The Murashû Aramaic Epigraphs: Palaeographic Notes

Archaeological and epigraphic records witness to the presence of Jewish communities in Mesopotamia, Syria and Palestine during the III century A.D. A link between the Syrian city of Palmyra and Beth She'arim (Israel) ma be established thanks to a group of funerary inscriptions in Greek, Hebrew, and Palmyrene Aramaic mentioning Palmyrene Jews buried there. Differently from other sites - for example Dura Europos - epigraphic records only may be gleaned from Palmyra, and specifically personal names gathered from all extant text-types. Genealogies containing Jewish personal names both from Palmyra and Beth She'arim are here re-evaluated, alongside the significance of peculiar texts, such as a "cession text" from Palmyra, where the sale transaction was conducted by members of a Jewish family.