The blessed Martha

Fortunately, the tombstone preserves the principal element in any epitaph, which is the name of the deceased. This epitaph belonged to a woman called Martha.

Presumably, Martha lived around or in Qasr Ibrim (north of Abu Simbel), but we have no further information about the story of her life, apart from this tombstone that informs us of her death. Moreover, her name is written after the most common title for the deceased in Christian epitaphs, Ⲙⲁⲕⲁⲣⲓⲁ, “the blessed”. Every Christian once hopes to be a blessed dead, living near God.