MAMA XI 330 (Perta) 
Funerary ossuary of Valens Belles and Tekousa
- Type of monument:
- Funerary ossuary.
- Location:
- Giymir (Perta): in a yard.
- Description:
- Plain ossuary of greyish-white marble, without lid, said to have been dug up from the höyük. Traces of red paint in the letters.
- Dimensions:
- Ht. 0.23 (exterior), 0.12 (interior); W. 0.48 (exterior), 0.35 (interior); Th. 0.33 (exterior), 0.18 (interior); letters 0.025-0.035.
- Record:
- Line drawing; MB notebook copy; photograph (1956/170).
- Publication:
- Laminger-Pascher 1985: 134-5, no. 4 (SEG 35, 1447).
- Date:
- Roman imperial period.
Οὐάλης Βελλης
ἑατῷ καὶ γυναικὶ
Τεκούσῃ hed.
Valens Belles, for himself and his wife Tekousa.
Illustrations:
MAMA XI 330 (Perta 25: 1956-170)
Line drawing of MAMA XI 330 (Perta 25: 1956-170)
The name Βελλης is apparently unattested elsewhere, although the female name Βελλα(ς) is known at Giymir (MAMA VIII 268) and elsewhere in Lykaonia (MAMA VII 321, 333, 490) and Galatia (RECAM II 230, 296, 298). The names are probably Celtic in origin (Zgusta 1964: 122 §160; Mitchell, RECAM II 296), although it is conceivable that both are Greek names derived from βέλος (Robert 1963: 287, on the name Βέλλων; Masson, OGS II, 514 is agnostic). Cf. the commentary to MAMA XI 239 (1957/24: Yaraşlı), on the Celtic name Vellanus. Laminger-Pascher argued that Βελλης represents a matronym, that Valens was an illegitimate soldier’s child, and that Valens, ‘Bella’, and Tekousa may have been slaves or serfs; Pleket, in the SEG lemma, correctly regards all three propositions as ‘speculative to say the least’. For Τεκοῦσα as personal name, see Robert, Hellenica XIII, 217; BE 1984, 481; for female names formed from participles, see Masson, OGS II, 587-92.