13.617. Votive offering to an unnamed God

Description:
White marble block, broken to right (W. 0.61 × H. 0.25 × D. 0.29).
Text:
Inscribed on the face.
Letters:
0.015-0.04; rough and poorly aligned
Date:
Possibly third century A.D. (lettering)
Findspot:
Necropolis, West: in a field 1 km west of the West gate.
Original Location:
Unknown
Last recorded location:
Findspot (1934)
History of discovery:
Recorded by the MAMA expedition; not reported subsequently.
Bibliography:
Published by Cormack from the MAMA records, MAMA 8, no. 457, whence McCabe PHI Aphrodisias 172.
Text constituted from:
Preliminary transcription (Reynolds); MAMA squeeze; publication. This edition Roueché and Bodard (2007).
1 Πολυχρόνιος ὁ τῆς [·· ? ··]
2ΕΙΕΡΙΑΣ γανβρὸς εὐ<ξ>ά̣[·· ? ··]
3 τῷ θεῷ εἰς τὸ ἁγίασμ[α ··· ?τοῦ]-
4 το Φλ(άουιος) Ἔρ(?ως) ἐποίηα vac. [·· ? ··]
1ΠΟΛΥΧΡΟΝΙΟΣΟΤΗΣ[ - - - ]
2ΕΙΕΡΙΑΣΓΑΝΒΡΟΣΕΥ·[ - - - ]
3ΤΩΘΕΩΕΙΣΤΟΑΓΙΑΣΜ[· ······]
4ΤΟΦΛ stop ΕΡ stop ΕΠΟΙΗΑ   [ - - - ]
<ab>
<lb n="1" />
Πολυχρόνιος
ὁ
τῆς
<gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character" dim="right" />
<lb n="2" />
<orig n="unresolved" >
ειεριασ
</orig>
γανβρὸς
εὐ
<supplied reason="omitted" >
ξ
</supplied>
<unclear reason="damage" >
ά
</unclear>
<gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character" dim="right" />
<lb n="3" />
τῷ
θεῷ
εἰς
τὸ
ἁγίασμ
<supplied reason="lost" >
α
</supplied>
<gap reason="lost" extent="3" unit="character" />
<supplied reason="lost" cert="low" >
τοῦ
</supplied>
<lb n="4" type="worddiv" />
το
<expan>
<abbr>
Φλ
<orig >
<g type="stop" />
</orig>
</abbr>
<supplied reason="abbreviation" >
άουιος
</supplied>
</expan>
<expan>
<abbr>
Ἔρ
<orig >
<g type="stop" />
</orig>
</abbr>
<supplied reason="abbreviation" cert="low" >
ως
</supplied>
</expan>
ἐποίηα
<space extent="3" unit="character" dim="horizontal" />
<gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character" dim="right" />
</ab>

Apparatus

l. 1, ὁ τῆς [ἀρχ]|ειερίας Cormack

l.2, the stone has ΕΥΣ; Cormack reported an upright after this, but A seems clear. Otherwise εὐσε̣[βως] would be an attractive restoration

l. 3, ἁγίασμ[α] Cormack, but there is room for 3-4 letters thereafter, and something more seems necessary to make sense of TO in l. 4

Translation:

Polychronios the brother-in-law of the [feminine·· ? ··] of the priestess, having made a vow [·· ? ··] to the god with a view to the ?sanctification of [·· ? ··] Flavius ?Er(os) I made this.

Commentary:

Polychronios is a name which appears in the Jewish inscription, but also in pagan and Christian contexts at Aphrodisias. The case for thinking the text may be Jewish rests on the word agiasma which is found in Christian and Jewish contects with the sense of holy place (church, synagogue, temple, shrine); but priestess would be odd in either (for its use in a Jewish context CIJ 1007, JIGRE p. 158).

Photographs:
none.

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