259 | |
47 | |
213-216, no. 36* | |
186, no. 272 |
SEG 64 (2014): 1645
In the mosaic pavement of a monastic complex, Room 2 (Dauphin 1977, p. 257, fig. 1).
The inscription is at yet unpublished: only its translation and a scanty description were included in the preliminary reports of the excavation. The script is traced in grey tesserae and begins with a cross. It is enclosed in a medallion in the centre of a white mosaic pavement dotted with pink and grey leaves. The bedding of this pavement lies on an earlier plaster floor, also dating from the Byzantine period. In the bedding of the mosaic, above the plaster floor, a coin of Anastasius (491-518) was discovered. The room adjoins a large countryard paved in mosaic and containing a cistern.
(Greek text as yet unpublished)
(cross) This work was done at the time of Father Thomas the abbot, in the year 736.
Dated building inscription within a medallion set in the mosaic floor of a monastic farm (?), 610/11.
The date is calculated according to the Tyrian era of 126 BC. The New Year of the Tyrian era fell on 19 October or on 18 Novermber; hence the inscription was dictated between 19 Oct./18 Nov. 610 and 18 Oct./17 Nov. 611.
The mention of an abbot indicates that the complex belonged to a monastery, but, since no church or chapel were discovered, and, on the other hand, several agricultural tools were found, the excavator rejected the interpretation of the building as a coenobium, and suggested that it was an ecclesiastical estate, i.e., a farm worked by tenants who paid dues to a monastery constitued as their landlord. However, it is more likely that the complex was indeed a monastery: see Di Segni for a full discussion.