Description: Plastered walls:
a. on the East face of the East wall of the North West room (Room C);
b. on the West wall of the same room, the south springing of the arch, facing a.;
c. on the inner face of the east wall of Room D;
d. On the north face of the south wall of the north aisle.
Text: Incised on the plaster in different hands.
d is within panels defined by scored lines.
Letters: 0.01-0.025; lunate sigma
Date: Sixth century CE
Findspot:
Gebel Akhdar: East of Cyrene:
Ras al-Hilal, Church, on the plaster walls of side rooms; found
between 1961 and 1963
Original location: Findspot
Last recorded location:
Findspot.
Apparatus
a.i: ΒΟΗΕΙ.ΙΝ Reynolds-Ward-Perkins-Goodchild, 2003a.ii: ΜΙΝϹΟΝ ΒΟΑΒΒΑϹ ΒΑΟ Reynolds-Ward-Perkins-Goodchild, 2003
a.iii: ΔΡΕΑΝΔΟϹΑΒΡΕ Reynolds-Ward-Perkins-Goodchild, 2003
a.iv: ΑΝΔΡΕΑ[ . . . Reynolds-Ward-Perkins-Goodchild, 2003
a.v: . . . ]Χ[ . . . Reynolds-Ward-Perkins-Goodchild, 2003 ; . . . ]ΔΟΕ[ . . . Reynolds-Ward-Perkins-Goodchild, 2003
b.ii: perhaps ΑΝ̣Α̣Ι̣Ϲ̣
English translation
Translation source: Reynolds-Ward-Perkins-Goodchild, 2003
? a.i, Lord help Neios? - a.4 and 5, perhaps references to Andreas (a saint or a suppliant); b.i: Petros; c.iii: Christ.
Commentary
For the building, probably of the sixth century, see Ward-Perkins, op. cit, 326-341
a.i: Perhaps βο(ηθει) Νειου cross Ἠλιου
a.ii: For ΤΕΝΟΝΙΔΕΚΑΥΤΙΟϹ I have no proposal; ΜΙΝΙϹΟΝ is perhaps for ΜΝΗϹΟΝ; the subsequent J I cannot explain, but the name Ἀβρα(αμ) is clear, followed by S which might be a mark of abbreviation or a stop; the final letters ΒΑΟ are again obscure - but may perhaps be the name of a suppliant whom Abraham is asked to remember. For Abraham cf. M.243 and discussion there.
a.iii-vi: Perhaps names of suppliants; for Νειος, cf. a.i.
b. Perhaps the name of suppliants.
b. ii the reading is uncertain.
c. unexplained, perhaps part of a name.
Only c.iii seems susceptible of interpretation as Χ(ριστ)ε.
Bibliography: Reynolds, 1964, C; Reynolds-Ward-Perkins-Goodchild, 2003, 338.3, whence Dobias-Lalou, Bulletin Épigraphique, 2004.437.
Text constituted from: Transcription (Reynolds).
Images
Fig. 1. a, all (E.Alföldi-Rosenbaum: Reynolds IX.55)
Fig. 2. a, left end (E.Alföldi-Rosenbaum: Reynolds IX.54)
Fig. 3. a, right end (E.Alföldi-Rosenbaum: Reynolds IX.53)
Fig. 4. a.vi (E.Alföldi-Rosenbaum: Reynolds IX.52)