Artefact ID | 1283 |
TM ID | TM 701026 |
Findspot (DEChriM ID) | 68 (al-Filusiyya) | Class | Funerary element, Textual |
Material | Stone |
Writing medium | Inscription |
Text content | Subliterary |
Language | Greek |
Description | SEG LIX 1874: Epitaph of Mouses. Dahari & Di Segni 2009, no. 2· Anthropomorphic stela of beach-rock of tapering rectangular shape, surmounted by a head; the bottom part is missing. Preserved H. 74 cm; W 47 cm at the top, 41 at the broken end; Th. 12 cm. The face and the red paint are well preserved. The epitaph begins with a small Maltese cross and ends with another, large Maltese cross. The letters are round; hypsilon and alpha are cursive. Same consolatory formula as in the other steles sharing the same provenance – a combination restricted to the northern coast of Sinai (el-Huweinat and el-‘Arish) according to ed.pr.: εὐμοίρει, εὐψύχει, οὐδεὶς ἀθάνατος, “fare thee well, be of good courage, nobody is immortal”, accompanied by the name of the deceased in vocative. |
Selection criteria | Christian terms/formulas/concepts, Christian onomastics, Christian symbols/gestures/isopsephy |
Date from | 350 |
Date to | 499 |
Dating criteria | Phrasing and palaeography point to 4th-5th c. according to ed. pr. |
Absolute/relative date | Relative date |
Archaeological context | SEG LIX-1873-1882: One of the ten anthropomorphic stelai acquired in the antiquities market in the 1970s by the Israel Museum in Jerusalem and the Israel Antiquities Authority; returned to Egypt in 1993; all stelai come from the Byzantine nekropolis at el-Huweinat 2 km south of Ostrakine (east of Lake Sirbonitis = Sbakhat el-Bardawil; northern Sinai). |
Accession number | Formerly: Jerusalem, Israel Antiquity Authority 4448. Returned to Egypt in 1993 (present location unknown). |