DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.36958#0224
Nestorian cross accompanied by a single Sogdian word (No 1),
which MÜLLER interpreted asyiU "Jesus".
The inscriptions first published by MÜLLER have since been stud-
ied by E. BENVENISTE, W.B. HENNING, VA. Livsic, and others.'
Until very recently, however, the presence of several further Sogdi-
an inscriptions on the same and nearby rocks has escaped notice.
From a series of excellent photographs taken in 1986 by Ngawang
RlGZlN of Leh and put at my disposal by Professor Roland BlEL-
MEIER (Bern), together with a partly overlapping series subse-
quently sent to me by Dr Rohit VOHRA (Luxembourg),^ I myself
know of at least four inscribed rocks with not less than fourteen
Sogdian inscriptions, and there may well be more still to be found.
The present study is not only illustrated by these photographs (PI
1-16) but entirely dependent upon them and I should like to ex-
press my grateful thanks to both scholars for making them avail-
able to me.
MÜLLER's reading of the Sogdian word accompanying the cross
(inscription No 1) asyxU "Jesus" cannot be accepted. MÜLLER
himself recognized that his reading was problematic, but was en-
couraged by the fact that the same word could apparently be read
more clearly in inscription No 7. Unfortunately, the photograph
from which he read this inscription was only a distant view, in
which the end of the word disappears behind a ridge of rock. In
the photograph published here (PI 10a) an additional letter can be
seen at the end of the word, allowing various readings such as
/UVvi, yüvü, etc This word is most likely a personal
name;^ at any rate it provides no support for MÜLLER's reading
1 BENVENISTE 1938: 502-505, with tracings of the inscription on Pi HI-IV; HEN-
NING 1958: 54; KLJASTORNYJ-Livsic 1972: 83, n. 12. GROPP 1974: 367, pro-
vides a new photograph (a general view of inscriptions Nos 1-2 and three cros-
ses) with a text and translation based on HBNNlNG's interpretation.
2 Dr VOHRA visited and documented the site in 1984 and again in 1986. For a
report on his findings, including translations of several inscriptions, see
VOHRA (forthcoming).
3 If the correct reading is one may compare the name of the Lord of
KLäkhsar in several of the documents from Mt Mug, which is probably to be
read ^y(')wn (see my note GRENET 1989: 184). Both and
can be read (o)/yön or (a)/nbr. The reading /3ynw' (vocative of /lynwy "New
Moon") is palaeographically possible but grammatically unlikely.
152
which MÜLLER interpreted asyiU "Jesus".
The inscriptions first published by MÜLLER have since been stud-
ied by E. BENVENISTE, W.B. HENNING, VA. Livsic, and others.'
Until very recently, however, the presence of several further Sogdi-
an inscriptions on the same and nearby rocks has escaped notice.
From a series of excellent photographs taken in 1986 by Ngawang
RlGZlN of Leh and put at my disposal by Professor Roland BlEL-
MEIER (Bern), together with a partly overlapping series subse-
quently sent to me by Dr Rohit VOHRA (Luxembourg),^ I myself
know of at least four inscribed rocks with not less than fourteen
Sogdian inscriptions, and there may well be more still to be found.
The present study is not only illustrated by these photographs (PI
1-16) but entirely dependent upon them and I should like to ex-
press my grateful thanks to both scholars for making them avail-
able to me.
MÜLLER's reading of the Sogdian word accompanying the cross
(inscription No 1) asyxU "Jesus" cannot be accepted. MÜLLER
himself recognized that his reading was problematic, but was en-
couraged by the fact that the same word could apparently be read
more clearly in inscription No 7. Unfortunately, the photograph
from which he read this inscription was only a distant view, in
which the end of the word disappears behind a ridge of rock. In
the photograph published here (PI 10a) an additional letter can be
seen at the end of the word, allowing various readings such as
/UVvi, yüvü, etc This word is most likely a personal
name;^ at any rate it provides no support for MÜLLER's reading
1 BENVENISTE 1938: 502-505, with tracings of the inscription on Pi HI-IV; HEN-
NING 1958: 54; KLJASTORNYJ-Livsic 1972: 83, n. 12. GROPP 1974: 367, pro-
vides a new photograph (a general view of inscriptions Nos 1-2 and three cros-
ses) with a text and translation based on HBNNlNG's interpretation.
2 Dr VOHRA visited and documented the site in 1984 and again in 1986. For a
report on his findings, including translations of several inscriptions, see
VOHRA (forthcoming).
3 If the correct reading is one may compare the name of the Lord of
KLäkhsar in several of the documents from Mt Mug, which is probably to be
read ^y(')wn (see my note GRENET 1989: 184). Both and
can be read (o)/yön or (a)/nbr. The reading /3ynw' (vocative of /lynwy "New
Moon") is palaeographically possible but grammatically unlikely.
152