Evidence ID
E03170Saint Name
Theodore Tiro, martyr of Amaseia (Helenopontus, north-eastern Asia Minor), ob. 306 : S00480Saint Name in Source
ΘεώδροςType of Evidence
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)
Archaeological and architectural - Cult buildings (churches, mausolea)Evidence not before
606Evidence not after
606Activity not before
606Activity not after
606Place of Evidence - Region
Palestine with Sinai
Palestine with Sinai
Palestine with SinaiPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
Gaza
Rafah
Abasan el-KabirPlace of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Gaza
Caesarea Maritima
Καισάρεια
Kaisareia
Caesarea
Kayseri
Turris Stratonis
Rafah
Caesarea Maritima
Καισάρεια
Kaisareia
Caesarea
Kayseri
Turris Stratonis
Abasan el-Kabir
Caesarea Maritima
Καισάρεια
Kaisareia
Caesarea
Kayseri
Turris StratonisCult activities - Places
Cult building - unspecifiedCult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
Renovation and embellishment of cult buildingsSource
The inscription is set in the middle of a floor-mosaic unearthed on the main street of Abasan el-Kabir, a village sited midway between Gaza and Rafah.
It was first mentioned by Pau Figueras in 1997, who heard about the find from David Gatenyo of Beersheva in the late 1980s. Figueras writes that a fragment was uncovered and photographed, and offers a drawing of two incomplete lines, but, as of 2014, Walter Ameling was unable to find any published photograph of the mosaic. Figueras connected the find with reports of floor-mosaics uncovered in the area in the 1920s by the British authorities and mentioned in the Geograph 55 (1920), 465-467.
Further details about the mosaic were given by Mohammad Moain Sadeq in 1999, after the site had been excavated by the Gaza Department of Antiquities in 1995. The size of the mosaic is reported as 9 m x 4 m. It is made of coloured tesserae of stone and glass, including rare green pieces. The scenes depict birds, fruits, vessels, and floral motifs.Discussion
The first editor, Pau Figueras, considered the appearance of the name Theodoros uncertain, but eventually opted for a tentative restoration of the epithet 'saint'/ἅγιος in the lost fragment of line 1. Ameling is sceptical about this interpretation. If the name Theodoros is correctly read, and he was the saint to whom the church was dedicated, he is likely to have been Theodore the soldier and martyr of Amaseia and Euchaita in northern Asia Minor, whose cult was widely spread through the late-antique Near East.
Dating: according to Sadeq's communication, the dating formula mentions the 666th year of the era of Gaza, which, given the occurrence of the month of Daisios, corresponds to 26 May - 25 June AD 606.Bibliography
Edition:
Ameling, W., Ecker, A., Hoyland, R. (eds.), Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae, vol. 3: South Coast, 2161-2648: A Multi-Lingual Corpus of the Inscriptions from Alexander to Muhammad (Berlin - Boston, Massachusetts: De Gruyter, 2014), no. 2561.
Figueras, P., "New Greek Inscriptions from the Negev", Liber Annuus 46 (1996), 277-278, no. 10.
Further reading:
Piccirillo, M., "", in: M.-A. Haldimann (ed.), Gaza: à la croisée des civilisations: contexte archéologique et historique (Geneva: Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, 2007), 178.
Sadeq, M., "", in: M. Piccirillo, E. Alliata, (eds.), The Madaba Mosaic Map Centenary 1897-1997. Travelling through the Byzantine Umayyad Period, Amman, 7-9 April 1997 (Jerusalem: Studium Biblicum Franciscanum, 1999), 215.
Reference works:
L'Année épigraphique (1996), 1570.
Chroniques d'épigraphie byzantine, 798.
Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 46, 2030.
