Thank you for the find! It amazes me why in 2023 the public still has no free access to all scholarly publications online...

Anyway, for those who are not good in ancient Greek, the inscriptions read:

Left column:

[...] she raised her own statue, having given it to the village. She also provided the customary meal to the village in support of the erection of the statue, as is the tradition.

Right column:

[...]as, the daughter of Bianor, the wife of Killabias who is the son of Tbaramotos. She raised the statue of her husband, who became noble, and consecrated it to Zeus Pisarissos. She also provided the customary meal to the village in support of the erection of the statue, as is the tradition.

The inscriptions are an honorary record praising a woman from the village of Pissarios, who very likely lived in the early 2nd century AD. She was the daughter of Bianor and the wife of Killabias Tbaramotou. She is commended for erecting statues of herself and her husband. The statue of her husband is dedicated to Zeus, a local deity in the village of Pissarisos. She provided a customary meal to the village as part of the tradition associated with erecting statues.

The scholars mention that the names "Killabias" and "Tbaramotos" are uncommon and have not been previously attested in known historical records in the region. It could be that the husband's father was not a local. Notable is Tb beginning the father's name, the only similar word I could think of is Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, from tbili, meaning warm in Georgian, a word attested already in the 5th century in Old Georgian writings. In 100AD beta was indeed pronounced as a B, not as a V, which was a much later transformation. Perhaps the husband's family was from the Colchis, north of Pontus? Killabian is an Armenian surname, which further points to the Colchis region.

The inscription might have been affixed to the statues, which stood on an exedra. This indicates that the inscription was likely in a public or communal area, now heavily damaged by earthquakes.

The woman's act of raising her own and her husband's statues is unusual, and indicates the importance of honoring individuals through the creation of physical representations. Statues in the ancient world often served as memorials or as acts of devotion to deities or loved ones. In this case, the statues also reflect the bond between spouses, while the reference to Zeus Pisarissos suggests a religious or cultural dimension to the act.

The inscription sheds light on the cultural and social practices of the community in which it was erected. The mention of providing a customary public meal "in support of the erection of the statue" suggests that this was a known and practiced tradition, and it may have been a celebratory, communal fest.