Inscriptions of Israel/Palestine Prinicipal Investigator Michael Satlow

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 zoor0203 Zoor 0203

Negev. Zoora. December 1, 455. Tombstone. Epitaph.

Reddish sandstone with purple spots

49 28 7.5

Cross-rho Above the inscription Circle Inscribed around cross Cross One on either side of cross-rho Chi Center of the crosses December 1, 455. 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

+ +Εἶς θεός. ΜνημιονΜνημεῖον Ἰωάννου, ἀποθανόντος μετὰ καλοῦ ὀνόματος καὶ καλῆς πίστεως ἐτῶν ἕτους τνʹ μηνὸς Ἀπελέου ιεʹ ἠμερᾳ Κυριόυ δʹ θάρσει, οὐδεις ἀθάνατος

One (is) the God. Monument of..., (son) of Ioannes, who died having a [good name and good faith] (at the age) of.. years, [in (the) year] 350 (?), on (the) 15th (day) of (the) month Apellaios, on (the) 4th day of (the) Lord (Wednesday). [Be of good cheer, no one (is)] immortal.

Εἶς θεός. Μνημιον Ἰωάννου, ἀποθανόντος μετὰ καλοῦ ὀνόματος καὶ καλῆς πίστεως ἐτῶν ἕτους τνʹ μηνὸς Ἀπελέου ιεʹ ἠμερᾳ Κυριόυ δʹ θάρσει, οὐδεις ἀθάνατος

The inscription provides the date as the 4th day of the Lord (Wednesday), the 15th day of the month Apellaios, in the year 350 according to the Era of the Province of Arabia, that is December 1, 455 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 tombstone is rectangular in shape, and chipped all around, with a badly weathered and worn surface. The formerly smoothed inscription area is largely flaked off, worn down, and covered in salt crystals and lichen, rending the restored text very uncertain. Above the inscription is a cross-rho mongram, inscribed within a cricle, and flanked by two crosses with chi-signs in the middle, the left of which is faded. All these symbols are drawn in red paint. The script is a mixture of square and round with small letters.

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