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Graffito on Marble Pavement (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
Graffito on Marble Pavement (circle, divided into eight segments, one letter per segment; from Synagogue, Forecourt peristyle): Votive Graffito, by Lapas
- Date
- 4th–6th century AD (Ameling); cf. no. 486 on Synagogue dating., Roman
- Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
- IN62.294
- Material
- Marble, Stone
- Object Type
- Inscription, Graffito
- Inscription Type
- Religious Inscription
- Inscription language
- Greek
- Inscription Text
Εὐχὴ Λ̣α̣πᾶ̣.
- Inscription Translation
- “Vow of Lapas.”
- Inscription Comment
- Site
- Sardis
- Sector
- Syn
- Trench
- RT 62
- Locus
- Syn FC Pavement
- B-Grid Coordinates
- E108 / N9 *96.70
- Findspot
- Synagogue, Forecourt peristyle.
- Description
“Graffito on the marble pavement…a circle, divided into eight segments with a letter in each segment” (Kroll).
- Dimensions
- Circle: Diam. 0.46; H. of letters 0.03.
- Comments
Λ̣α̣πᾶ̣: my reading. Lapas is a name “d’après la racine λαπ-: qui lape comme un chien” (L. Robert, Noms indig., p. 298, on the name Λάπων). The Christian inscription from Aizanoi SEG 37, 1099b has Ἀναστασίου ΛΑΠΑ; P. Herrmann comments: “possibly Λαπᾶ, to be connected with Λάπων, Λάπος,” with reference to L. Robert. The related verb is λάπτω. - Μ̣Α̣ΠΑ̣, Kroll (SEG; Ameling). Ameling considers the letters as standing for an abbreviation of words or a name; he quotes but does not adopt (p. 297 n. 214) D. Noy’s proposal to understand M(arcus) A(urelius) Pa( ).
- See Also
- Bibliography
- Kroll, “Inscr. Synagogue,” p. 47, no. 78; and p. 127, fig. 80 (Ameling, Inscr. Jud. Or. II, pp. 296–97, no. 144; SEG 51, 1677); G. Petzl, “Epigraphische Kleinarbeit. Zu Inschriften der Synagoge von Sardeis” (in Vir doctus anatolicus. Studies in memory of Sencer Şahin, ed. Burak Takmer, Ebru N. Akdoğu Arca, and Nuray Gökalp Özdil [2016], pp. 708–13), pp. 712–13, no. 3.
- Author
- GP