Complete
Linguistic features:
Formulae:
Quotations from literary texts:
Dating:
AD 400
-
AD 600
Language:
Greek; Hebrew
Monumental:
Medium:
stone
Visible:
Accessible:
Has figural depiction:
Has iconoclastic damage:
Activities commemorated:
tomb
Funds:
Price:
Placement:
tomb
People mentioned:
Name:
Abram
Patronym:
Robel
Status:
religious_authority
Ethnic allegance:
Semitic
Tribal allegane:
of Pharbaithos (Egypt)
Family status:
unspecified
Role:
Benefactor
Occupation:
unspecified
Age:
Gender:
male
Religion:
Judaism
Religious denomination:
unspecified
Language:
Greek
Description
date: 5-6 c. CE description: Semi-circular smoothed marble plaque with four-line inscription. First line in Hebrew letters and the next three in Greek. The bottom edge is broken but all margins of inscription are preserved. Text is decorated with bird figures (doves?) facing inward in the right and left bottom corners. Letters are stylized, some with serifs, of uniform size and in straight layout. Greek alpha with broken cross-bar and hyper-extended right leg. Epsilon is square, sigma is lunate round, omega is w-shaped, and upsilon is written with a stem. Dimensions: 16 cm high, 40 cm wide and 2.8 cm thick. Letters height: Hebrew 2 cm, Greek 2.5 cm. ed. CIIP III 2290 שלום על ישרון ל… Αβραμ υἱοῦ τοῦ μακαρίου Ῥωβ -ήλ Φαρβεθίτις 'Peace on Yeshurun ... (Tomb) of Abram son of the blessed Robel, of Pharbaithos.' commentary: The Hebrew text (šlwm ʿl yšrwn l…) in the top line is only partly legible, the reading of the last few letters is especially unclear; the editio princeps rendered it as lʿwlm (Hebr. “eternally”) but this is not certain. The greeting seems to be a variant of the common formula “Peace on Israel”. Robel is probably identical with the biblical Reuven, Josephus renders the name as Ῥουβῆλος. His epithet “blessed” indicates that he is also deceased. The same term is used in CIIP III 2291, probably it was characteristic for the epigraphy of this area. Pharbaithos was a nome-capital in Egypt. The date of the inscription is difficult to establish. The palaeography of Greek letters seem late, and the epithet μακάριος indicates it as well. SEG VIII 145 placed the inscription as early as in the 1 c. CE. More likely it should be dated to late antique period. CIIP III 2290 dated it to 5-6 c. CE. SEG VIII 145 Fischer, Taxel, Amit, BASOR 350, 2008: 19. CIIP III 2290 https://library.brown.edu/iip/viewinscr/habr0001/
Author:
Tomasz Barański
Added by:
Martyna
Created:
2022-12-29 16:40:54
Last update:
2024-01-15 18:36:41
Building:
Cementary
Dimensions: surface: w 40 x h 16 x d 2.8 cm
Condition: Semi-circular smoothed marble plaque with four-line inscription. First line in Hebrew letters and the next three in Greek. The bottom edge is broken but all margins of inscription are preserved. Text is decorated with bird figures (doves?) facing inward in the right and left bottom corners.
Text: Letter height: Hebrew 2, Greek 2.5 Letters are stylized, some with serifs, of uniform size and in straight layout. Greek alpha with broken cross-bar and hyper-extended right leg. Epsilon is square, sigma is lunate round, omega is w-shaped, and upsilon is written with a stem.
Date: 400 CE - 600 CE
5-6 c. CE
Findspot: Unknown
Original location: Palestina Horvat Habra (Khirbet Habra; el-Mughar) 31.883333, 34.733333 Cementary tomb
Current repository: Unknown
Text type: funerary inscription
Summary:
Tomb of Abram with Hebrew and Greek inscriptions from Horvat Habra (Khirbet Habra; el-Mughar). 400 CE - 600 CE.
Changes history: 2022-12-29 Tomasz Barański Creation; 2024-01-15 Martyna Swierk Last modification; 2024-01-15 Martyna Swierk Preparation of EpiDoc file
Publication details: University of Warsaw; Warsaw;
Available under licence CC-BY 4.0
; @2021Translation
'Peace on Yeshurun ... (Tomb) of Abram son of the blessed Robel, of Pharbaithos.'
Commentary
The Hebrew text (šlwm ʿl yšrwn l…) in the top line is only partly legible, the reading of the last few letters is especially unclear; the editio princeps rendered it as lʿwlm (Hebr. “eternally”) but this is not certain. The greeting seems to be a variant of the common formula “Peace on Israel”. Robel is probably identical with the biblical Reuven, Josephus renders the name as Ῥουβῆλος. His epithet “blessed” indicates that he is also deceased. The same term is used in CIIP III 2291, probably it was characteristic for the epigraphy of this area. Pharbaithos was a nome-capital in Egypt. The date of the inscription is difficult to establish. The palaeography of Greek letters seem late, and the epithet μακάριος indicates it as well. SEG VIII 145 placed the inscription as early as in the 1 c. CE. More likely it should be dated to late antique period. CIIP III 2290 dated it to 5-6 c. CE.
Bibliography (edition)
- CIIP III W., Ameling, H., Cotton, W., Eck, A., Ecker, B., Isaac, A., Kushnir-Stein, H., Misgav, J., Price, P., Weiß, A., Yardeni, 2023, Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae. Volume III: South Coast: 2161-2648. a, Berlin, Boston, 2290.
Bibliography
- SEG Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 8, 145. M., Fisher, I., Taxel, D., Amit, 2008, Rural Settlement in the Vicinity of Yavneh in the Byzantine Period: A Religio-Archaeological Perspective, BASOR 350, 19.