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Mosaic Inscription in Square Frame (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
Mosaic Inscription in square frame (from Synagogue, Main Hall, Bay 4): Votive (Building/renovation?) Inscription by Samoes, priest
- Date
- As this mosaic presumably replaced an earlier donor inscription it is to be dated after the middle of the fourth century; ca. 500 (M. H. Williams, The Jews among the Greeks and Romans [1998], p. 33, II, 2); cf. no. 486 on Synagogue dating., Roman
- Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
- IN66.003
- Material
- Mosaic
- Object Type
- Mosaic, Inscription
- Inscription Type
- Religious Inscription
- Inscription language
- Greek
- Inscription Text
Εὐχὴ [Σ]α̣μοῆ ἱε- [ρ]έω̣ς κὲ σο- 4 φοδιδασ- κάλου.
- Inscription Translation
- “Vow of Samoés, Priest and Teacher of wisdom” (Kroll, who has “of Samoé”).
- Inscription Comment
- Site
- Sardis
- Sector
- Syn
- Trench
- Syn W 66
- Locus
- Syn MH Pavement
- B-Grid Coordinates
- E65.31 / N9.77
- Findspot
- Synagogue, Main Hall, Bay 4, in the middle of the central mosaic panel.
- Description
Mosaic inscription in a square frame.
- Dimensions
- H. 0.90, W. 0.90, H. of letters 0.075–0.10.
- Comments
2 Σαμοῆ seems to be the genitive of Σαμο(υ)ῆς, a by-form of Σαμουῆλ (Ameling; see also Kroll’s commentary).
2–3 ἱε/[ρ]έω̣ς: my reading from the photograph; ἱε/ρέος, edd. The dedicant was “a descendant of the priesthood that anciently served in the Temple of Jerusalem”; they “were accorded the privileges of pronouncing certain benedictions during services and as preferred readers of the Torah” (Kroll; see Ameling, pp. 158–59).
3–5 σοφοδιδάσκαλος is a hapax legomenon: probably virtually identical with the known function of a νομοδιδάσκαλος (Ameling).
The mosaic bearing the inscription was a “late intrusion into the surrounding mosaic,” and it is generally assumed that the vow was “connected with the construction that was supported on the four stone bases that were set into the floor around the inscription” (Kroll). See Kroll’s and Ameling’s commentaries with further references.
- See Also
- Bibliography
- G. M. A. Hanfmann, BASOR 187 (1967), pp. 29, 38, 40, figs. 48, 53; Kroll, “Inscr. Synagogue,” pp. 17–18, no. 4, with further references; and p. 63, fig. 8 (Ameling, Inscr. Jud. Or. II, pp. 236–39, no. 63, with further references; SEG 51, 1629; Scheibelreiter, Stifterinschriften, pp. 48–49, no. 14, fig. 22).
- Author
- GP