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Inscribed Plaque (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
Inscribed Plaque (from Synagogue, East Road portico): Inscription associated with Torah Shrine
- Date
- 4th–6th century AD., Roman
- Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
- IN63.077
- Material
- Marble, Stone
- Object Type
- Inscription
- Inscription Type
- Religious Inscription
- Inscription language
- Greek
- Inscription Text
Εὑρὼν κλά- σας ἀνά- γνωθι, 4 φύλαξον.
- Inscription Translation
- “Having found, having broken open, read, observe” (Kroll).
- Inscription Comment
- Site
- Sardis
- Sector
- E Road
- Trench
- Syn 63
- B-Grid Coordinates
- E118 - E120 / N2.6 *97.5
- Findspot
- Synagogue, East Road portico.
- Description
Plaque of white marble. There is a slot in the middle of the underside to receive a tenon. The text is enclosed in an incised tabula ansata frame.
- Dimensions
- H. 0.21, W. 0.37, Th. 0.04, H. of letters 0.04.
- Comments
“Since the concluding imperatives surely relate to the reading and observation of the Law, the inscription was almost certainly displayed in connection with the Torah shrine” (Kroll). See Ameling’s (1993) detailed commentary.
Date: see Ameling, Inscr. Jud. Or.); cf. no. 486 on Synagogue dating.
- See Also
- Bibliography
- G. M. A. Hanfmann, BASOR 187 (1967), p. 29 n. 26; SPRT, p. 120, fig. 87 (W. Ameling, “Eine liturgische Inschrift aus der Synagoge von Sardes,” in Klassisches Altertum, Spätantike und frühes Christentum, Adolf Lippold zum 65. Geburtstag gewidmet, ed. K. Dietz, D. Hennig, and H. Kaletsch [1993], pp. 495–508; SEG 43, 868); Kroll, “Inscr. Synagogue,” pp. 41–42, no. 65; and p. 114, fig. 67 (Ameling, Inscr. Jud. Or. II, pp. 286–87, no. 131). Kroll and Ameling give further bibliographical references.
- Author
- GP