Archaeologists found four Armenian inscriptions in Jerusalem’s Musrara neighborhood. These writings are from the sixth or seventh century.Oddly, the rest of the article refers to Professor Stone as "E. Stone," which makes me wonder if an AI was involved in its writing. Be that as it may, although unmentioned, it looks as though its basis is a technical article published in the current volume, 116 (2025), of the open-access peer-review journal ‘Atiqot. As usual, this volume has a lot of goodies in it. (See immediately previous post.)Experts say the discovery offers clues about early Christian life in the city. Scholar Michael E. Stone says the findings bring “completely new historical information concerning the Christian, and particularly Armenian, settlement in Jerusalem in the seventh century CE.”
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Sixth–Seventh-Century CE Armenian Inscriptions of a Monastic Community in JerusalemAlthough this article has just been published, according to a footnote, it was written in the early 1990s shortly after the discovery of the inscriptions. They have been published elsewhere in the meantime.Michael E. Stone, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem
Abstract
Excavations in the Musrara neighborhood of Jerusalem uncovered four Armenian inscriptions within a monastic complex founded in the fifth–sixth centuries CE. The inscriptions were found on a mosaic floor, on tombstones and on a large pottery bowl, and together with the Birds Mosaic, they probably formed part of one monastic complex, in which Armenians played a significant role. As there is no hint in the historical sources of the existence of this complex, the archaeological discovery contributes new historical information concerning the Christian, and particularly Armenian settlement in Jerusalem in the seventh century CE.
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