CSAI

Corpus of South Arabian Inscriptions


By kind permission of GOAM

INSCRIPTION INFORMATION

LanguageAncient South Arabian » Sabaic » Early Sabaic
AlphabetAncient South Arabian
Script typologyMonumental writing
Writing techniqueIncision
Measure of letters3.5
Textual typologyDedicatory text

GENERAL NOTES

The text could date back to the end of the phase A, beginning of B.

TEXT


   1  Yṯʿkrb ʿrryn hq—
   2  ny ʾlmqh ywm hw—
   3  ṣt-hw Ydʿʾl Byn w-
   4  yʿqb w-ḥwr b-Kmnh—
   5  w b-ḍr ʾtmn w-b-ʾḏn
   6  ʾlmqh hʾ w-wld-hw
   7  w-qny-hw b-krb hbrr

TRANSLATIONS

English

   1  Yṯʿkrb, from the city of ʿrrtm (?), made
   2  a dedication to ʾlmqh, when Ydʿʾl Byn
   3  appointed him and so
   4  he became viceroy of and settled in Kamna,
   5  during the war of ʾtmn; and let he and his children
   6  and his properties be under
   7  the will of ʾlmqh, through the obligation that he discharged.

OBJECT INFORMATION

DepositDhamār, Regional Museum, DhM 383
Support typeArtefact » Stela » Stela with framework
TopConcave
MaterialStone
Measuresh. 65, w. 37, th. 9
Link to object record

ORIGIN AND PROVENANCE

Origin
Modern siteUnknown
Ancient siteUnknown
Geographical areawādī al-Jawf
CountryYemen
Link to site record

CULTURAL NOTES

If our interpretation is correct, the inscription is historically interesting: an inhabitant of the Sabaean city of ʿrrtm (al-Asāḥil) is appointed as viceroy of the city of Kamna at the time of a war. The history of Kamna is epigraphically documented nearly exclusively for the Madhabean period when, especially during in the very first phase, in the eighth century, the city lived its age of major splendour and power (Caubet and Gajda 2003: 1219-1242, Robin 2002: 191-213). Before the reign of Karibʾil Watar son of Ḏmrʿly, he had reduced its strength becoming an ally of the Sabaean mukarrib (RES 3945). About two centuries later, under the reign of Ydʿʾl Byn bn Yṯʿʾmr Wtr, the king of Kamna ʾls¹mʿ Nbṭ bn Nbṭʿly is still under the power of Sabaʾ if he commemorates the construction of the city walls of Nashq "for ʾAlmaqah, the kings of Marib and Sabaʾ" (CIH 377). In DhM 383 a king Ydʿʾl Byn, without patronymic, is mentioned. Despite the stylistic difference between the texts of this mukarrib (see CIH 634 on the city walls of Nashq) and this inscription, some elements are still similar: the acute angles of the letters n and the big w. We could deal with the same Ydʿʾl Byn, who would have re-established with this text the supremacy of Sabaʾ over Kamna after (or before) the king ʾls¹mʿ Nbṭ.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Caubet and Gajda 2003Caubet, Annie and Gajda, Iwona 2003. Deux autels en bronze provenant de l'Arabie méridionale, suivi d'un appendice de Mme Françoise Demange sur la technique de fabrication (note d'information). Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres: 1219-1242.
Robin 2002Robin, Christian J. 2002. Vers une meilleure connaissance de Kaminahū (Jawf du Yémen). Pages 191-213 in John F. Healey and Venetia Porter (eds). Studies on Arabia in honour of Professor G. Rex Smith. (Journal of Semitic Studies. Supplement, 14). Oxford: Oxford University Press.