Description of Monument

Piece from a moulded panel or sarcophagus front (0.81 × 0.59 × 0.14) with a right edge, but perhaps cut down.

Description of Text

Inscribed on the moulding.

Letters

Ave. 0.025; ligatures: ΝΗ, l.1, ΜΗ, l.2, ΝΗ (twice), ΗΝ, l.3; diaereses around ι in δια, l.1, Ιασων, l.5.

Date

First to second centuries A.D. (lettering)

Edition ρωνησ διὰ τοῦ χρεοφυλακίου Μηνοδότου τοῦ Νεικοτείμου Μηνοδότου Μελτίνη Ἀθηναγόρου ἡ γυνὴ αὐτοῦ ἕτερος δὲ οὐδεὶς εἰς δὲ τὰς εἰσώστας ἐνταφῆναι οὕς ἄν βουληθῆ ὁ υἱὸς αὐτοῦ Ἰάσων οὐδεὶς δὲ ἕξει ἐ ξουσίαν ἐνθάψαι ἕτερον ἐπεὶ ἀποτείσ ει ἀπετέθη ἀντίγραφον εἰς τὸ χρεοφυλάκιον ἐπὶ στεφανηφόρου Παπίου Κώου μηνὸς

Translation

[?... for the purpose of purchase] through the Property-archive, [name of owner, descendent of ?Menodotos] the son of Nikoteimos [? Menodotos and ..?..] Meltine his wife [?and Jason his son shall be buried here but] no-one [else] and in the subsidiary burial places [shall be buried those whom] Jason his [son] wishes. But no-one shall have [the right ..?.. to bury anyone else [here] since [if he does] he will pay to ..?.. the sum of ..?.. . A copy [of the inscription] was deposited in the Property Archive in the stephanephorate of Papias son of Koos in the month [?].

Commentary

l. 1, ὑπερ ὠνῆς, for the purpose of purchase; the reference to the Property Archive indicates a transaction that needed a public record.

l. 2, the name of the owner, clearly in the nominative case as is that of his wife in l. 3, will have appeared at the beginning of the line, with a genealogy of unknown length; Menodotos, although not quite certain, is likely to be the partly surviving name both here and in l. 3.

ll. 3-4, it is not clear whether Μηνο is a second name for Nicotemos or for the owner, so that its case must be left open.

l. 5, Jason is very likely to be the owner's son and had probably been named already in l. 3 or 4.

While some standard funerary formulae can be used to supplement the text, it certainly contained some unusual features, notably in l.1. It has not been possible so far to identify the family, although the surviving names are familiar enough in the city. The stephanephoros is otherwise unknown.

Locations

Walls, South (east part) excavation, mid area Unknown Museum (1977)

Text Constituted From

Transcription (Reynolds)

History of Recording

Excavated by the NYU expedition in 1976 (76.131)

Bibliography

Unpublished.

Photographs

Face (1977)