Fragmentary Greek inscription on a lintel with an invocation of *George (soldier and martyr, S00259), probably the building inscription for a sanctuary. Found at Mu'Allaḳ, near Beroia/Aleppo and Chalkis (north Syria). Dated 553/554.
Evidence ID
E01694
Type of Evidence
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)
Archaeological and architectural - Extant reliquaries and related fixtures
[ἔτου]ς εξω΄ Παλά[διος]
[ὁ ἁγιο]ς Γεώ- τηχ[νίτης]
ργις βωήθ[ι]
'[In the year] 865. [Saint] George, help! Paladios the artisan.'
Text: IGLS 2, no. 276.
Cult PlacesPrayer/supplication/invocation
Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Cult building - independent (church)
Non Liturgical ActivityPrayer/supplication/invocation
Construction of cult buildings
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesMerchants and artisans
Source
Fragment of a basalt lintel with a carving of a cross within a circle in the centre. There are the letters Α and Ω below the horizontal arms of the cross. Cut and lost at both ends. Preserved dimensions: H. 0.46 m; W. 0.97 m; letter height 0.11 m.Brought from Mu'Allaḳ to Rasm al-Nafal, and reused there in the side-post of a door. Seen and copied by Léonce Brossé and René Mouterde, photographed by Sébastien Ronzevalle. First published in the second volume of Les inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie in 1939.
Discussion
The inscription probably commemorates the construction of a sanctuary, possibly dedicated to George, in 553/554 (the year 865th of the Seleucid era).At Mu'Allaḳ three churches and a reliquary were found. Two of the churches were roughly dated to the 5th/6th c. by Howard Butler. The third was apparently dedicated in AD 606/607 (see: E01787). Unfortunately, we cannot say, whether our inscription comes from one of these shrines, and whether relics of Geroge were venerated in the aforementioned reliquary (see: Comte 2012, 390).
Bibliography
Edition:Jalabert, L., Mouterde, R., Les inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie, vol. 2: Chalcidique et Antiochène (BAH 32, Paris: P. Geuthner, 1939), no. 276.
Further reading:
Comte, M.-Ch., Les reliquaires du Proche-Orient et de Chypre à la période protobyzantine, IVe-VIIIe siècles: formes, emplacements, fonctions et cultes (Bibliothèque de l'Antiquité tardive 20, Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2012), 390.
Reference works:
Bulletin épigraphique (1940), 172.
Images
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From: IGLS 2, no. 276.
Record Created By
Paweł Nowakowski
Date of Entry
05/07/2016
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00259 | George, soldier and martyr, and Companions | Γεώργις | Certain |
|---|
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Paweł Nowakowski, Cult of Saints, E01694 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E01694