Church/Monastery name:
Jerusalem (Mount of Olives) - Cave of Gethsemane
Inscription number:
5
Selected bibliography:
45-46, no. 8, fig. 39.8 (ed. pr.) |
Epigraphical corpora:
CIIP I.2 (2012): 906 (ph.)
Inscription type:
epitaph
Location:
Findspot: Mount of Olives, Cave of Gethsemane.
Pres. loc.: SBF Museum, Jerusalem. Autopsy: 21 January 2008.
Physical description :
Remains of two lines of Greek script, engraved on a fragment of grey marble. Blank strip on the left side, indicating that the fragment comes from the left-hand edge of the slab. The upper side is chipped, but it seems to represent the upper edge of the slab. Traces of guidelines.
Meas.: h 10, w 9, d 3 cm; letters ca. 2 cm.
Text:
Ἐπε[δήμησε? - -
ΟΥΙ[ - -
Translation:
Departed … (?)
Summary:
Small fragment of grey marble with remains of inscription.
If this fragment is really the upper left corner of a slab, and thus the letters ΕΠΕ[--] represent the beginning of the inscription, it may belong to an epitaph opening with the formula Ἐπεδήμησε πρὸς Κύριον ὁ δεῖνα τοῦ δεῖνα …, “Departed to the Lord so-and-so, son of so-and-so …”. For this formula, cf. P.-M. Séjourné, RB 7, 1898, 126f., a Byzantine epitaph from Ein Fit, in northern Golan. However, it cannot be excluded that the fragment belonged to a dedicatory inscription beginning with the formula Ἐπὶ, “in the days of”, for in Byzantine inscriptions ἐπί is sometimes spelled ἐπεί.