Observations on Select Christian Inscriptions in the Syriac Script from Zayton

Abstract

There are currently nine inscribed stones in the Syriac script on display in Quanzhou: eight are in the Quanzhou Maritime Museum ('Quanzhou haijiaoshi bowuguan', lit. 'Quanzhou Museum of Overseas Maritime Communication'), and one in the Quanzhou Southern (Style) Historical Buildings Museum ('Quanzhou-nan jianzhu bowuguan'). Their display number together with those of the Australian research team's own Z (= Zayton) numbered catalogue are provided in the following discussion. The Australian team's own catalogue, which contains descriptions and preliminary notes on all known inscribed Manichaean and 'Nestorian' tomb-stones and sculptures and carved stone-blocks from Quanzhou, will be the subject of a later publication. The single piece in the Quanzhou Southern (Style) Historical Building Museum, according to the curator Mr Wang Jinliang (as verbally communicated to the team during April 2004) had still not been properly catalogues as the museum was about to move into new premises in the autumn where a new system of cataloguing would be introduced. This relatively recently discovered piece (2002) therefore carries the number Z47 allocated to it by the Australian team.