PHRYGIA, TURKEY, Sept. 10 (World Daily Times) — A study of nine inscriptions from Akmoneia, an ancient city in Phrygia, documents religious practices in a region linked to the early spread of Christianity.
The inscriptions date from the first through third centuries A.D. and were examined by Hüseyin Uzunoğlu of Akdeniz University and Münteha Dinç of Uşak University in a study published in Gephyra. Akmoneia was located in what is now western Turkey.
The findings do not directly mention Christianity. Instead, they offer evidence of the religious setting in which Christian communities later emerged and expanded.
What do the inscriptions show?
One inscription concerns a statue of Demeter Karpophoros, a form of Demeter associated with fertility and harvests. The study presents the inscription as the first epigraphic, or written-inscription, evidence supplied in its results for the presence of this cult in Phrygia.
Phrygia was known as an important agricultural region. The inscription therefore adds evidence of how beliefs connected to farming and fertility were represented in one of its cities.
Another inscription records that a benefactor named Demades commissioned a statue carrying a torch. The study’s interpretation links the statue to the lighting of Akmoneia’s colonnaded main street at night, although the supplied research does not provide the full inscription or the complete basis for that interpretation.
A third inscription honors Mandana as the city’s high priestess. The monument was erected by her husband, Priscus, according to the study’s reported reading. It offers evidence that religious office could be publicly recognized through monuments and inscriptions.
The available findings do not establish that all nine inscriptions concern cult activity. They identify several religious and civic examples, but the full contents of the group were not supplied.
What does “epigraphic evidence” mean?
Epigraphy is the study of inscriptions carved or written on materials such as stone, metal or pottery. Such records can preserve names, religious titles, dedications and details about public honors that may not appear in literary texts.
In this case, the inscriptions help document religious practice through the names of a deity, a benefactor, a high priestess and a monument. They also provide evidence about the public role of religion in Akmoneia.
Uzunoğlu said the evidence fills a gap in the map of ancient religious practice. The study had previously lacked inscriptional proof that the Demeter cult existed in Phrygia, despite the region’s agricultural importance, according to comments reported by Fox News.
How does Apostle Paul fit into the story?
The connection to Apostle Paul is regional rather than firmly tied to Akmoneia itself. The supplied research describes Phrygia as part of the wider setting associated with the early spread of Christianity, but it does not establish that Paul personally visited Akmoneia.
That distinction matters. The inscriptions are evidence of pre-Christian and non-Christian religious practice in the region; they are not evidence of a direct encounter between the city’s religious institutions and Paul or early Christian communities.
They also do not show that Christianity had already displaced the older religious traditions. Dated across the first three centuries A.D., the inscriptions point to a period when established local and Greco-Roman religious practices remained visible while Christianity was beginning to take root in parts of the wider region.
The study therefore adds detail to the religious landscape surrounding early Christianity. Rather than documenting a single moment of conversion or conflict, the inscriptions show the continuing presence of temples, religious offices, dedications and civic monuments in an ancient city of western Anatolia.
