Inscriptions of Israel/Palestine Prinicipal Investigator Michael Satlow

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Negev. Zoora. August 17, 383 CE. White sandstone tombstone. Epitaph.

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Cross-Rho One in the fifth line and another at the end of the last line of text Plant motif One at the end of line four August 17, 383 CE Negev Zoora An Naq cemetery

Found by local inhabitants in the northwest corner of the Bronze Age, Byzantine and Islamic cemetery in the An Naq neighborhood south of the Wadi al-Hasa, probably in secondary use in later graves.

Department of Antiquities of Jordan

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 Creation Adding Pleiades IDs to origin/placenames adding period attribute to date element, with Periodo value.

ΜνημῖονΜνημεῖον Σολέμου Παύλου, ἀποθανόντος λʹ ἐτῶν, ἔτους σοηʹ ηʹ, μηνὸς Λῴου κθʹ. ΘάρσιΘάρσει, οὐδὶςοὐδείς ἀθάνατος.

Monument of Solemos, (son) of Paulus, who died (at the age) of 30 years, in (the) year 278, on (the) 29th (day) of (the) month Loos. Be of good cheer, no one (is) immortal.

ΜνημῖονΜνημεῖον Σολέμου Παύλου, ἀποθανόντος λʹ ἐτῶν, ἔτους σοηʹ ηʹ, μηνὸς Λῴου κθʹ ΘάρσιΘάρσει, οὐδὶςοὐδείς ἀθάνατος.

The inscription provides the date as the day of Venus, the 29th day of the month Loos in the year 278 according to the Era of the Province of Arabia, that is, August 17, 383 CE. The tombstone is one of about 700 discovered in Byzantine Zoora. The majority of the Greek tombstones from this location have been identified as Christian. The inscribed surface is flaked off at the upper right corner and the lower part. The text is engraved in a mixture of round and square script that was painted red. The letters are smaller and more crowded in the first line than the rest of the text. The abbreviation of the word ἐτῶν is denoted by a horizontal bar above, while the abbreviation of ἔτους is denoted by a double dot on both sides of the τ. A decorative plant sprout motif follows this word. The placement of the first η in line five, the units figure, is a mistake which the engraver tried to correct by rewriting the η underneath the year numeral at the end of line four. Two cross-rhos appear in the text, the first in the middle of line five and the second at the end of the text in line nine.

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