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CIH 539 RES 3170
Gajda 1997: 156-157
Gajda 1997: 156-157
By kind permission of British Museum
INSCRIPTION INFORMATION
| Language | Ancient South Arabian » Sabaic » Late Sabaic | ||
| Script | Ancient South Arabian | ||
| Script typology | Monumental writing | ||
| Text direction | Right-to-left | ||
| Text appearance | Raised | ||
| Execution technique | Incision | ||
| Measure of letters | 4.5 | ||
| Chronology |
| ||
| Textual typology | Prayer - fragmentary (conjectural) |
GENERAL NOTES
| In the monotheistic period we don't have dedicatory texts. The inscription seems to be a prayer to the one god Rḥmnn. But the text is fragmentary. The prayer could also have been inserted in a construction text. |
TEXT
1 [... ...]ʾ (ykf)rn ḥ(b)-hmw w-yqbln qr(b)[n]-(hm)[w ... ...]
2 [... ...]ʿ w-b-ʿlmn bʿdn w-qrbn w-s²ym ʿl[... ...]
3 [... ...]n w-bs²rn w-bn s²rk l-mrʾm b-bʾs¹m[ ... ...]
4 [... ...] w-mrḍym l-s¹m Rḥmnn *ḏ*-Klʿn |[... ...]
5 [... ...]Rḥmnn rḍwʾ mrʾ-hmw ʾmlkn |[... ...]
6 [... ...]w-ʿws¹m w-ḍllm w-mḥlm w-tm[... ...]
| 4 | the epithet of the god was read by CIH as d-Klʿn, hence Beeston et al. 1982 quoted a pronoun d- specific to the late Sabaic. Stein 2003 a: 146, n. 108 raised doubts on wheter this pronoun existed; the reading is not sure. In the other example mentioned by Beeston et al. 1982 d- is the negation. Gajda prefers to correct it to ḏ-; Jamme 1971: 49 read l-Klʿny[n. |
TRANSLATIONS
| English | |
1 [... ...] may He forgive their sins and may He accept their offering [... ...] 2 [... ...] and in the far and present world and the patron of [... ...] 3 [... ...] and the human beings and the agreement to a lord in malice (?) [... ...] 4 [... ...] and satisfaction in the name of Rḥmnn of Klʿn (?) [... ...] 5 [... ...]Rḥmnn, goodwill of their lords, the kings [... ...] 6 [... ...] and pestilence, sickness, drought and [... ...] |
OBJECT INFORMATION
| Deposit | London, The British Museum, BM 125169=1872,0619.1 |
| Support type | Stone piece |
| Material | Stone |
| Dimensions | h. 40, w. 62, th. 6 |
| Link to object record |
ORIGIN AND PROVENANCE
| Modern site | Unknown |
| Ancient site | Unknown |
| Geographical area | Unknown |
| Country | Unknown |
| Link to site record |
BIBLIOGRAPHY
| Gajda 1997: 156-157 | Gajda, Iwona 1997. Ḥimyar gagné par le monothéisme (IVe-VIe siècle de l'ère chrétienne). Ambitions et ruine d'un royaume de l'Arabie méridionale antique. (Université d'Aix-en-Provence). |
| Beeston et al. 1982 (=SD) | Beeston, Alfred F.L., al-Ghūl, Maḥmūd ʿA., Müller, Walter W. and Ryckmans, Jacques 1982. Sabaic Dictionary (English-French-Arabic). Dictionnaire Sabéen (anglais-français-arabe). Louvain-la-Neuve: Éditions Peeters / Beirut: Libraire du Liban. |
| Stein 2003 a | Stein, Peter 2003. Untersuchungen zur Phonologie und Morphologie des Sabäischen. (Epigraphische Forschungen auf der Arabischen Halbinsel, 3). Rahden: Marie Leidorf GmbH / Westf.: Marie Leidorf GmbH. |
| Jamme 1971 b | Jamme, Albert W.F. 1971. Miscellanées d'ancient arabe II. Washington. 2025/04/17; https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.38250313. [Privately printed] |