Sunday, May 11, 2014

Sartre-Fautriat and Sartre, Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie

NEW BOOK:
Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie: Le plateau du Trachôn et ses bordures

Annie Sartre-Fautriat et Maurice Sartre

Bibliothèque archéologique et historique, BAH 204

Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie, tome XV, fasc. 1 et 2

Beyrouth, Presses de l’Ifpo, 2014

ISBN 978-2-35159-395-0

28 x 22 cm, 730 p., 2 volumes (358 + 392 p.)

80 €

This new volume of IGLS contains all the greek and latin inscriptions of the Leja, the large basaltic triangular plateau situated south of Damascus and which was called Trachôn, the « Rough », by ancient sources. This name gives a perfect image of this wilderness and desolated country. The inscriptions illustrate the life during the ancient greek and roman periods in the villages built around or on the plateau, specially in the south part, more cultivated. These texts are essentially religious consecrations, dedications for emperors or governors, commemorations of private or public buildings, epitaphs, milestones of the roman road crossing the plateau from north to south. Most of them have been published by travellers and scholars since the beginning of the XIXth century, but a big lot of them have been found by the authors of this book during their explorations of the country.