CSAI

Corpus of South Arabian Inscriptions


By kind permission of GOAM

INSCRIPTION INFORMATION

LanguageAncient South Arabian » Sabaic » Central Middle Sabaic
AlphabetAncient South Arabian
Script typologyMonumental writing
Writing techniqueIncision
Measure of letters3.7
Chronology
PeriodC
Textual typologyDedicatory text

GENERAL NOTES

Thanks to A. Multhoff for the bibliographical information on Bauer and Lundin 1998.

TEXT


   1  Krbʾṣdq ʿbd-bn S¹yrwm hq—
   2  ny Tʾlb Rymm bʿl-ḏ-Mmr |
   3  b-ḏyt hfy-hw bn bqrn ḏ-s¹rqn
   4  bn-ʾḍʾ<n>m w-hrʿ-hn bn-(hkrn) ʿ(n)—
   5  [... ...] (|) w-l-ḥm[... ...]

Apparatus
4Our emendation considers ʾḍʾm as coming from the root ḍʾn "sheep", with the lack of the letter n (engraver's mistake?); the editors see it as a proper name.
5The reading is based on the editors' photo as the line is no longer preserved on the stone.

TRANSLATIONS

English

   1  Krbʾṣdq servant of the family S¹yrwm made a de-
   2  dication to Tʾlb Rymm, Master of ḏ-Mmr,
   3  because He protected him, in relation to the bovines which had been stolen
   4  among a cattle of sheep; but He did let them (the sheep) pasture against any damaging of [... ...]
   5  [... ...]
The suggested translation tentatively considers the word s¹qrn as a passive participle (based on the fact that the morphology of the passive participle at the base stem in ASA is still unclear, and it could be with an ablaut rather with prefixed m- like in Arabic). The nunation would be motivated by the relative pronoun, which renders the predicative meaning of the participle with a relative clause. Another possibility is to translate ḏ-s¹qrn as an active participle: "those (referred to the collective bqrn) of the thief", but this sounds weird within the context.
The understanding of this line is also uncertain, either for difficulties in the interpretation of the words (see the epigraphic note) or because of the lacuna. Bauer and Lundin translate: "because T. released him from the cows he had stolen from ʾḍʾm".

OBJECT INFORMATION

DepositṢanʿāʾ, University Museum, A-20-892
Support typeStone inscription
MaterialStone
Measuresh. 16, w. 29, th. 15
Link to object record

ORIGIN AND PROVENANCE

Origin
Modern siteJabal dhī-Marmar
Ancient siteḏ-Mrmr
Geographical areaBanī Ḥushaysh
CountryYemen
Archaeological contextReligious context: Temple of Tʾlb bʿl ḏ-Mmr
Link to site record

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bāsalāmah 1990: 154, 155 (fig. 53)Bāsalāmah, Mohammed ʿAbdallah 1990. Šibām al-Ġirās. Sanaʿāʾ: Muʾassasa al-ʿAfīf al-Ṯaqāfiyya.
Bauer and Lundin 1998: 21-22, figs 98a-bBauer, Gleb M. and Lundin (=Loundine), Avraam G. 1998. Pamjatniki Drevnej Istorii i Kultury. Južnaja Aravija. Part 2: Epigraficheskie pamjiatniki drevnego Jemena. 2. St.-Petersburg: Zentr "Peterburgskoe vostokovedenie". [Akademia nauk, Institut Vostokovedenija, Sankt-Peterburgskiy filial]