MAMA XI 336 (Perta)

The term ξυλογλύφος is extremely rare. Apart from an entry in Hesychios (s.v. στυπογλύφος· ξυλογλύφος), it appears only in the epitaph of a Phoenician sculptor in wood at Nikomedeia in Bithynia (Robert 1987: 109-14; SEG 28, 1037; BE 2004, 375), Πάπος Ἀράδιος ξυλογλύφος, and in the list of artisanal professions in MAMA XI 254 (1957/89, Ladık: ξυλογλυ-). See also the description of the artisan Gerontios in Theodoret, Ep. 38: ὃς οἶδε μὲν ἄριστα ξύλα τεκταίνειν, ἔμαθε δὲ παρὰ τῆς τέχνης ζῴων καὶ δένδρων παντοδαπῶν εἰκόνας ἐνθεῖναι τοῖς ξύλοις. For two stone sculptors at Ikonion, ἀγαλματογλύφοι Δοκιματογλύφοι, cf. Hall and Waelkens 1982 (I.Konya 45).

The term μαΐστωρ (one of several Greek transliterations of the Latin magister; cf. MAMA XI 159 [1955/90]; 167 [1956/8]) is regularly used in the Byzantine period to designate a master-craftsman or the head of a team of artisans (Ousterhout 1999: 43-57). To all appearances, Paulos, Sosandros and Zoillos were Victor’s apprentices. It is more than a little surprising to find a wood-worker and three apprentices at Perta. Today, the Boz Dağ and the regions to the west and south of Lake Tatta are entirely bare of trees; the accounts of several nineteenth-century travellers, vividly describing the treeless steppe between Konya and Obruk, are collected by Robert, Hellenica XIII, 59-61. The steppe north of Perta was proverbial for its lack of trees already in antiquity. Livy knew it by the name of Axylon (38.18.4), and Strabo described the ‘plains of the Lykaonians’ as ‘cold, bare, and grazed by wild asses’ (12.6.1; see further Mitchell 1993: I 143-7; Robert 1980: 257-307 [tezek]; Robert, OMS VII, 19-38 [kerpiç]). However, it is possible that the region around Konya, including the Boz Dağ range, may still have been partially wooded in antiquity. Strabo himself says that the territory of Ikonion was ‘more fertile’ than the rest of Lykaonia (χώραν εὐτυχεστέραν ἔχον τῆς λεχθείσης ὀναγροβότου, 12.6.1), and there is some reason to think that the Sultan Dağı, the Boz Dağ, and even the Karadağ north of Karaman may once have supported more vegetation than they do now (Wenzel 1937: 19-27; Louis 1939: 41-50).