Found as an example in the RDA cataloging book I'm currently reading for work

[arethinn]

24500Gold lamella with a Greek inscription, between 1st and 3rd centuries A.D.
[...]
500 Lamellae, small pieces of metal on which an inscription appears, range in date from the second century BC through the Roman Period and are found in tombs from Palestine. They were buried with the deceased, placed on the forehead.
500 The inscription is on one side of the lamella only.
500 Text of inscription: θάρσει, Ἡρακλιανέ, οὐδὶς ἀθάνατος.
500 Text of inscription: tharsei, Hērakliane, oudis athanatos.
500 Translation of inscription: Cheer up, Heraklianus, nobody's immortal.

LOL.

Comments

[premchaia_pre4]

What are the numbers prefixing the lines? OvO

[arethinn]

MARC format bibliographic record field tags. 245 is the title; the following two zeroes are called "indicators" and can be set to various values that have meaning about what the system should do with the data. 500 is a general note. (This is a rather abridged record; I only pasted in the funny stuff and the context.)

[caraven]

Dammit, we need a complete descriptive bibliography!

(No, no we don't.)

[arethinn]

I could have pasted the whole thing but a lot of it is not very interesting, or indeed very intelligible unless you know what you are looking at. I mean,

561 Acquired as a donation from David H. Swingler of Oxnard, California. Purchased by Swingler between 1983 and 1985 from Royal Athena Gallery in New York. Provenance unknown.

is like, Wow, yay, whoopee? (for the general audience, anyway) and something like

040 UBY$beng$erda$eappm$cUBY$dUBY$dOCLCQ

may as well be Greek for most people.

[andros_b]

LOL.