Derbe is named in Acts as the far point of Paul's first journey, but for centuries no one knew where it stood. In the mid-twentieth century an inscription found at the mound of Kerti Höyük named the city of Derbe, fixing its location; a second inscribed stone later confirmed it. It is a modest but clean case of biblical geography recovered from the ground — a place-name in Acts pinned to a real dot on the map by epigraphy.
- What it is
- The Lycaonian town of Derbe, long unlocated, fixed at the mound of Kerti Höyük by inscriptions naming the city
- Date of artifact
- identifying inscriptions of the 2nd century AD
- Discovered
- Kerti Höyük, near Karaman, south-central Turkey, 1956 (identified by Michael Ballance from an inscribed stone; a second followed)
- Where it is now
- In situ (mound); inscriptions in the Karaman Museum
- Related to
- The turning-point of Paul's first journey and home of his companion Gaius
- पवित्र-वचन
- Acts 14:20–21 · Acts 20:4
What this find showsThe physical location of a town named in Acts, established by inscriptions bearing the city's own name.
What it does not proveThe inscriptions are later than Paul; they locate the city, not any event Acts records there.
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