Jerusalem (Old city) - Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Anastasis)

Church/Monastery name: 
Jerusalem (Old city) - Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Anastasis)
Inscription number: 
5
Selected bibliography: 
I, 323, 343-344
141-142, nos. 256-258
I, 140, pl. 37, 119, fig. 32, 29-30
Abbreviation for Journals and Series
Epigraphical corpora: 

SEG 8 (1937): 223; 56 (2006): 1898

CIIP I.2 (2012): App. 52*

Inscription type: 
signature of worker
Physical description : 

The petrographic analysis shows that they were made of red clay quarried from the Moza formation, mixed with dolomite particles from the Aminadav formation (Cohen-Weinberger). They were therefore manufactured in or near Jerusalem, probably by different workshops whose owners marked their name on some of their production. The impressions are rectangular and usually the name is set on two lines. The sigma is always lunate and the omega w-shaped.

Meas.: h 4-5, w 6.3-9.5 cm; letters 1.5-1.8 cm. Type (d) is smaller: h 2.2, w 3.2 cm.

Text: 

(a)  Εἰρη|ίων

(b)  Εὐσε|βίου

(c)  Ἡρακ|λ⟨ίο⟩
υ

(d)  Κλ(αυδίου?)

(e)  Κό|κ⟨ο⟩υ?

(f)   Λαξά|ρου

(g)  Πουπ|λίου

(h)  Σιλα|νοῦ

Translation: 

(a) Irenion; (b) (Workshop) of Eusebius; (c) (Workshop) of Heraclius; (d) Cl(audius?); (e) (Workshop) of Kokos (?); (f) (Workshop) of Lazarus; (g) (Workshop) of Publius; (h) (Workshop) of Silanus.

Apparatus: 

Thomsen I no. 258, misread, belongs to this type.

Commentary: 

Bricks and tiles stamped with Greek names or letters are found in almost every excavated site in Jerusalem where a Byzantine context is detected: in the fillings adjoining Constantinian walls at the Holy Sepulchre, south and southwest of the Temple Mount enclosure, on the Mount of Olives, in the Kidron Valley, City of David, Tyropoeon, on Mount Zion, in the Mamilla neighbourhood. Seemingly these stamped tiles began to appear in the 4 c. but are found also in later assemblages, sometimes reused. To this day, this type of stamps has been reported only in Jerusalem.

Summary: 

Greek stamps on bricks and tiles.

Contents
Personal names: 
Claudius, Eusebius, Heraclius, Irenion, Kokos, Lazarus, Publius, Silanus