Ṣanʿāʾ 2004-1
By kind permission of A.V. Sedov
The bronze plaque was photographed in November 2004 by A.V. Sedov, director of the Russian Multidisciplinary Mission in Yemen, during a visit to an antique shop in the old city of Ṣanʿāʾ.
The bronze plaque was photographed in November 2004 by A.V. Sedov, director of the Russian Multidisciplinary Mission in Yemen, during a visit to an antique shop in the old city of Ṣanʿāʾ.
INSCRIPTION INFORMATION
| Language | Ancient South Arabian » Sabaic » Northern Middle Sabaic | ||
| Alphabet | Ancient South Arabian | ||
| Script typology | Monumental writing | ||
| Writing technique | Cast | ||
| Chronology |
| ||
| Textual typology | Dedicatory text |
GENERAL NOTES
| "Palaeographic comparison would place this plaque at the very beginning of the period in question, i.e. the second century BC" (Prioletta 2012 b: 309). |
TEXT
1 S¹lmm bn ʾws¹ʿ tnḫy
2 w-tnḏrn l-mrʾt-hw ʿṯ—
3 rm Ḥgr b-hn s²ʾm [.]s¹m-
4 h f-ms¹ww w-n(g)[s¹..]w ḏ-
5 hs²ʾmw w-S¹lmm f-hḍr(ʿ) |
6 w-ʿnw w-yḥlʾn [w-ʿṯr]—
7 m f-l tṯwbn-hw (nʿmt)<m>
| 3 | "The first letter of the word that follows the verb S²ʾΜ is not legible. Possible restorations could be ts¹m or ms¹m, considering these nouns, unattested so far, to be direct complements of the verb. An alternative reading can be b-s¹m-h ‘in Her name’, although it is rare to encounter s¹m apart from the monotheistic invocations in LSAB inscriptions" (Prioletta 2012 b: 311). |
| 4 | "An alternative interpretation could be to emend ms¹ww as ms¹w-<h>w and assume an engraver’s mistake [...] Because of the damage to the tablet at this point, only the first two radicals of the second verb remain [...] The verb can be reconstructed based on the root NGS¹ ‘to defile’; this root is attested to in Haram 13 [...]" (Prioletta 2012 b: 311). |
| 7 | "The emendation of nʿmtm seems reasonable since the term is regularly mimated in such formulas; here the engraver was obviously forced to omit the final -m due to the lack of space on the tablet" (Prioletta 2012 b: 312). |
TRANSLATIONS
| English | |
1 S¹lmm son of ʾws¹ʿ confessed 2 and did penance to his Lady 3 ʿṯrm Ḥgr, because he bought Her [the ex-voto (?)]; 4 but (the people who sold it) touched and so defiled what 5 they had sold; and S¹lmm showed submission 6 and distress and he will pay a fine; and may ʿṯrm 7 reward him favourably. |
| 3 | "The verb s²ʾm, the subject of which is the dedicant, has no negative connotation. The reprehensible action, therefore, must not have been committed by the dedicant, even though the burden of expiation fell upon him personally" (Prioletta 2012 b: 311). |
| 4 | "It can be assumed that the first verb ms¹ww is linked to the form mх occurring in Haram 40 [...] The verb is listed in SD under the root MS¹S¹, whereas this new occurrence would point to the root MS¹W" (Prioletta 2012 b: 311; see further comments on the root there). |
| Prioletta 2012 b: 310 | 2012. Evidence from a new inscription regarding the goddess ʿṯ(t)rm and some remarks on the gender of deities in South Arabia. Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, 42: 309-318, fig. 1. |
OBJECT INFORMATION
| Support type | Artefact » Plaque » With framework |
| Material | Bronze |
| Measures | h. 20, w. 10 |
| Link to object record |
ORIGIN AND PROVENANCE
| Modern site | Unknown |
| Ancient site | Unknown |
| Geographical area | Unknown |
| Country | Unknown |
| Notes | The plaque appeared in the Ṣanʿāʾ market. |
| Link to site record |
CULTURAL NOTES
This bronze tablet offers the first occurrence of a goddess named ʿṯrm, who can be reputedly considered as a female variant of the god ʿAthtar. To be more precise, the deity invoked, ʿṯrm Ḥgr, appears from the first time in this category of texts, that is, penitential inscriptions. In fact, in Sanʿāʾ 2004-1, the goddess replaces the deities ḏ-S¹mwy and Ḥlfn, to whom such inscriptions were usually addressed.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
| Prioletta 2012 b: 310-312, fig. 1 | 2012. Evidence from a new inscription regarding the goddess ʿṯ(t)rm and some remarks on the gender of deities in South Arabia. Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, 42: 309-318, fig. 1. |