Description: Wall of a rock-cut tomb chamber,
with M.273, M.274, GVCyr 38.
Text: Inscribed within a tabella ansata
(w:
0.50 x h:
0.30); there is a cross in the left-hand ansa.
Letters: Fifth-sixth century; deeply cut, 0.03-0.05, square sigma, cursive omega; omicron sometimes diamond shaped. There are no superscript
bars above abbreviated words.
Date: Fifth to sixth centuries CE
Findspot: Gebel Akhdar: East of Cyrene:
Bir Tarakanet; found in
1959, in a rock-cut chamber on the east side of the Wadi Tarakenet.
Original location: Findspot.
Last recorded location:
Findspot.
English translation
Translation source: Reynolds-Ward-Perkins-Goodchild, 2003
God, Christ, give life to Samphodion, the founder of this workshop. He made it as his own memorial.
Commentary
Line 1: For the formula see δὸς ζωήν in the church of the Apostles at Madeba, dated in 578-9 (available at PHI 246177), and the long discussion by M. Noth (1968) 133. Noth argues from the combination of Ζοή with ὑγιεία in a number of Syrian inscriptions that the prayer is essentially for earthly life, but more complex spiritual concept may also have been involved. See also the discussion of Ζωή and Ζάω in Kittel, Theologisches Wörterbuch zum Neuen Testament.
Line 4: An unusual word to describe a tomb, normally meaning a workshop ('atelier', Robert); the chamber contained an olive press which may perhaps be an original feature. See further on GVCyr 38.
Bibliography: Goodchild-Reynolds, 1962 no.3.1, pp. 41-46 and pl. XXIIIc, whence SEG 20.705, PHI 324470, Robert, Bulletin Épigraphique, 1964.586; Reynolds-Ward-Perkins-Goodchild, 2003, 416.1
Text constituted from: Transcription (Reynolds).
Images
None available (2020).