Inscriptions of Israel/Palestine Prinicipal Investigator Michael Satlow

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 zoor0196 Zoor 0196

Zoora, July 13, 453 CE. Tombstone. Epitaph.

 57 40 8

White sandstone

Broken on all sides

Written in square script, the text is engraved upon a smoothed surface, which is deeply hollowed and rectangular in shape. Lines one, three, five, seven, and nine are painted over in red. The text is also set within incised guide-lines. The area around this smoothed surface is badly damaged. The script is squared, with small, symmetrical, well cut and aligned letters

 Crosses Above the inscription and within the smoothed area of the stone Serpentine motif In line eight Guide lines Within the text Kantharos Below the text Grapevines Held by Kantharos Bird (see note) July 13, 453 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 Edited metadata; corrected encoding adding period attribute to date element, with Periodo value. Edited metadata and corrected encoding

+ + + + + Εἷς Θεός, ὁ πάντων Δεσπότης. ΜνημῖονΜνημεῖον Ὀγέζωνος ὁ καὶ Ἰωάννου Σαδάλλου, διδασκϛάλου, ἀποθανόντος μετὰ καλοῦ ὀνόματος ἐτῶν κβʹ, ἔτους τμηʹ, μηνὸς ΠανέμουΠανήμου κδʹ, ἡμέρᾳ Κυρίου βʹ, ἐν χρόνοις ςʹ ἰνδικτιῶνος. ΘάρσιΘάρσει, οὐδὶςοὐδεὶς ἀθάνατος.

One (is) the God, the Lord of all. Monument of Ogezon also (called) Ioannes, son of Sadallos, (the) teacher, who died having good name (at the age) of 22 years, in (the) year 348, on (the) 24th (day) of (the) month Panemos, on (the) 2nd day of (the) Lord (Monday), in the 6th indiction year. Be of good cheer, no one (is) immortal.

Εἷς Θεός, ὁ πάντων Δεσπότης. Μνημῖον Ὀγέζωνος ὁ καὶ Ἰωάννου Σαδάλλου, διδασκϛάλου, ἀποθανόντος μετὰ καλοῦ ὀνόματος ἐτῶν κβʹ ἔτους τμηʹ μηνὸς Πανέμου κδʹ ἡμέρᾳ Κυρίου βʹ ἐν χρόνοις ςʹ ἰνδικτιῶνος. Θάρσι οὐδὶς ἀθάνατος.

The inscription provides the date as the 2nd day of the Lord (Monday), the 24th of the month Panemos, in the year 348 according to the Era of the Province of Arabia, in the 6th indiction year, that is, July 13, 453 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. Below the inscription, a central kantharos, holding what seem to be grapevines, is flanked by two birds. Above the smoothed cavity to the right appears an outlined, incised cross with traces of another cross in the center. Another bird is centered below the smoothed cavity. All of these figures are drawn in red paint, which is now faded. A horizonal bar appears above the age and year numerals in line seven, both the month day numeral and abbreviation of Κυρίου in line eight, and the indiction number in line nine. A serpentine motif follows the weekday numeral in line eight. The text contains both spelling and grammatical errors. The editor notes that in line seven, the word ἔτους is a abbreviated by its inital epsilon, which itself resembles a sigma due to a missing middle bar. He also suggests that based on the shared patronymic, time of death, physical similarities of the tombstones, and the mention of the profession of διδάσκαλος, Ogezon was likely the brother of the Samirabbos referred to in Zoor0156.

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