Ḥorvat Hanot - Church

Church/Monastery name: 
Ḥorvat Hanot - Church
Inscription number: 
1
Selected bibliography: 
273-276 (dr.) (ed. pr.)
561-562, no. 537 (Feissel)
96, no. 131
Abbreviation for Journals and Series
Epigraphical corpora: 

SEG 53 (2003): 1845

CIIP IV.1 (2018): 3216 (phs., dr.)

Inscription type: 
building
Location: 

In the mosaic pavement, at the eastern edge of the eastern carpet, in front of the bema (not excavated).

Physical description : 

Two-line mosaic inscription, opening with a cross, traced in black tesserae against a white background between the two rows of black tesserae (h. 36 cm) forming the carpet's border. The lines of text are very long (ca. 400 cm) and exceed the width of the carpet on the south. Letters (h. 6-7 cm) in round script. Stigmas, lifted and lowered, for abbreviation, horiztonal strokes above numerals, raised eta.The shapes of the letters fit a date in the late 6th or beginning of the 7th century.

Text: 

☩ Ἐπὶ τοῦ εὐλαβεστάτου καὶ θεοφιλ(εστάτου) Θεο[δ]ώρου πρεσβ(υτέρου) καὶ ἡγουμένου ἐγένετο τὸ πᾶν ἔργον τῆς προσθήκης

τῆς κόνχης καὶ ζωγραφίας καὶ πλακόσεως τοῦ πέρματος τοῦ ἱερατίου σὺν τοῦ διακον(ικοῦ) ἐκ θεμελίων, μη(νὶ) Ἀπριλ(ίῳ) ἰνδ(ικτιῶνος) ιβ´.

Translation: 

Under the most reverent and God-loving Theodore, priest and hegumen, was done all the work of the addition of the apse and of the painting and facing with marble of the end-wall of the presbytery (bema), together with the diakonikon, from the foundations, in the month of April of the 12th indiction.

Commentary: 

The meaning of προσθήκης τῆς κόνχης is uncertain.

Given date: 
month
indiction
Date: 
April 594 or 609?
Summary: 

Long two-line building inscription of Theodore, priest and hegumen, in the mosaic pavement in front of the bema.

Contents
Definitions of building/part of building: 
bema, hierateion (presbytery)
diakonikon
konkhê (apse)
perma / pelma (wall? / platform?)
plakosis (facing/paving)
prostheke (nave?)
zographia (painting)
Ecclesiastical titles: 
presbyter
Personal names: 
Theodorus
Epigraphical Abbreviations: 
lifted and lowered stigmas, horiztonal strokes for numerals, raised eta