E01694.jpg (80.81 kB)

E01694: Fragmentary Greek inscription on a lintel with an invocation of *George (soldier and martyr, S00259), probably the building inscription for a sanctuary. Found at Mu'Allaḳ, near Beroia/Aleppo and Chalkis (north Syria). Dated 553/554.

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posted on 2016-07-05, 00:00 authored by pnowakowski

[ἔτου]ς εξω΄ Παλά[διος]
[ὁ ἁγιο]ς Γεώ- τηχ[νίτης]
ργις βωήθ[ι]

'[In the year] 865. [Saint] George, help! Paladios the artisan.'

Text: IGLS 2, no. 276.

History

Evidence ID

E01694

Saint Name

George, martyr in Nicomedia or Diospolis, ob. c. 303 : S00259

Saint Name in Source

Γεώργις

Related Saint Records

https://oxford.figshare.com/articles/George_soldier_and_martyr_and_Companions/13729822

Image Caption 1

From: IGLS 2, no. 276.

Type of Evidence

Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.) Archaeological and architectural - Extant reliquaries and related fixtures

Language

Greek

Evidence not before

553

Evidence not after

554

Activity not before

553

Activity not after

554

Place of Evidence - Region

Syria with Phoenicia Syria with Phoenicia Syria with Phoenicia

Place of Evidence - City, village, etc

Chalkis Beroia Mu'Allaḳ

Place of evidence - City name in other Language(s)

Chalkis Thabbora Thabbora Beroia Thabbora Thabbora Mu'Allaḳ Thabbora Thabbora

Cult activities - Places

Cult building - independent (church)

Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs

Prayer/supplication/invocation

Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Merchants and artisans

Source

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.