Inscriptions of Israel/Palestine Prinicipal Investigator Michael Satlow

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 zoor0197 Zoor 0197

Negev. Zoora. January 25, 454 CE. Tombstone. Epitaph.

White sandstone

41.5 26 11

Frame Surrounding the text Guide-lines Set within the text January 25, 454 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. Edited metadata and corrected encoding

Εἷς Θεὸς ὁ βοηθῶν. ΜνημῖονΜνημεῖον Δουσαρίου λιβλαρίου, ἀποθανόντος ἐτῶν νςʹ μετὰ καλοῦ ὀνόματος ἐν ἔτιἔτει τμηʹ, ἐν μηνὶ Περιτίου ιʹ, ἡμέρᾳ Κυρίου ζʹ. ΘάρσιΘάρσει, οὐδὶςοὐδεὶς ἀθάνατος.

One (is) the God who helps. Monument of Dousarios, the libellarius (?), who died (at the age) of 56 years, having a good name in the year 348, on (the) 10th (day) of (the) month Peritios, on (the) 7th day of (the) Lord (Saturday). Be of good cheer, no one (is) immortal.

Εἷς Θεὸς ὁ βοηθῶν. Μνημῖον Δουσαρίου λιβλαρίου, ἀποθανόντος ἐτῶν νςʹ μετὰ καλοῦ ὀνόματος ἐν ἔτι τμηʹ ἐν μηνὶ Περιτίου ιʹ ἡμέρᾳ Κυρίου ζʹ Θάρσι οὐδὶς ἀθάνατος.

The inscription provides the date as the 7th day of the Lord (Saturday), the 10th of the month Peritios, in the year 348 according to the Era of the Province of Arabia, that is, January 25, 454 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 rectangular stone is curved at the top. Written predominantly in round script with a few square exceptions, the text is engraved upon a smoothed surface, which is flaked off on the left and right sides, causing the loss of a few letters. The surface is also chiselled in a few places, especially the lower left section. Lines one, four, seven, and ten are painted over in red. The text is surrounded by an incised, rectangular, red-painted frame and set within incised guide-lines, most of which are painted red. A horizontal bar appears above the abbreviation of Θεὸς in line one, the age numeral in line five, the last two figures of the year numeral in line seven, the month day numeral in line nine, and the abbreviation of Κυρίου in line nine. The text contains both spelling and grammatical errors. The editor notes that it there is debate as to whether λιβλάριος is a translation of the Latin libellarius or librarius.

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