maria Xanthopoulou, 2010. The dating of our lamps does not generally extend beyond the Early Byzantine period, although some isolated samples could be later. In addition, they belong to a very homogenous group because of their restricted area of origin. Thus, our awareness of the objects enriches the general overview already offered by the latest European and Mediterranean studies on this topic. The Southern Anatolian workshops initially based their work on Italic patterns, were later influenced by the Byzantine art of Constantinople, and, after the Muslim conquest, by Islamic models.

The lamp, in the shape of a mummified Osiris, has only a few parallels; it contains inscriptions with magical formulas that can be paralleled in other magical texts.

This paper presents about twenty fibulae (18 from Ödemiş and 3 from Mardin). The majority of them date to the Iron Age, but 4 are Roman. The Museum of Ödemiş preserves brooches coming from various parts of modem Turkey, while the few fibulae of Mardin seem to be of local origin. Generally the fibulae belong to well known and widely distributed types: it is noteworthy that in the region of Mardin fibulae appear that are close to those of Urartian manufacture. The Roman brooches are dated to the early, middle and late Empire. Comparable evidence suggests that most, if not all, depend on the movement and stationing of troops. Given the scarcity of updated work on the spread of Roman brooches in Turkey, this small contribution may offer some guidance.