Tel Ashdod - Monastery

Church/Monastery name: 
Tel Ashdod - Monastery
Inscription number: 
1
Selected bibliography: 
3*-5*, fig. 1 (ph.) (in Hebrew) (ed. pr.)
31*-36*, fig. 1 (ph.)
130, no. 189
Abbreviation for Journals and Series
Epigraphical corpora: 

SEG 56 (2006): 1890

CIIP III (2014): 2297 (ph.)

Inscription type: 
building
Location: 

Findspot: Possibly at the entrance to the monastery's winepress.

Pres. loc.: Rockefeller Museum, Jerusalem, IAA inv. no. 1995-132.

Physical description : 

Seven-line mosaic inscription set in a medallion traced in black tesserae (external diam. 1.15 m), placed in turn in a square frame of pink tesserae (1.24 x 1.29 m). Lines separated by rows of pink tesserae. Begins with two haederae and two crosses flanking a cryptogram. Horned cross flanked by two more haederae fill an eighth line at bottom. Letters (in black, 6-9 cm high) are square, except for the almond-shaped omicron and theta. Abbreviations include an isopsephon (cryptogram), uplifted epsilon, stigmas, inverted S-signs, and a horizontal line.

Text: 

        ☙  ☩ χμγ ☩ ❧

        Ἐπι τοῦ Θεοφιλ(εστάτου) ἀβ-

        βᾶ [? Γερ]μαν(οῦ) πρεσβ(υτέρου) κ(αὶ)

4      ἡγο[υμ(ένου)] ἐγένετο ἐκ θεμε(λίων)

        ἡ ληνὸς σὺν τῷ μοναστ(ηρίῳ).

        Ἐγράφη μνηὶ Δεσίῳ

        κ´ ἰνδ(ικτιῶνος) ζ´ ἔτους λτ´.

       ☙ ☩ ❧

Translation: 

643 ( = cryptogram of "God helps" or a similar formula). Under the most God-loving Abba [? Ger]manus, priest and abbot, the winepress was built from the foundations, together with the monastery. It was written on the 20th of the month Daisios of the 7th indiction, in the year 330. 

Apparatus: 

L.1. Χ(ριστὸς) Μ(αρίας) γ(έννα) ed.pr,  Χ(ριστὸν) Μ(αρία) γ(εννᾶ) Chaniotis (SEG);  l.3. [᾿Ιω]άννου, ed.pr.;  l.7. γ΄, ἰνδ(ικτιῶνος) ι΄, ed.pr.

Given date: 
year
month
day of the month
indiction
Date: 
9 June or 14 July 529
Summary: 

Building inscription commemorating the construction of a winepress and monastery, 9 June or 14 July 529.

Contents
Actions: 
the work was done
was written
Definitions of building/part of building: 
lenós (winepress)
moné/monasterion
Ecclesiastical titles: 
presbyter
Monastical titles: 
abbot/hegumen
Epithets of clergy/monks: 
abba
God-loving (theophiles)
Personal names: 
Germanus?
Epigraphical formulae: 
from the foundations
Epigraphical Abbreviations: 
isopsephon, uplifted epsilon, stigmas, inverted S-signs, horizontal line