Konya (MAMA XI 294-305)

The twelve monuments published here all derive from various villages in the plain of Konya (ancient Ikonion), the largest city of ancient Lykaonia. A single inscription derives from the village of Tömek, around 20km north-east of Konya on the modern Konya-Ankara highway (MAMA XI 301). This stone was probably brought to Tömek from an ancient village site at or near Sadettin (Zazadın) Hanı, two and a half kilometres south of Tömek; the same may well be true of two late antique inscriptions recorded by Ballance at Zivecik (now Ortakonak), 5km south of Sadettin Hanı (MAMA XI 302, 304).1

12km east of Sadettin Hanı, on the modern road running east-north-east from Konya towards Aksaray, lie the ruins of Zencirli Hanı, possibly the site of an ancient village *Salarama. Ballance only found a single monument here in 1957 (MAMA XI 297), but a second inscription, seen at Zencirli Hanı by Sterrett in 1884, was rediscovered by Ballance at the village of Tatlıkuyu (now Akbaş), 10km north-east of the han (MAMA XI 294).2

Ballance recorded several inscriptions in the villages strung along the eastern fringe of the Konya plain, at the foot of the Boz Dağ range of hills. Divanlar lies furthest to the north, just off the main Konya–Aksaray road (MAMA XI 295); the village of Karakaya is some 8km to the south (MAMA XI 303), with Göçü another 5km further on (MAMA XI 298, 300, 305). In the far south-east of the Konya plain, İsmil (now Demirkent) may be identical to the mediaeval town of Salimia (MAMA XI 299).3 Finally, Ballance recorded a milestone at the village of Eğribayat, at the far north of the Konya plain on the main road north towards Ankara (MAMA XI 296); four further milestones are known from the village, along with a handful of early Christian funerary inscriptions.4

List of monuments from Konya

Notes

1. Cronin 1902: 358-67, nos. 119-39; Erdmann 1961: 102-7, no. 28; MAMA VIII 312-24; Robert, Hellenica XIII, 72; TIB Galatien 220, s.v. Sadettin Hanı.

2. Sterrett 1888a: 226-7, nos. 253-4; Cronin 1902: 368-9, nos. 140-2; Erdmann 1961: 195, no. 70; Robert, Hellenica XIII, 72-3; TIB Galatien 220, s.v. Salarama.

3. Tomaschek 1891: 89; Robert, Hellenica XIII, 72; TIB Galatien 220-1, s.v. Salimia; Laminger-Pascher 1992: 116. For a second inscription from İsmil, see Laminger-Pascher 1984: 87, no. 147 (Drew-Bear 1987: 606 n.8).

4. Milestones: French 1988: 220-2, nos. 613-7. Christian epitaphs: MAMA VIII 325-326e; perhaps MAMA VII 104b.