Evidence ID
E01694Saint Name
George, martyr in Nicomedia or Diospolis, ob. c. 303 : S00259Saint Name in Source
ΓεώργιςImage Caption 1
From: IGLS 2, no. 276.Type of Evidence
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)
Archaeological and architectural - Extant reliquaries and related fixturesEvidence not before
553Evidence not after
554Activity not before
553Activity not after
554Place of Evidence - Region
Syria with Phoenicia
Syria with Phoenicia
Syria with PhoeniciaPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
Chalkis
Beroia
Mu'AllaḳPlace of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Chalkis
Thabbora
Thabbora
Beroia
Thabbora
Thabbora
Mu'Allaḳ
Thabbora
ThabboraCult activities - Places
Cult building - independent (church)Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
Prayer/supplication/invocationCult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Merchants and artisansSource
Fragment of a basalt lintel with a carving of a cross within a circle in the centre. There are the letters Α and Ω below the horizontal arms of the cross. Cut and lost at both ends. Preserved dimensions: H. 0.46 m; W. 0.97 m; letter height 0.11 m.
Brought from Mu'Allaḳ to Rasm al-Nafal, and reused there in the side-post of a door. Seen and copied by Léonce Brossé and René Mouterde, photographed by Sébastien Ronzevalle. First published in the second volume of Les inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie in 1939.Discussion
The inscription probably commemorates the construction of a sanctuary, possibly dedicated to George, in 553/554 (the year 865th of the Seleucid era).
At Mu'Allaḳ three churches and a reliquary were found. Two of the churches were roughly dated to the 5th/6th c. by Howard Butler. The third was apparently dedicated in AD 606/607 (see: E01787). Unfortunately, we cannot say, whether our inscription comes from one of these shrines, and whether relics of Geroge were venerated in the aforementioned reliquary (see: Comte 2012, 390).Bibliography
Edition:
Jalabert, L., Mouterde, R., Les inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie, vol. 2: Chalcidique et Antiochène (BAH 32, Paris: P. Geuthner, 1939), no. 276.
Further reading:
Comte, M.-Ch., Les reliquaires du Proche-Orient et de Chypre à la période protobyzantine, IVe-VIIIe siècles: formes, emplacements, fonctions et cultes (Bibliothèque de l'Antiquité tardive 20, Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2012), 390.
Reference works:
Bulletin épigraphique (1940), 172.
