al-Jawf 04.8
Arbach and Schiettecatte 2006: pl. 4/9
INSCRIPTION INFORMATION
| Language | Ancient South Arabian » Sabaic » Early Sabaic | ||
| Alphabet | Ancient South Arabian | ||
| Script typology | Monumental writing | ||
| Writing technique | Incision | ||
| Measure of letters | 7 | ||
| Chronology |
| ||
| Textual typology | Dedicatory text |
GENERAL NOTES
| The provenance of the inscription is not sure. It could come from Nashq, as it is a dedication to the goddess ḏt Ns²qm, or from Nashshān, as the author is servant of the king of Nashshān Mlkwqh. In this case, the text could date to the end of period A, as the language shows the peculiar Minaic verb of dedication s³lʾ along with the Sabaic personal pronouns (cf. Moussaieff 22). |
TEXT
1 Ḍmdm ḏ-ʿṣbn ʿbd Mlkwqh s³lʾ ḏt Ns²qm ʿṯ—
2 tr Byḥn ḏt byt-hw Gnʾt w-kl wld-hw b-Wdm
3 w-b ʾrnydʿ w-b ḏ-Grb w-b ḏt Ns²qm w-b Mlkwq—
4 h w-b Lḥyʿṯt w-b Ḫlʾns¹ ḏ-hgr-hw
TRANSLATIONS
| English | |
1 Ḍmdm ḏ-ʿṣbn, servant of Mlkwqh, dedicated to ḏt Ns²qm, 2 the goddess of Byḥn, his wife Gnʾt and all his children; by Wdm, 3 ʾrnydʿ, ḏ-Grb and ḏt Ns²qm and by Mlkwqh, 4 Lḥyʿṯt and Ḫlʾns¹, the one of his town. |
OBJECT INFORMATION
| Deposit | Ṣanʿāʾ, The National Museum |
| Support type | Artefact » Slab |
| Material | Stone |
| Measures | h. 81, w. 130 |
| Link to object record |
ORIGIN AND PROVENANCE
| Modern site | as-Sawdāʾ |
| Ancient site | Ns²n |
| Geographical area | Jawf - Wādī al-Buhayra |
| Country | Yemen |
| Archaeological context | Religious context: Temple of ḏt Ns²qm ʿṯtr Byḥn |
| Link to site record |
CULTURAL NOTES
The author is "servant" of Mlkwqh king of Nashshān and makes a dedication to the goddess ḏt Ns²qm. Although the chronology of this inscription is dubious, the writing style and the presence of Sabaic linguistic (grammatical) features alongside with Minaic lexicon (the verb of dedication s³lʾ) suggest to date it back to the king Mlkwqh Ryd who reigned in the 7th century BC (cf. YM 11191), rather then to the homonym king of the 8th century (AO 31929, DAI-Ṣirwāḥ 2005-50 and Garbini-Francaviglia 2).
The goddess ḏt Ns²qm is mentioned with the previously unknown epithet of ʿṯtr Byḥn.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
| Arbach and Schiettecatte 2006: 20-22, pl. 4/9 | Arbach, Mounir and Schiettecatte, Jérémie 2006. Catalogue des pièces archéologiques et épigraphiques du Jawf au Musée National de Ṣanʿâʾ. Ṣanʿâʾ National Museum. Ṣanʿāʾ: Centre français d'archéologie et de sciences sociales de Ṣanʿâʾ. [Text in French and Arabic] |
| Arbach 2022: 117, fig. 38 | Arbach, Mounir 2022. The city-states of the Jawf at the dawn of Ancient South Arabian history (8th-6th centuries BCE). I. From cities to kingdoms. (Arabia Antica, 17/1). Roma: «L'Erma» di Bretschneider. |
| Rossi 2022: 137-139 | Rossi, Irene 2022. The city-states of the Jawf at the dawn of Ancient South Arabian history (8th-6th centuries BCE). II. Corpus of the inscriptions. (Arabia Antica, 17/2). Roma: «L'Erma» di Bretschneider. |