Kalpana Kalpana (Editor)

Umm Leisun inscription

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Material
  
Limestone

Discovered
  
2002

Created
  
V-VI century

Writing
  
Georgian language inscription written in a Georgian script

Present location
  
Archaeological Garden of Knesset, Israel Antiquities Authority, Jerusalem

The Umm Leisun inscription (Georgian: უმმ ლეისუნის წარწერა) is the Georgian language limestone tombstone slab inscription written in the Georgian Asomtavruli script which was discovered in 2002, after the renewal of 1996 excavation, at a Georgian monastery of Byzantine period, in the neighborhood of Umm Leisun, 4.5 km southeast of the Old City of Jerusalem, found in a burial crypt under the polychrome mosaic floor.

In total about 24 interments were discovered in the crypt. Per gender identification for human skeletons, all of them were adult males, as would be expected in a monastery. The occupant of the most important tomb identified by a Georgian inscription was a "Georgian bishop Iohane" (John in Old Georgian), who was also the oldest and his age underlined his special status. He would have been aged 66 or 67 when he died from Osteoporosis. The inscription is the earliest known example for an ethnonym ႵႠႰႧႥႤႪႨ (kartveli i.e. Georgian) on any archaeological artifact, both in the Holy Land and in Georgia.

The inscription covers an area of 81 × 49 cm cut into the tombstone. It is dated to the end of the 5th or the first half of the 6th century AD. The inscription is kept at the Archaeological Garden of Knesset.

Inscription

  • Translation: "This is the grave of Iohane, Bishop of Purtavi, a Georgian."
  • References

    Umm Leisun inscription Wikipedia