E07929: Latin inscription in mosaic, marking a burial near the body of *Salsa (virgin and martyr of Tipasa, S02130), in her church in Tipasa (Mauretania Caesariensis, North Africa), 450/600.
online resource
posted on 2020-06-27, 00:00authored bysadamiak
VI............... SA.............. e[t nob]ile co[r] pus sanc[te] martyris [Sa] lse CLIM .... adiunc[tus or adiuncta] est sep[ultus or sepulta] .....................
'Clim[....] is joined and buried near the noble body of the holy martyr Salsa'.
Text: Y. Duval 1982, no. 172, after H.I. Marrou. Translation: Stanisław Adamiak.
Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
Burial ad sanctos
Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Women
Source
The inscription is a mosaic, covering a tomb in the pavement of the basilica of Salsa in Tipasa, in the part constructed in the second half of the 5th or in the 6th century. The dimensions of the inscription are 135 cm x 78 cm. The letters are between 12 and 16 cm high, alternately in red and blue on a white background.
Discussion
No sense can be made of the first two lines, nor can the name (and even gender) of the buried person be reconstructed. However, enough survives to make it certain that this is an inscription recording a burial 'ad sanctos', deliberately close to the body of Salsa.
Bibliography
Edition:
Duval, Y., Loca sanctorum Africae: Le culte des martyrs en Afrique du IVe au VIIe siècle (Rome: École Française de Rome, 1982), vol. 1, 362-365, no. 172.
Marrou, H.I., "Une inscription martyrologique de Tipasa," Bulletin archéologique du Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques 1971 (1973), 219-223.