The small town of Perta is securely located at the modern village of Giymir, on the eastern slope of the Ballık Dağı, the northern extension of the Boz Dağ mountain-range. The general location of the town was indicated by the discovery in 1907 of MAMA XI 310 (privileges for ‘those inhabiting the city of Perta’, τοῖς τὴν Περτέων οἰκοῦσι πόλιν) at the village of Koçaş, 7km NW of Giymir. The identification was subsequently confirmed by Calder’s discovery, also at Koçaş, of the honorific inscription MAMA XI 307 (first published as MAMA VIII 263), passed by the boule and demos of Perta (Περτηνῶν ἡ βουλὴ καὶ ὁ δῆμος). The site itself is indicated by a settlement-mound just to the east of Giymir, apparently once ringed by a Byzantine fortification wall.1
The 37 inscriptions from Perta in MAMA XI (nos. 306-342) were all recorded by Michael Ballance in 1956; the majority of them (30) are previously unpublished. This almost precisely doubles the number of inscriptions known from the town: 29 inscriptions were published in MAMA VIII (nos. 259-287), five of which are republished here. The inscriptions published here derive from ten villages on the east flank of the Ballık Dağı and in the plain immediately to the east (Giymir, Koçaş, Hacınuman, Mernek [Karakaya], İpekler, Burunkuyu, Büyük Borukkuyu, Küçük Boruk [Yenikuyu], Bayramdüğün, Harman Çukuru), along with a single inscription from Zulmandar Hanı, on the road between Mernek and Koçaş.
There is no way of ascertaining the northern limit of the territory of Perta; I have drawn an arbitrary line north of Mernek, Zulmandar Hanı, Koçaş, Büyük Borukkuyu, and Küçük Boruk, and have assigned the inscriptions from villages north of that line (Zengicek, Akçaşar, Zıvarık [Altınekin], Oğuzeli) to Northern Lykaonia. I have arbitrarily assumed that the limit between the territory of Perta and that of Savatra to the south was marked by the modern Konya-Aksaray highway. The eastern limit of the territory of Perta is unknown; a large number of inscriptions, including several which can be securely assigned to Perta, are built into the Selçuk-era caravansaray at Obruk, 12km east of Giymir (not visited by Ballance).2
2.Erdmann 1961: 126-30; Robert, Hellenica XIII, 58-65, with Planches I-IV, XXII-XXIII; TIB Galatien 210, s.v. Obruk Han. There remain several unpublished inscriptions built into the walls of the caravansaray.
The small town of Perta is securely located at the modern village of Giymir, on the eastern slope of the Ballık Dağı, the northern extension of the Boz Dağ mountain-range. The general location of the town was indicated by the discovery in 1907 of MAMA XI 310 (privileges for ‘those inhabiting the city of Perta’, τοῖς τὴν Περτέων οἰκοῦσι πόλιν) at the village of Koçaş, 7km NW of Giymir. The identification was subsequently confirmed by Calder’s discovery, also at Koçaş, of the honorific inscription MAMA XI 307 (first published as MAMA VIII 263), passed by the boule and demos of Perta (Περτηνῶν ἡ βουλὴ καὶ ὁ δῆμος). The site itself is indicated by a settlement-mound just to the east of Giymir, apparently once ringed by a Byzantine fortification wall.1
The 37 inscriptions from Perta in MAMA XI (nos. 306-342) were all recorded by Michael Ballance in 1956; the majority of them (30) are previously unpublished. This almost precisely doubles the number of inscriptions known from the town: 29 inscriptions were published in MAMA VIII (nos. 259-287), five of which are republished here. The inscriptions published here derive from ten villages on the east flank of the Ballık Dağı and in the plain immediately to the east (Giymir, Koçaş, Hacınuman, Mernek [Karakaya], İpekler, Burunkuyu, Büyük Borukkuyu, Küçük Boruk [Yenikuyu], Bayramdüğün, Harman Çukuru), along with a single inscription from Zulmandar Hanı, on the road between Mernek and Koçaş.
There is no way of ascertaining the northern limit of the territory of Perta; I have drawn an arbitrary line north of Mernek, Zulmandar Hanı, Koçaş, Büyük Borukkuyu, and Küçük Boruk, and have assigned the inscriptions from villages north of that line (Zengicek, Akçaşar, Zıvarık [Altınekin], Oğuzeli) to Northern Lykaonia. I have arbitrarily assumed that the limit between the territory of Perta and that of Savatra to the south was marked by the modern Konya-Aksaray highway. The eastern limit of the territory of Perta is unknown; a large number of inscriptions, including several which can be securely assigned to Perta, are built into the Selçuk-era caravansaray at Obruk, 12km east of Giymir (not visited by Ballance).2
List of monuments from Perta
Notes
1. Callander and Ramsay 1909; W. Ruge, RE XIX, cols. 1058-9, s.v. Perta (2); MAMA VIII pp. xiii-xiv; Robert, Hellenica XIII, 57-69; TIB Galatien 213, s.v. Perta; Mitchell 1993: I 96.
2. Erdmann 1961: 126-30; Robert, Hellenica XIII, 58-65, with Planches I-IV, XXII-XXIII; TIB Galatien 210, s.v. Obruk Han. There remain several unpublished inscriptions built into the walls of the caravansaray.