Evidence ID
E04098Saint Name
Unnamed martyrs (or name lost) : S00060Image Caption 1
From: Lifschitz 1970, Tafel V.Type of Evidence
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)
Archaeological and architectural - Cult buildings (churches, mausolea)Evidence not before
500Evidence not after
550Activity not before
500Activity not after
550Place of Evidence - Region
Syria with Phoenicia
Syria with Phoenicia
Syria with PhoeniciaPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
El Bassah
Tyre
Hanotha/Khirbet HanutaPlace of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
El Bassah
Thabbora
Thabbora
Tyre
Thabbora
Thabbora
Hanotha/Khirbet Hanuta
Thabbora
ThabboraCult activities - Places
Cult building - independent (church)Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
Bequests, donations, gifts and offeringsCult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Ecclesiastics - lesser clergy
PeasantsSource
The text comes from a floor-mosaic excavated at Hanotha/Hanita/Khirbet Hanuta. The floor-mosaics found there suggest the presence of a basilica (c. 17 x c. 14 m), with a distinguishable nave and a narthex. In the narthex two inscriptions were reportedly found, close to images of a boar with two trees, and a hare eating grapes. Ruth and Asher Ovadiah say that 'each [of the inscriptions] is set in a tabula ansata. One records the completion of the building and of the mosaic (the date is destroyed) during the term of office of the members of the clergy whose names appear in the inscription. The second is an inscription of dedication and blessing (also partly destroyed).' The text which we present is certainly from the latter panel.
The mosaics were unearthed in 1940, and cleared by Michael Avi-Yonah in 1949. In 1954 Moshe Prausnitz excavated the site. As far as we know, reports of the excavations have not been published, although several short accounts are accessible (see Madden 2014, 181, no. 263 and the Ovadiahs 1987, no. 89). The text of the second inscription was first published by Baruch Lifschitz in 1970, with a photograph. The depictions of animals were described, commented on, and published with photographs by Moshe Barasch in 1974.Discussion
Whether the inscription really refers to a martyr or a martyr shrine is rather unclear. Line 1 apparently contains an abbreviation which can plausibly be expanded as the term μάρτυς/'martyr' or μαρτύριον/'martyr shrine'.
Dating: The floor-mosaics were laid probably in the first half of the 6th c., as suggested by their style and by pottery finds.Bibliography
Edition:
Lifschitz, B., "Notes d'épigraphie grecque", Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 6 (1970), 63-64, no. 5.
Further reading:
Avi-Yonah, M., "", ʿAlon maḥleḳet ha-ʿatiḳot shel medinat Yiśraʼel 3 (1951), 11 [in Hebrew].
Barasch, M., "Animal imaginery in the Hanita Mosaics", Israel Exploration Journal 24 (1974), 222-226 (with further bibliography).
Di Segni, L., Tsafrir, Y., Green, J., Tabula Imperii Romani. Iudaea-Palaestina: Eretz Israel in the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Periods: Maps and Gazetteer (Jerusalem: Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1994), 139.
Madden A.M., Corpus of Byzantine Church Mosaic Pavements in Israel and the Palestinian Territories (Leuven - Walpole, MA: Peeters, 2014), 181, no. 263 (with further bibliography).
Meimaris, Y., Sacred names, saints, martyrs and church officials in the Greek inscriptions and papyri pertaining to the Christian Church of Palestine (Athens: National Hellenic Research Foundation, Center for Greek and Roman Antiquity, 1986), 114, no. 621.
New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land, 310.
"Other discoveries", Quarterly of the Department of Antiquities in Palestine 10 (1944), 203.
Ovadiah, R. & A., Hellenistic, Roman and Early Byzantine Mosaic Pavements in Israel (Rome: "L'Erma" di Bretschneider, 1987), no. 89, and Pl. LXIX-LXX.
Prausnitz, M., "" in: Western Galilee-Qishon Project: General Description (Tel Aviv: Tahal, 1956), 68-68 (with photographs).
Schick, R., The Christian Communities of Palestine from Byzantine to Islamic Rule: A Historical and Archaeological Study (Studies in late antiquity and early Islam 2, Princeton, N.J: Darwin Press, 1995), 302.
Reference works:
Bulletin épigraphique (1971), 690.
Chronique archéologique, in: La Revue biblique 63 (1956), 98-99.
