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E04183: Floor-mosaic reportedly mentioning a blessing by *Peter (presumably the Apostle, S00036). Found in a monastic chapel at Tel 'Ira in the Negev desert, to the east of Beersheva (Roman province of Palaestina III). Probably 6th c.

online resource

posted on 2017-10-19, 00:00 authored by pnowakowski

In 1995, Pau Figueras mentioned an unpublished floor-mosaic from a chapel at the monastery in Tel 'Ira. The inscription, he said, was 'irreparably damaged', but he offered an English translation of a copy he himself made, after the existence of the mosaic had been communicated to him by his student, Nimrod Negev. The translation reads:

'Our God has blessed us! Peter has blessed us! Our God!'

Text: Figueras 1995, 442.

History

Evidence ID

E04183

Saint Name

Peter the Apostle : S00036

Related Saint Records

https://oxford.figshare.com/articles/Peter_the_Apostle/13729195

Type of Evidence

Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)

Language

Greek

Evidence not before

500

Evidence not after

600

Activity not before

500

Activity not after

600

Place of Evidence - Region

Palestine with Sinai

Place of Evidence - City, village, etc

Tel 'Ira

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

Tel 'Ira Caesarea Maritima Καισάρεια Kaisareia Caesarea Kayseri Turris Stratonis

Cult activities - Places

Cult building - dependent (chapel, baptistery, etc.)

Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs

Prayer/supplication/invocation

Source

The monastery at Tel 'Ira was examined by D. Alon in 1979, and excavated by A. Birna and I. Beit-Areh in the early 1980s.

Discussion

Figueras identifies this Peter as the Apostle, which is indeed likely, and points out that this is one of very few epigraphic attestations of Peter in the entirety of Palestine.

Bibliography

Further reading: Figueras, P., "Monks and monasteries in the Negev desert", Liber Annuus 45 (1995), 442.