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Judaea. Jerusalem. 20 BCE to 70 CE. Soft limestone ossuary with chip-carved ornamentation. Funerary.
Judaea. Jerusalem. Southern slope of Mount Scopus.
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Ἰκαρπία
Ikarpia
Unfinished ossuary has inner ledge on three sides and flat, sliding lid. Ornamentation on the chest's front side consists of an ashlar wall of irregular header-and-stretcher arrangement within a zigzag frame. Three rows of three eight-petalled rosettes are superimposed on the center, each row linked vertically by zigzag strips between which the ashlar pattern is absent. The chest's back side is similar, but with a a vertical zigzag strip, unfinished at the top, imposed on the ashlars at the center, linking two slightly larger eight-petalled rosettes. The ashlar pattern is absent from the strip, except for its lowest row. On the chest's left side is a simple lattice pattern in a zigzag frame, with interstices containing containing containing regularly spaced eight-petalled rosettes of varying sizes. On the right side are three horizontal zigzag lines in zigzag frames. Ornamentation on the lid consists of a zigzag frame containing two eight-petalled rosettes each within concentric line circles, with zigzag strips linking circles to each other and to top and base of frame. All rosettes are within line circles and have petals shaped as inward-pointing ivy leaves. The name here is the most likely reading of the inscription, on the chest's back side; De Segni suggests [Πολ]ικαρπία, but there is no evidence that those initial letters ever existed. It may represent a local pronunciation of the male name Κάρπος (prefixed with an iota like other Greek names rendered locally), which occurs frequently in Greek literature, inscriptions, and papyri. Alternatively, it may stand for ἐυκαρπία, meaning literally "fruitfulness," which is attested as a female name in Greek papyri.