The so-called Syrian clay mortars with stamp inscriptions: general classification and first edition or re-edition of some exemplars

The article is a research paper concerning stamp inscriptions on the so-called Syrian mortars, a type of pottery spread in the Late Roman period throughout the Ancient Near East and further West (Europe and North Africa), with probable provenance from the north-west region of the ancient Syria. In the first part, an attempt is made to produce a classification and categorization of those inscriptions on the basis of a list of published exemplars compiled by others (J.W. Hayes), restricting the choice to those found mostly in “Biblical Lands”. As a result, a list of types and variants of those inscriptions is produced. The second and main part of the article contains a critical edition of mostly unpublished fragments of such mortars kept now in Studium Biblicum Franciscanum Archaeological Collections, since 2015 part of Terra Sancta Museum but previously known as Studium Biblicum Franciscanum Museum or Flagellation Museum. Some of them were formerly kept in small collections (G. Kloetzly, T. Vuk). At first each exemplar is presented under its archaeological aspects, including photos and drawings by the author, and then a critical edition of its inscription is added. All the exemplars published until now received their new register number CTS-SB-#####, in addition to the notification of their old museum number FS####, if they had one, and excavation number, if they have been excavated by the SBF members (Bethany, Nazareth, Capernaum, Machaerus). This is a useful concordance for their identification and study, especially with regards to older bibliography.