Study of 9 Phrygian Inscriptions Reveals Demeter Cult in 1st-3rd Century A.D.

1 articles · Updated · Fox News · Sep 10

Nine newly documented inscriptions from Akmoneia in western Turkey show how people in ancient Phrygia worshipped, honored civic figures and buried their dead between the first and third centuries A.D.
A key inscription provides the first epigraphic proof of a Demeter Karpophoros cult in Phrygia, filling a gap in evidence for religious life in a major agricultural region tied to the New Testament.
Other stones identify a wealthy benefactor who commissioned a rare torch-bearing statue and a woman, Mandana, honored as the city's high priestess in her own right.
Funerary texts add personal detail, including a tomb owner's condition that his wife not remarry and an epitaph for two likely soldiers, one said to have died at 'lawless hands.'
The findings do not directly document Christianity, but they map the religious landscape that existed as the faith was spreading through Phrygia, where scholars say ordinary people adopted Christianity early.