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Negev. Zoora. March 22, 449 - March 21, 450 CE. White sandstone tombstone. Epitaph.
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.
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ου,
One (is) the God. Monument of Alexandros, (son) of Samirabbos, who died (at the age) of 60 years, in the [year] 344, in (the month)...
The broken inscription provides the date as the year 344 according to the Era of the Province of Arabia, that is, between March 22, 449 and March 21, 450 CE. A more specific date is lost due to a break in the stone. 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 originally rectangular tombstone is suffers damage all around, and has been mended from two fragments. Written in square script, the text is engraved upon a smoothed surface, which is flaked off in places and particularly in the lower section, causing a loss of text. Lines one and five are also painted over in red. A simple cross is incised above and to the right of the inscription. A horizontal bar appears above the age numeral in line five. The editor suggests that the inscription originally appears to have had approximately four additional lines, now lost due to the fracture. The proposed dating is tentative, as the last two digits of the year numeral are unclear. The text contains both spelling and grammatical errors.