DASI: Digital Archive for the Study of pre-islamic arabian Inscriptions: Epigraph details

Jamme 1962 a: pl. 42
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INSCRIPTION INFORMATION

Language

Ancient South Arabian » Sabaic » Central Middle Sabaic

Alphabet

Ancient South Arabian

Script typology

Monumental writing

Writing technique

Incision

Measure of letters

2.7

Chronology

Period

Textual typology

Dedicatory text - fragmentary

TEXT

Apparatus

3-5	In Ja 788, 3: ymm ʾb; 4: hnhn Y; 5: rm w.
11, 13	ʿrmn: besides being a noun indicating "the dam", ʿrmn was used as the name of the Great Maʾrib Dam (Darles et al. 2014: 9-10).

TRANSLATIONS

CSAI

English

   1  [... ...] and his sons [... ...]
   2  [... ...] ʾs¹ʾr, of the family S¹ḫymm,
   3  lords of the house Rymn, ʾqwl of the two tribes of
   4  Yrs¹m of ḏ-S¹mʿy, the third of ḏ-Hgrm,
   5  and of Ḫwln Gddtn, dedicated to
   6  their lord ʾlmqh Ṯhwn, Lord of ʾwm,
   7  a statue in bronze when ordered to him their lord
   8  Ṯʾrn Yhnʿm and his son Mlkkrb
   9  Yʾmn, the two kings of Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān and
  10  Ḥaḍramawt and Ymnt, to conduct an expedition at the head of the army of ʿrbn,
  11  when was destroyed the dam in Ḥbbḍ and Rḥbm,
  12  and were destroyed all the part of the dam, that between Ḥbbḍ and
  13  Rḥbm, and were destroyed seventy s²wḥṭm of the dam;
  14  and they praised the power of their lord ʾlmqh
  15  Ṯhwn, Lord of ʾwm, because He granted them
  16  to favour them in His oracle, when He controlled for them
  17  the flash flood until they completed their work with stones; and
  18  in praise of their lord ʾlmqh Ṯhwn, Lord
  19  of ʾwm, because He bestowed for them the favour they sought
  20  Him from; and may He continue to grant to them
  21  the favour and the goodwill of their two lords Ṯʾrn Yhnʿm
  22  and his son Mlkkrb Yʾmn, the two kings
  23  of Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān and Ḥaḍramawt and Ymnt, and
  24  they repaired this damage in three months,
  25  that of Sabaʾ and ʾlʾlt and ʾbhy [... ...]

16	Jamme translates k-yʾfqn "that He would reverse" (Ar. wafiqa); Beeston: "direct the right course" (Ar. ʾufq "horizon, limit"); Bron notes that in the north-western Semitic the root ʾFQ is used for water courses.

Beeston 1976 a: 538-539	Beeston, Alfred F.L. 1976. Notes on Old South Arabian lexicography X. Le Muséon, 89: 407-423.
Bron 1973: 136	Bron, François 1973. Notes de lexicographie sud-arabique. Semitica, 23: 135-137.

OBJECT INFORMATION

Deposit	Mārib
Support type	Artefact » Base » Of statue with dedicatory inscription
Material	Stone
Measures	h. 76.6, w. 27, th. 23.5
Link to object record

ORIGIN AND PROVENANCE

Origin and provenance

Modern site	Maḥram Bilqīs
Ancient site	ʾwm
Geographical area	Maʾrib
Country	Yemen
Archaeological context	Religious context: Temple of ʾlmqh bʿl ʾwm
Link to site record

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Jamme 1962 a: 176-178, 234-235, pl. 42	Jamme, Albert W.F. 1962. Sabaean Inscriptions from Maḥram Bilqîs (Mârib). (Publications of the American Foundation for the Study of Man, 3). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press.
Ryckmans, Jacques 1964 b: 92	Ryckmans, Jacques 1964. Review of Jamme, Albert W.F. 1962. Sabaean Inscriptions from Maḥram Bilqîs (Mârib). (Publications of the American Foundation for the Study of Man, 3). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press. Bibliotheca Orientalis, 21: 90-94.
Ryckmans, Jacques 1966: 496, pl. 1, c	Ryckmans, Jacques 1966. Himyaritica 2. Le Muséon, 79: 475-500.
Darles, Robin and Schiettecatte 2014	Darles, Christian, Robin, Christian J. and Schiettecatte, Jérémie 2014. Contribution à une meilleure compréhension de l'histoire de la digue de Maʾrib au Yémen. Pages 9-70 in François Baratte, Christian J. Robin and Elsa Rocca (eds). Regards croisés d'orient et d'occident. Les barrages dans l'antiquité tardive. Actes du colloque, 7-8 janvier 2011, Paris, Fondation Simone et Cino del Duca. Organisé dans le cadre du programme ANR EauMaghreb. (Orient & Méditerranée, 14). Paris: Éditions de Boccard. 2019/11/29; https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1b7x6sv.