Khirbet Banaya (Hazor Ashdod) - Church

Mosaic inscription framed by a garland of black and orange tesserae held by two birds and forming a round medallion, 104 cm in diameter. The text is set in nine lines of different length, adapted to the curving frame. The characters are traced in black tesserae and belong to the square alphabet. They vary in height even in the same line, but in general are taller (up to 7.5 cm) in the upper and central part of the medallion, smaller (down to 5.5 cm) at the bottom. Horizontal lines mark the numerals and the nomina sacra. However, in the figure of the year, in l. 4, the line only surmounts the last two digits, i.e., the tens and the hundreds, and in the abbreviation ΧΥ in l. 1 and ΚΣ in l. 5 only the second letter is completely covered by the horizontal line, perhaps a mark of carelessness on the part of the mosaic layer. An abbreviation is marked with a small diagonal stroke across the kappa in l. 5. The inscription is surmounted by a Greek cross with crossbars at the end of its four arms (cross potent); a similar, slightly smaller cross marks the beginning of the text and two smaller ones (in orange tesserae) flank the last line. A vertical break cuts across the medallion, erasing some letters in ll. 2–9.