DASI: Digital Archive for the Study of pre-islamic arabian Inscriptions: Epigraph details

Mounir Arbach and Jérémies Schiettecatte, 2015
Arbach and Schiettecatte 2015 a: 373, fig. 2

INSCRIPTION INFORMATION

Language

Ancient South Arabian » Sabaic » Central Middle Sabaic

Alphabet

Ancient South Arabian

Script typology

Monumental writing

Writing technique

Incision

Measure of letters

Chronology

Period

Textual typology

Dedicatory text

GENERAL NOTES

On paleographic evidences, on the name of the quoted places, and on the mention of the lords of the family Btʿ, the inscription is dated by the editors between the 223-300 AD.

TEXT

Apparatus

5	The restoration of the line is given on the basis of the inscriptions MAFY-Khaywān 2/1 and Ja 562/1-2.
6	Name of the palace of the lords of Bataʿ in the city of Ḥāz.
8-9	Restoration based on the inscription Ir 27/2.

TRANSLATIONS

CSAI

English

      [... ...]
   1  they dedicated to their Patron [Tʾlb Rymm],
   2  Lord of Trʿt [... ...]
   3  may He grant them the goodwill and [the satisfaction of their lords]
   4  Yrm Yhrḥb and his sons (or, his brothers)
   5  ʾ ws¹lt and Brg, of the family [Btʿ, lords]
   6  of the house Wklm [... ...]
   7  their Patron Tʾlb [... ...]
   8  prosperous possessions and [good harvestes]
   9  in their terraced fiels and their [... ...]
  10  plantations and Ḥy[...],
  11  mqtwy of Yrm, ʾws¹lt and Brg praised the authority
  12  and the power of Tʾlb Rymm because He brought back him
  13  from the land of the North when their lords
  14  sent him (on mission) and he reached the land of ʾs¹dn, the land of
  15  Nzrm, the land of Tnḫ, the land of Lḥyn,
  16  the land of Tdmrm, the land of Nbṭm, the
  17  land of the Romans, the land of Lḫmm, the land of
  18  Ġs¹n, the land of Mʿdm, the land of Ṭym and the land of
  19  Ḫṣṣtn. And they committed (the dedication). By Tʾlb Rym

10	According to the editors the word ʾʿrs²m could be an error of the engraver and it should be emended in ʾʿrs³m, because the meaning of this latter fits better with the context (M. Arbach and J. Schiettecatte 2015 a: 376).

Arbach and Schiettecatte 2015 a: 374-375	Arbach, Mounir and Schiettecatte, Jérémies 2015. De la diplomatie et de l'aristocratie tribale du Royaume de Sabaʾ d'après une inscription du IIIe siècle de l'ère chrétienne. Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres: 371-397.

OBJECT INFORMATION

Support type	Artefact » Base » Of statue with dedicatory inscription
Material	Stone
Measures	h. 89, w. 33
Link to object record

ORIGIN AND PROVENANCE

Origin and provenance

Modern site	Jabal Riyām
Ancient site	Trʿt
Geographical area	Arḥab
Country	Yemen
Archaeological context	Religious context: Temple of Tʾlb Rymm bʿl Trʿt
Notes	This inscription, together with a group of other 25 inscriptions, comes from an illegal excavation in the temple of Tʾlb.
Link to site record

CULTURAL NOTES

Society

Following the editors this inscription proves a little attested practice: a diplomatic mission abroad. One of the author of the inscription thanks the god because He brought him back safely from a journey in faraway lands: in the territory of the tribe of the western Arabia (Asd, Nizār, Ghassān, Khaṣāṣat), of the central Arabia (Maʿadd), of the norther Arabia (Liḥyān, Nabaṭ, Ṭayyiʾ), of the Euphrates valley (Tanūkh) and of the Near-East (Lakhm, Tadmur/Palmira, Roman provinces of Arabia, Palestine, and/or Syria-Phoenicia).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Arbach and Schiettecatte 2015 a: 371-379	Arbach, Mounir and Schiettecatte, Jérémies 2015. De la diplomatie et de l'aristocratie tribale du Royaume de Sabaʾ d'après une inscription du IIIe siècle de l'ère chrétienne. Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres: 371-397.