Evidence ID
E02193Saint Name
Elijah, Old Testament prophet : S00217Saint Name in Source
ἨλίαςType of Evidence
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)Evidence not before
450Evidence not after
800Activity not before
450Activity not after
800Place of Evidence - Region
Arabia
ArabiaPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
Bosra
Deir al-Jūwānī/Deir DāmīPlace of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Bosra
Sakkaia / Maximianopolis
Σακκαια
Sakkaia
Saccaea
Eaccaea
Maximianopolis
Shaqqa
Schaqqa
Shakka
Deir al-Jūwānī/Deir Dāmī
Sakkaia / Maximianopolis
Σακκαια
Sakkaia
Saccaea
Eaccaea
Maximianopolis
Shaqqa
Schaqqa
ShakkaCult activities - Places
Cult building - unspecifiedCult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
Prayer/supplication/invocationCult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Other lay individuals/ peopleSource
Stone lintel. Dimensions: H. 0.32 m; W. 1.23 m. Letter height 0.03-0.06 m. Decorated with a carving of a sunken circle in the upper left-hand quarter of the inscribed face. Poorly carved letters in highly irregular lines. For the layout of the text, see the enclosed photograph and drawings.
First copied by William Ewing (reportedly 'in a wall of a house') and published in 1895 by Wright and Souter as a drawing, with only a very fragmentary transcription. The village was revisited by the Princeton Archaeological Expedition to Syria and a new copy was taken by David Magie. When recorded by Magie, the stone was set above a doorway of a ruined house, in the south-east sector of the village. A new edition, based on Magie's copy, was published by Enno Littmann in 1921. The inscription was recently seen by Annie Sartre-Fauriat and Maurice Sartre, who made a photograph, and offered a new transcription in 2014.Discussion
Due to the poor carving and irregular placement of letters on the stone, the meaning of this inscription is not clear. We offer two transcriptions: that of Littmann and that of the Sartres who were sceptical about Littmann's readings. The Sartres, however, admit that their own transcription makes little sense and do not attempt to translate it.
The first editors, Wright and Souter, offered little but a drawing. They pointed out that the inscription might refer to an envoy or an intercessor (πρεσβευτής), a servant (δοῦλος), and a man named Μοαιμος. It was Littmann who suggested that lines 1-3 might contain an invocation of the blessing of the Prophet Elijah, addressed as an efficient intercessor, followed by the names of supplicants whom the Sartres thought to have been members of a clan or tribe deriving its name from a certain Malichathios or Malichathos ('the others of Malichathos'), and possibly the name of a donor or artisan (Thomas). The Sartres comment that the reading of the name of the Prophet Elijah (Greek: Ἠλίας) in line 1 is rather implausible.
The exact date of this inscription is unknown, but it is likely to come from the late antique period.Bibliography
Edition:
Sartre-Fauriat, A., Sartre, M., Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie, vol. 15/2: Le plateau du Trachôn et ses bordures (BAH 204, Beyrouth: Institut Français du Proche-Orient, 2014), no. 314.
Littmann, E., Magie, D., Stuart, D.R., (eds.), Publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expeditions to Syria in 1904-5 and 1909, Division III: Greek and Latin Inscriptions, Section A: Southern Syria (Leiden: Brill, 1921), 442, no. 801(5).
Wright, A.G., Souter, A. (from copies by W. Ewing), "Greek and other inscriptions collected in the Hauran", Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statement 27 (1895), 145, no. 79b.
Further reading:
Trombley, F.R., Hellenic Religion and Christianization c. 370-529, vol. 2, (Leiden - New York - Cologne: Brill, 1994), 372 (an English translation).
