| Artefact ID | 1288 |
| TM ID | TM 701031 |
| Findspot (DEChriM ID) | 68 (al-Filusiyya) | Class | Funerary element, Textual |
| Material | Stone |
| Writing medium | Inscription |
| Text content | Subliterary |
| Language | Greek |
| Description | SEG LIX 1879: Epitaph of Othesos. Dahari & Di Segni 2009, no. 7: Anthropomorphic stela of beach-rock of rectangular shape, with a tapering bottom, surmounted by a head. H. 79 cm; W. 37 cm; Th. 12 cm. In the head an incised line indicates the contour of a face, but within a badly eroded cross replaces the features. Traces of red paint are barely visible. The inscription is very irregular; some letters are hardly recognizable. A cross, not centred on the axis of the stele, breaks l. 1. The text ends with a monogrammatic cross [staurogram]. A horizontal line separates the script from the tapering end of the stone. 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. According to the ed., this epitaph is similar with SEG XXVIII 1461 even though the two steles are different in shape and size. |
| Selection criteria | Christian terms/formulas/concepts, 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 4479 b. Returned to Egypt in 1993 (present location unknown) |
ARTEFACT IDENTIFIERS
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