Monday, December 15, 2014

Ancient Jewish epitaph in Greek

INSCRIPTION: Ancient Jewish tombstone found repurposed in 19th century Muslim mausoleum. Samuel and his family rediscovered 1,800 years later in the cemetery of the former Jewish capital in Galilee (Ran Shapira, Haaretz).
A roughly 1,800-year old stone inscription from a Jewish tomb has been found in the wall of a 19th-century Muslim mausoleum in the Upper Galilee, where it was repurposed from being part of a door lintel to part of a wall.

The partially broken stone is written in Greek, not Hebrew or Aramaic, which is the usual language on ancient Jewish tombs. But it lists the members of a clearly Jewish family that lived in Zippori, then called Sepphoris, between the 2nd and 5th centuries CE.

According to the inscription, "Samuel son of… and his wife… and his entire family" were buried at the site.

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Past posts on Zippori/Tzippori/Sepphoris are here and here and links.