Complete
Linguistic features:
Formulae:
Quotations from literary texts:
ܒܫܢܬ or in the year
Dating:
AD 551
-
AD 552
Language:
Syriac
Monumental:
Medium:
stone
Visible:
Accessible:
Has figural depiction:
Has iconoclastic damage:
Activities commemorated:
Funds:
Price:
Placement:
door jamb
People mentioned:
Description
description: On a polished basalt slab. Littmann's description suggests that the stone was reused as a door-jamb in a building raised in the Middle Ages. Dimensions: H. 1.42 m; W. 0.43 m. Letter height: 3.25-5.5 cm. Decorated with a cross: 15 cm high. First published in 1934 by Enno Littman (with a drawing). ed. PAES IVB 2. + ܒܫܢܬ ܬܪ 2. ܪ has a ‘strange form’ ‘+ In the year six hundred.’ (tr. E. Littmann) commentary: This is most probably a building inscription for an ordinary house whose owner did not want or could not afford an elaborate commemorative text. Accordingly, Littmann assumed that the owner was poor since he ordered to inscribe the door jambs rather than the lintel. This reasoning can be, however, wrong since writing on lintels is a particular feature of Syriac epigraphy which need not go hand-in-hand with the level of wealth of the owner but is rather a cultural trait. Not to say that we do not have the original lintel which accompanied this door jamb and we do not know its contents. date: 600 of the era of Antioch = 551/552 CE (if correctly read).
Author:
Paweł Nowakowski
Added by:
Martyna
Created:
2022-05-23 23:24:42
Last update:
2023-11-13 14:16:37
Building:
house
Dimensions: surface: w 0.43 x h 1.42 meter
Condition: On a polished basalt slab. Littmann's description suggests that the stone was reused as a door-jamb in a building raised in the Middle Ages.
Text: Letter height 3.25-5.5 Decorated with a cross: 15 cm high.
Date: 551 CE - 552 CE
600 of the era of Antioch = 551/552 CE (if correctly read).
Findspot: Unknown
Original location: Syria Abū l-Qudūr (Abū il-Ḳudūr; Abū al-Qudūr) 16.979647, 43.279291 house door jamb
Current repository: Unknown
Text type: building inscription
Summary:
Building inscription for an ordinary house from Abū l-Qudūr (Abū il-Ḳudūr; Abū al-Qudūr). AD 551 - AD 552
Changes history: 2022-05-23 Pawel Nowakowski Creation; 2023-08-16 Pawel Nowakowski Last modification; 2023-10-20 Martyna Swierk Preparation of EpiDoc file
Publication details: University of Warsaw; Warsaw;
Available under licence CC-BY 4.0
; @2021apparatus
2: ܪ has a ‘strange form’.
Translation
‘+ In the year six hundred.’ (tr. E. Littmann)
Commentary
This is most probably a building inscription for an ordinary house whose owner did not want or could not afford an elaborate commemorative text. Accordingly, Littmann assumed that the owner was poor since he ordered to inscribe the door jambs rather than the lintel. This reasoning can be, however, wrong since writing on lintels is a particular feature of Syriac epigraphy which need not go hand-in-hand with the level of wealth of the owner but is rather a cultural trait. Not to say that we do not have the original lintel which accompanied this door jamb and we do not know its contents.
Bibliography (edition)
- PAES IVB E., Littmann,1934, Publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expeditions to Syria in 1905–5 and 1909. Division IV: Semitic Inscriptions. Section B: Syriac Inscriptions, Leiden, 2.