CSAI

Corpus of South Arabian Inscriptions


By kind permission of Ch. Robin and J. Schiettecatte

INSCRIPTION INFORMATION

LanguageAncient South Arabian » Sabaic » Early Sabaic
AlphabetAncient South Arabian
Script typologyMonumental writing
Writing techniqueIncision
Chronology
PeriodA
Textual typologyDedicatory text

GENERAL NOTES

The language is Sabaic (see the dedicatory verb "hqny" and the personal pronoun -hmy) but the Minaic formula "krb s¹brr" is used.

TEXT


   1  Ḥyw←m w-Mrdm bn R←ʾbm ḏ-Qrnm h←qny ʾlmqh|
   2  mly←t-hmy krb s¹b←rr ywm ks³ḥ ←Ns²n

TRANSLATIONS

English

   1  Ḥywm and Mrdm, sons of Rʾbm of Qrnm, dedicated to ʾlmqh
   2  their booty, obligation from which He released (them), when they routed Ns²n (or, Ns²n was routed).
Arbach and Rossi 2015: 23 - 24Arbach, Mounir and Rossi, Irene 2015. Nouveaux documents sabéens provenant de Kamna du VIIIe–VIIe siècle avant J.-C.. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy, 26/1: 16-27. 2015/06/02; http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/aae.12052/pdf. [DOI: 10.1111/aae.12052]

OBJECT INFORMATION

Support typeArtefact » Offering table » With bull head as gutter
MaterialStone
Link to object record

ORIGIN AND PROVENANCE

Origin. Conjectural
Modern siteKamna
Ancient siteKmnhw
Geographical areaJawf - Wādī Madhab
CountryYemen
NotesKamna is the most probable place of the object. See the argumentation in Arbach and Rossi 2015: 24-25.
Link to site record

CULTURAL NOTES

The authors of the text celebrate the routing of Nashshān. This episode (and the verb employed "ks³ḥ") calls to mind the defeat of Nashshān by Krbʾl Wtr, supported also by the king of Kamna. However, the palaeography is earlier than that attested on the inscriptions from the Jawf contemporary to Krbʾl Wtr. We cannot exclude that the episode refers back to a previous attack on Nashshān.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Arbach and Rossi 2015: 23-25, figs 6-9Arbach, Mounir and Rossi, Irene 2015. Nouveaux documents sabéens provenant de Kamna du VIIIe–VIIe siècle avant J.-C.. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy, 26/1: 16-27. 2015/06/02; http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/aae.12052/pdf. [DOI: 10.1111/aae.12052]
Rossi 2022: 214-215, 474, fig. 36Rossi, 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.