Inscriptions of Israel/Palestine Creator Michael Satlow Brown University Bens 0002

Ben Shemen, Late third or early fourth centuries CE. Wall. Funerary.

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Dimensions refer to the frame (possibly a tabula ansata) that surrounds the inscription.

The beginnings of all the lines and part of the first line are lost.

The letters are regularly and elegantly traced, with notable serifs at the base, 5.5-6.5 cm high in lines 2 and 3, and slightly smaller (5-6 cm) in the last line. They belong to the tall and narrow alphabet that was in fashion especially during the second and third centuries CE, and to a lesser extent in the fourth century CE.

 Painted double frame Around the inscription. The upper and left-hand sides of the frame are lost. Seemingly, an attempt was made to create a kind of tabula ansata by painting part of the narrow strip between the two frames in red, and leaving an unpainted triangle where the handle of the tabula ansata would have been. Although only the upper and lower right corners of the frame survive, the height of the tabula and the number of lines can be established with certainty. The width of the tabula in its present state is 58 cm (64 cm with the right hand handle), and it was probably originally not much wider. Late third or early fourth centuries CE Judaea Ben Shemen31.954,34.9249 Burial Cave 4

Found in a rock-hewn arcosolium burial cave, on a plastered section of the cave wall that collapsed from above the eastern arcosolium.

Taxonomies for IIP controlled values

 Initial Entry adding period attribute to date element, with Periodo value.

Ἰωέζαρος ος καὶ Θεωκτίστα τε· Ὑγιένων κτίστης ἔπρασσε ἄμα Πομπυλίᾳ τοῦ Χριστοῦ θεράποντες

Ioezer, [...]os and Theo[c]tista; Hygienon, builder (of the tomb), made (this) together with Pompilia, servants of Christ.

Two different interpretations can be suggested for this text. One interpretation is that all the persons mentioned together were responsible for the hewing and decoration of the tomb. Otherwise, the first three names might refer to three persons buried in the tomb – probably the first three deceased who were buried in the cave after it was adopted for burial in the Late Roman period – while Hygienon and Pompilia, in all likelihood a married couple, were responsible for decorating the burial cave and painting the inscription.

Ἰωέζαρος ος καὶ Θεωκτίστα τε· Ὑγιένων κτίστης ἔπρασσε ἄμα Πομπυλίᾳ τοῦ Χριστοῦ θεράποντες

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