Image Details

Courtesy Konstantinos Politis

A Christian tombstone inscribed in Greek and boldly highlighted with red ochre paint commemorates the 10-year-old Shoshana daughter of Obedas who died in 360/361 A.D. The inscription doesn’t tell us anything of the sad circumstances surrounding young Shoshana’s death, but her father’s clearly Nabatean name (Obedas) and the faintly inscribed cross at the top of the stone indicate that Zoar’s Arab populations retained something of their Nabatean identity, even after many had converted to Christianity.