Complete
Linguistic features:
Writing from top to bottom; Writing on the door jamb
Formulae:
Name and function; ἔτους In the year; ἐπὶ ... διὰ Under ... through
Quotations from literary texts:
Dating:
AD 493
-
AD 493
Language:
Greek
Monumental:
Medium:
lintel
Visible:
Accessible:
Has figural depiction:
Has iconoclastic damage:
Activities commemorated:
Foundation of a building
Funds:
Price:
Placement:
door/window lintel
People mentioned:
Name:
Raboula
Patronym:
Status:
person of importance
Ethnic allegance:
unspecified
Tribal allegane:
none
Family status:
unspecified
Role:
Supervisor
Occupation:
official
Age:
Gender:
male
Religion:
Christianity
Religious denomination:
unspecified
Language:
Greek
Name:
Barapsabas
Patronym:
Status:
person of importance
Ethnic allegance:
unspecified
Tribal allegane:
none
Family status:
unspecified
Role:
Supervisor
Occupation:
official
Age:
Gender:
male
Religion:
Christianity
Religious denomination:
unspecified
Language:
Greek
Name:
Leonides
Patronym:
Status:
maker
Ethnic allegance:
unspecified
Tribal allegane:
none
Family status:
unspecified
Role:
maker
Occupation:
artisan
Age:
Gender:
male
Religion:
Christianity
Religious denomination:
unspecified
Language:
Greek
Description
date: 493 CE (= the year 541 of the Caesarian era of Antioch). description: On a displaced lintel (original location unknown), with mouldings. When recorded, broken into three conjoining fragments, measuring respectively 76, 56, and 76 cm (total length: 208 cm). Letter height 3,5–5 cm. Already during the first discovery, the right-hand part was slightly damaged and not fully legible. The text stretched over the right-hand jamb of the lintel, where the direction of the script changed to vertical, from top to bottom. Carved images: of an eagle facing right, beneath an arch and flanked by two columns of convolute shape, and of a staurogram within a circle with suspended letters Α and Ω, in the centre, below the inscription. Found by Butler’s Princeton Archaeological Expedition to Syria and first published by William Prentice. When recovered by Tchalenko’s mission the inscription was almost illegible (Jarry 1970, comments on p. 190). ed. PAES III B6 1190; IGLS II 374. Cf. Jarry 1970, comments on p. 190; TIB 15, p. 1031. (staurogram) ἔτους αμφ´, μη(νὸς) Ἀρτιμισίου ι´, έπὶ Ῥα[β]ουλα, Βαραψαβα δρα, Κοσμᾶ, ωνίδου Ἀρτ[ε]μισίου Prentice || δρα = διά Mouterde || perhaps Κοσμᾶ [ἐπιμελητῶν], Λεωνίδου ο[ἰκοδόμου] Prentice "(staurogram) In the year 541, month Artemisios 10th, under Raboulas, Barapsabas, through Kosmas, Leonides (?)." (tr. Prentice, modified according to the text in IGLS) Commentary: Prentice saw the individuals mentioned in the inscription as "a board of officials, or a commission of some sort". He even wondered if one should reconstruct a relevant term at the end of the inscription, such as ἐπιμελητῶν, and ο[ἰκοδόμου]. Mouterde in IGLS has a different view, assuming that this Kosmas was an architect (technites), and that his activity was attested in nearby villages by two more inscriptions (IGLS II 372, 435).
Author:
Paweł Nowakowski
Added by:
Martyna
Created:
2022-07-28 13:22:10
Last update:
2023-11-13 17:49:17
Dimensions: surface: cm
Condition: On a displaced lintel (original location unknown), with mouldings. When recorded, broken into three conjoining fragments, measuring respectively 76, 56, and 76 cm (total length: 208 cm). Already during the first discovery, the right-hand part was slightly damaged and not fully legible. The text stretched over the right-hand jamb of the lintel, where the direction of the script changed to vertical, from top to bottom. Carved images: of an eagle facing right, beneath an arch and flanked by two columns of convolute shape, and of a staurogram within a circle with suspended letters Α and Ω, in the centre, below the inscription.
Text: Letter height 3,5–5 cm.
Date: 493 CE
493 CE (= the year 541 of the Caesarian era of Antioch).
Findspot: Unknown
Original location: Syria Burǧ al-Qās (Burdj il-Ḳās; Borg el-Qas; Borġ el-Qâs; Borj el-Kas) 36.367137, 36.940174 unknown door/window lintel
Current repository: Unknown
Text type: Christian inscription
Summary:
Greek inscription from Burǧ al-Qās (Burdj il-Ḳās; Borg el-Qas; Borġ el-Qâs; Borj el-Kas). 493 CE
Changes history: 2022-07-28 Pawel Nowakowski Creation; 2023-08-24 Pawel Nowakowski Last modification; 2023-10-24 Martyna Swierk Preparation of EpiDoc file
Publication details: University of Warsaw; Warsaw;
Available under licence CC-BY 4.0
; @2021apparatus
1: Ἀρτ[ε]μισίου Prentice
δρα = διά Mouterde
perhaps Κοσμᾶ [ἐπιμελητῶν], Λεωνίδου ο[ἰκοδόμου] Prentice
Translation
'(staurogram) In the year 541, month Artemisios 10th, under Raboulas, Barapsabas, through Kosmas, Leonides (?).'
(tr. Prentice, modified according to the text in IGLS)
Commentary
Prentice saw the individuals mentioned in the inscription as "a board of officials, or a commission of some sort". He even wondered if one should reconstruct a relevant term at the end of the inscription, such as ἐπιμελητῶν, and ο[ἰκοδόμου].
Mouterde in IGLS has a different view, assuming that this Kosmas was an architect (technites), and that his activity was attested in nearby villages by two more inscriptions (IGLS II 372, 435).
Bibliography (edition)
- PAES III W. K., Prentice, 1922, Publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expeditions to Syria in 1905–5 and 1909. Division III: Greek and Latin Inscriptions. Section B: Northern Syria, Leiden, 1190. IGLS II L., Jalabert, R., Mouterde, 1939, Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie, 2, Chalcidique et Antiochène, Paris, 374.
Bibliography
- J., Jarry, 1967, Inscriptions arabes, syriaques et grecques du massif du Bélus en Syrie du nord (suite) [avec 9 planches], Annales Islamologiques 9, 1970. TIB 15 K.-P., Todt, B. A., Vest, 2014, Tabula Imperii Byzantini, Vienna, 1031.