64 (in Hebrew) | |
229, no. 4 (ed. pr.) | |
50, no. 59 |
SEG 46 (1996): 2020.1
CIIP I.2 (2012): 856 (ph.)
Findspot: in the mosaic pavement of the chapel.
Pres. loc.: Rockefeller Museum, Jerusalem, IAA inv. no. 1947-5532. Autopsy: June 17, 2008 (Leah Di Segni); 3 October 2009 (Walter Ameling, Werner Eck).
Mosaic pavement with inscription consisting of three lines within a tabula ansata, traced in red tesserae. The lines are separated by rows of red tesserae. The text opens with a sprig. The letters are traced in black tesserae and belong to the round alphabet. Lunate sigma, w-shaped omega. Omicron and theta have a pointed top. Ligature of ΝΗ and ΗΜ in l.1, and of ΟΥ in ll.2-3. Stigma used thrice as abbreviation mark in l.3.
Meas.: h 45, w 338 cm; letters 11 cm.
(sprig) Ὑπὲρ σωτηρίας καὶ ἠρίνης διαμόνης καὶ ἀντιλήμ-
ψεως Βάσσου ἀρχιδιακόνου καὶ Πέτρου κόμιτος καὶ
Κυριακοῦ πρεσβυτ(έρου) καὶ Θεοδόρας κ(αὶ) Μαρίας τõν φιλοχρ(ίστων).
For the salvation and enduring peace and succor of Bassus archdeacon and of Count Petrus and of Cyriacus priest and of Christ-loving Theodora and Maria.
διαμονῆς SEG; ἀντιλήψεως Fischer et al., SEG; l.3 Θεοδώρας Fischer et al., SEG.
Dedicatory inscription of Bassus the archdeacon, Petrus the comes, Cyriacus the priest and Theodora and Maria within a tabula ansata, in the mosaic pavement of the chapel.
The date assigned to the church by the excavators was 5-6 c., but the use of a drop-shaped omicron and theta points to a date not earlier than 540 CE. SEG has διαμονῆς, noun, and Bagatti’s translation shows that he, too, took this for a noun; but Fischer et al. read διαμόνης, as an adjective. The order of the persons mentioned in the inscription is surprising: first an archdeacon, then a comes, then a priest. While the comes, if he was an important benefactor of the church, could well come first, normally an archdeacon should come after his senior in the ecclesiastical hierarchy, the priest. The inverted order raises the question whether the archdeacon might have been a representative of the archbishop of Jerusalem – a visitor (περιοδευτής) or a steward (οἰκονόμος) – who supervised the construction of the church of which Cyriacus the priest was in charge.