СУЧАСНИЙ СТАН ЛАПІДАРНОЇ ПАЛЕОГРАФІЇ ОЛЬВІЇ
THE LAPIDARY PALEOGRAPHY OF OLBIA: CURRENT STATE

Summary/Abstract: It is considered that the main problem of the development of Olbian lapidary paleography is the practical absence of precisely dated monuments, therefore there is an urgent need for its development and improvement. A selective review of the state of lapidary paleography of Olbia over the past 50 years revealed some negative trends in the development of this auxiliary historical discipline. Examples of researchers’ attempts to determine the paleographic date of a monument are given, ignoring the real accuracy of the paleographic method, and this is one of the negative modern trends in the use of paleographic analysis. A type of false algorithm also consists in the preliminary application of other considerations, different from paleography (historical, numismatic, etc.); in the future, not a real, but a formal «paleographic analysis» is added to the decision already made about the date of the monument, which supposedly confirms this dating. Unfortunately, such an algorithm was sometimes used by famous scientists. A methodological error related to the search for signs of past times in the monument and giving the monument an early date based on their presence, instead of looking for the youngest paleographic signs that determine its terminus post quem, was also recorded. In 2014, I published a monograph in which, on the basis of system analysis and mathematical modeling, the synchronized catalog of eponyms of Olbia IPE I 2 201 was introduced into scientific circulation (Nikolaev, 2014). The catalog covers the period from approximately 394–388 BC to 94–88 BC, i.e. 300 years. One of the consequences of the synchronization of the catalog is the publication of interdependent prosopographical datings of a large group of lapidary, ceramic, magical and numismatic monuments of Pontic Olbia. The numerous datings obtained are probably the basis for the future construction of a modern objective paleographic algorithm, which will make the formalism and subjectivism of this process impossible. However, I am very cautious about the prospect of increasing the chronological accuracy of the paleographic method. Previous studies give reason to believe that the paleographic algorithm for dating monuments of lapidary paleography will have an accuracy of no less than one century, and some strict limitations in the dating process are also expected. The materials obtained in relation to the local geographical object – Pontic Olbia – to some extent can be applied to other geographical objects and other historical times. In general, the received materials have the status of preliminary ones.

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