Description: A re-used sandstone building block.
Text: Graffiti on one face, probably cut when the block was part of a different wall,
in at least five hands; the surface is badly damaged.
Letters: i: 0.075, lunate sigma; ii: 0.09; iii: 0.08-0.09; iv: 0.08-0.14, lunate sigma, omega; L for ἔτους, square digamma; v: 0.02-0.05,
lunate sigma, epsilon
Date: 65-66 CE
Findspot: South of Berenike:
Corniclanum/Ajdabia: found re-used in a wall.
Original location: Perhaps from a fort.
Last recorded location:
Findspot: lying loose.
English translation
Translation by: Charlotte Roueché
(i): . . .-]ppos; (ii): . . . -]tios; (iii): (Not usefully translatable); (iv): Year 96, Kallimachos [(scil. son) of Aia]lan; (v): (Not usefully translatable)
Commentary
Apparently a series of names. None of these texts contain references to soldiers, so that the provisional attribution of the blocks to the fort walls must be treated with reserve; if correct, it would imply the dismantling of a military building before the construction of the newly excavated building (?late second to early third century CE) and might suggest the removal of the garrison by that time.
In iv, the man is likely to be local, given the Doric form of his patronymic; but the restoration is very uncertain.
Bibliography:
Text constituted from: Transcription (Reynolds).
Images
None available (2020).