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CIH 377 RES 2852
INSCRIPTION INFORMATION
| Language | Ancient South Arabian » Sabaic » Early Sabaic | ||
| Script | Ancient South Arabian | ||
| Script typology | Monumental writing | ||
| Text direction | Right-to-left | ||
| Text appearance | Recessed | ||
| Execution technique | Incision | ||
| Chronology |
| ||
| Textual typology | Construction text | ||
| Royal inscription | Yes |
GENERAL NOTES
| This text is inscribed in two copies on the towers no. 33 and no. 34 of the wall of al-Bayḍāʾ. The edition recorded is the one of the text on tower n. 33 by Robin 1992 a, which corresponds to Hal 327 (according to Halévy and CIH the text is disposed in four lines). Of the text on tower n. 34 only few reemployed fragments remain (among those, probably, Hal 329 and 330). |
TEXT
1 | ʾls¹mʿ Nbṭ bn Nbṭʿly mlk
2 Kmnhw w-s²ʿb-hw Kmnh[w bny] mḥf—
3 dnhn l-ʾlmqh w-ʾml[k M]r—
4 yb w-l-S¹bʾ
TRANSLATIONS
| English | |
1 ʾls¹mʿ Nbṭ son of Nbṭʿly king of Kamna and his tribe Kamna built the two towers, for ʾlmqh and the kings of Mryb and for Sabaʾ. |
OBJECT INFORMATION
| Support type | Architectural structure » Walls |
| Material | Stone |
| Link to object record |
ORIGIN AND PROVENANCE
| Modern site | al-Bayḍāʾ |
| Ancient site | Ns²qm |
| Geographical area | Jawf - Wādī al-Buhayra |
| Country | Yemen |
| Found | In situ |
| Archaeological context | Urban context: City walls |
| Notes | Only the text on the tower n. 33 is still in situ. |
| Link to site record |
CULTURAL NOTES
This text is particularly interesting as it records the construction of two towers on the walls of the Sabaic town of Nashq in the Jawf by a king of Kamna: the construction is dedicated to Saba, its god ʾlmqh and "the kings of Marib". According to the palaeographic analysis by Robin 1992 a(Pirenne's style C1a), this text is dated at the time of Ydʿʾl Byn son of Yṯʿʾmr Wtr (the builder of Nashq's walls; cf. CIH 634) and attests the Sabaic preminence over Kamna. See DhM 383 for a similar political situation and a possible comparison. The unusual expression "kings of Marib" could testify for a sort of re-interpretation of Saba';s political institutions by a Madhabaean point of view (kings of a town rather than kings of a tribe). Cf. also Beeston 1987: 6.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
| Robin 1992 a: 160 | Robin, Christian J. 1992. Inabbaʾ, Haram, al-Kāfir, Kamna et al-Ḥarāshif. Fasc. A: Les documents. Fasc. B: Les planches. Inventaire des inscriptions sudarabiques. 1. Paris: de Boccard / Rome: Herder. [Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres; Istituto italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente] |
| Beeston 1987 | Beeston, Alfred F.L. 1987. Ḥabashat and Aḥābīsh. Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, 17: 5-12. |
| Rossi 2022: 250-251 | 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. |