Aksumite eraFiaccadori 2007

Greek epitaph of Kyriakos

A Greek Christian epitaph records the burial of a child named Kyriakos and preserves his age as ten years plus a lost number of months.

Date: fifth or sixth century CE
Place: Gumalē, near Aksum, Ethiopia
Language: Ancient Greek
Script: Greek

01 · Original text

Ancient Greek

Greekcomplete surviving fragment, physical lines 1–6

✝ Ἐνθάδε κεῖτε Κυρι- ακὸς ζήσ- ας ἤτῃ ι μ- [ῆν(ας)] […]

Line breaks follow the edition; hyphens mark words continued on the next line. Square brackets mark supplied lost letters, parentheses the expansion of the abbreviated month-word, and […] the final three lost characters. The edition's ἤτῃ is retained without silent correction.

Scholarly transliteration

[cross] Enthade keite Kyri- akos zēs- as ētē 10 mē- [n(as)] […]

02 · Translation

English translation

Here lies Kyriakos, who lived ten years [and …] months […].

Habesha History translation of the Beta maṣāḥǝft transcription after Gianfranco Fiaccadori, ‘Nuova iscrizione greca da Aksum’ (2007), pp. 70–76.

Sources

Editions & references

Edition, catalogue, and image records used for this entry.

Fiaccadori 2007
Beta maṣāḥǝft inscription catalogue record.