A Georgian Monastery from the Byzantine Period at Khirbat Umm Leisun, Jerusalem

The article analyzes the chronology of the inscriptions discovered on the site of the excavations of St. Theodore Georgian monastery in Bi'r el-Qutt near Jerusalem. Three inscriptions in Georgian and one in foreign (Greek or Latin) language were dated to the V-VI centuries by different researchers. The reason for this dating was the fact of mention in the inscriptions the names of famous people, in particular the church figure Peter the Iberian (411-489), his grandfather Bakur (+416), the father Buzmir (+438) and Abba Anthony the companion of the Saint Simeon Stylites (VI century).Based on known historical data, the author has revised the chronology and proved that the inscriptions belong to different periods of the Byzantine period. Namely, inscriptions №1 and №4 refer to the first half of the VI century. The inscription №2, where the living king of Iberia Buzmir and his son Peter the Iberian is mentioned, was made in the late 30-ies of the V century. The inscription №3, where is mentioned alive and without any regalia the grandfather of Peter the Iberian, the famous Roman military dignitary and later the king of Iberia Bakur the Great can be attributed to 388-392 years, i.e. to time of the founding of the St. Theodore Monastery in Bi'r el-Qutt.In addition, the article focuses on the problem of clarifying the secular name of Peter the Iberian before monastic tonsure in various editions of the life encountered as Nabarnug and Murvanos. Thus, in the inscription №2 name Maruan is fixed which is probably the ancient Arabic equivalent of the Greek word "petros" (stone, rock), that can be explained by the influence of people speaking on the Syro-Arab koine.

The article analyzes the chronology of the inscriptions discovered on the site of the excavations of St. Theodore Georgian monastery in Bi'r el-Qutt near Jerusalem. Three inscriptions in Georgian and one in foreign (Greek or Latin) language were dated to the V-VI centuries by different researchers. The reason for this dating was the fact of mention in the inscriptions the names of famous people, in particular the church figure Peter the Iberian (411-489), his grandfather Bakur (+416), the father Buzmir (+438) and Abba Anthony the companion of the Saint Simeon Stylites (VI century).Based on known historical data, the author has revised the chronology and proved that the inscriptions belong to different periods of the Byzantine period. Namely, inscriptions №1 and №4 refer to the first half of the VI century. The inscription №2, where the living king of Iberia Buzmir and his son Peter the Iberian is mentioned, was made in the late 30-ies of the V century. The inscription №3, where is mentioned alive and without any regalia the grandfather of Peter the Iberian, the famous Roman military dignitary and later the king of Iberia Bakur the Great can be attributed to 388-392 years, i.e. to time of the founding of the St. Theodore Monastery in Bi'r el-Qutt.In addition, the article focuses on the problem of clarifying the secular name of Peter the Iberian before monastic tonsure in various editions of the life encountered as Nabarnug and Murvanos. Thus, in the inscription №2 name Maruan is fixed which is probably the ancient Arabic equivalent of the Greek word "petros" (stone, rock), that can be explained by the influence of people speaking on the Syro-Arab koine.

'Atiqot, 2002

2019

Atiqot 110, 2023

A salvage excavation on the southern part of Mount Zion uncovered building remains dating from the Byzantine period. A bilingual Greek-Georgian mosaic inscription was discovered in one of the rooms of the building complex. Based on this finding, and in light of the early written sources, the author proposes to identify the building with the Monastery of the Iberians.

Israel Exploration Journal, 2011

The remains of a large fifth–eighth-century CE monastery and pilgrim hostel, excavated on the eastern slope of Mt. Scopus, include agricultural facilities, stables, halls, a sophisticated water system, a large bathhouse and a church complex. The latter consists of church and a probable baptistery, both faced by an entry hall that covered an underground water cistern. Near the mouth of a cistern, an Armenian mosaic inscription was discovered. It is composed of the name Grigor (i.e., Gregory), two mostly destroyed letters, and what is apparently the nomen sacrum ‘Christ’. The cross at the beginning and the nomen sacrum at the end are in red; the other letters are black. On the basis of coins uncovered below the mosaic, we date the inscription to the sixth century. It constitutes a significant addition to the information about Armenian presence on the ridge of Mt. Scopus and the Mount of Olives and to the corpus of early Armenian mosaic inscriptions from Jerusalem.

2022