The Greek and Latin Inscriptions in the Burdur Archaeological Museum

Abstract

In the 1970s the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara conceived plans to publish the Burdur Archaeological Museum epigraphic holdings; but the efforts of R P Harper, and later of A S Hall, were not brought to fruition. Accordingly, after a few years of work with S Mitchell and M Waelkens' Pisidian Survey team at Kremna and Sagalassos, and as an extension of that enterprise, in 1987 I undertook a pilot investigation of the Museum's holdings of inscribed stones from those two cities and their territory. From this grew the proposal to prepare an edition of all the inscriptions in the Museum. In the early 1990s R A Kearsley became a collaborator in the project; but while some of the important individual inscriptions were published by one or both of us in journals, other commitments intervened, and it was some years before this project could begin to advance seriously again, in 1995. As a result of several sustained seasons' work in the Museum and in Ankara at the BIAA Library and Squeeze Collection, the great bulk of the texts was recorded and a draft edition with commentaries was prepared by late 1998. No further inscriptions brought in to the Museum subsequently have been added. The volume had to mark time for several more years, until in 2003 all entries were redrafted and updated, and texts were rechecked in detail against our photographic record (and those squeezes which I possess in Australia). The book was brought to virtual completion early in 2004, and underwent final revisions and the creation of the indexes a year later. In the meantime, other colleagues have continued their research which draws on material at Burdur. These include T Corsten (for Kibyran material), I Delemen (for Rider gods and Dioskoroi dedications), N Karayaka (for Greek and Roman gods in Pisidia), and N P Milner (for Kibyratis material from A S Hall's Nachlaβ); and we are glad to acknowledge the cordial relations which have marked our dealings with them.