IRCyr   Inscriptions of Roman Cyrenaica

M.237. Christian building inscription

Description: Right side of a limestone door- or window-arch from a window or small door (w: 0.55 x h: 0.45 x d: 0.27), decorated with a central relief of a cross within a wreath, and a second relief cross to the right.
Text: Inscribed above the relief and around the cross on the right; the surface has been slightly damaged.
Letters: Average 0.03-c.0.035; lunate epsilon, sigma, omega.

Date: Sixth century CE

Findspot: Gebel Akhdar: East of Cyrene: Siret al Bab, c. 3km from Sidi Bu Breyek, in the ruins of a church; found in 1976.
Original location: Findspot.
Last recorded location: Cyrene Museum.

Interpretive

[--- ((crux))]-ϲ καὶ Θεοῦ ϲοφία
[--- ((crux))] τῶν πυ((crux))ηϲά-
( vac. 12)ν-
( vac. 3)((crux))τον

Diplomatic

[---.]ϹΚΑΙΘΕΟΥϹΟΦΙΑ
[---.]ΤΩΝΠΥ ΗϹΑ
                        Ν
       ΤΟΝ

Apparatus

3: This line first observed by Dobias-Lalou Dobias-Lalou, Bulletin Épigraphique

English translation

Translation source: Reynolds-Ward-Perkins-Goodchild, 2003

. . . ] and wisdom of God [ . . . ] of those who made [ . . .

Commentary

Apparently an invocation for the builders of the church

Bibliography: Mohamed-Reynolds, 2000, 3, whence SEG 50.1649; Reynolds-Ward-Perkins-Goodchild, 2003, 410, whence Dobias-Lalou, Bulletin Épigraphique, 2004.437.; for discussion see SEG 60.1843
Text constituted from: Transcription (Reynolds).

Images

None available (2020).