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Corpus of South Arabian Inscriptions

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MIbb 4


By kind permission of GOAM

INSCRIPTION INFORMATION

LanguageAncient South Arabian » Sabaic » Southern Middle Sabaic
ScriptAncient South Arabian
Script typologyMonumental writing
Text directionRight-to-left
Text appearanceRecessed
Execution techniqueIncision
Chronology
PeriodC. Conjectural
Textual typologyDedicatory text

GENERAL NOTES

All the inscriptions on bronze housed in the Museum of Ibb coming from the jabal al-ʿAwd are published on CSAI under the authority of GOAM. The publication rights are retained by DAI.

TEXT

marker


   1  Krb[.] w-bn-hw Fs²ḥn hqnyy l-mr→ʾt-hmw Rgbm bʿlt Ḥẓrn (ḏ)t(n) →
   2  ʾb-ʿwtn w-mrʾt-hmw Bʿlt Ḥẓ→rn f-l ts²ymn [w]fy-hmw w-wf(y) →
   3  (by)t-hmw w-qny-hmw gdydm w-q(ṭ)y→nm w-l-thk(y)rn w-hʿgmn kl |
   4  s²nʾ-hmw

TRANSLATIONS

English

   1  Krb[.] and his son Fs²ḥn dedicated to their Lady Rgbm Mistress of Ḥẓrn this
   2  sphinx (lit.: "Father of the howl"); and as for their Lady Bʿlt Ḥẓrn, may She assure their safety and the safety
   3  of their house and their properties, the great and the small ones, and may She turn away and unmask (?)
   4  all of their enemies.
The translation of thkyrn with "turn away" (lit.: "to make melt") refers sensu lato to the root kwr which, although never used with this sense in ASA (see kwr "hill" in SD: 80), in Semitic means "furnace, melting pot" (Leslau 1987: 300). The shift to y in the roots of II and III w is a phenomenon well attested in the inscriptions from the southern plateau. The second verb follows sensu lato as well the meaning of Ar. ʿajama at causative "he desires to make it clear" (Lane 1980: 1966).
Lane 1980Lane, Edward W. 1980. Arabic-English Lexicon. Beirut: Librairie du Liban.
Leslau 1987Leslau, Wolf 1987. Comparative Dictionary of Geʿez (Classical Ethiopic). Geʿez-English, English-Geʿez, with an Index of the Semitic Roots. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

OBJECT INFORMATION

DepositIbb, Museum, MIbb 4
Support typeArtefact » Sculpture in the round » Animal figure
MaterialBronze
Dimensionsh. 15.6, w. 10.9, th. 4.4
Link to object record

ORIGIN AND PROVENANCE

Provenance
Modern siteJabal al-ʿAwd
Ancient siteʿwdm
Geographical areaJabal al-ʿAwd
CountryYemen
Archaeological contextReligious context: Temple of Rgbm bʿlt Ḥẓrn
Link to site record

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Catalogue 2000: 404, cat. 4352000. Yemen. Nel paese della Regina di Saba. Catalogo della Mostra, Palazzo Ruspoli, Fondazione Memmo, Roma 6 Aprile - 30 Giugno 2000. Milan: Skira.
Simpson 2002: 134, cat. 165Simpson, St John (ed.) 2002. Queen of Sheba. Treasures from the ancient Yemen. London: British Museum Press. [Catalogue of an exhibition held at the British Museum, London]
ʿAlī ʿAqīl and Antonini 2007: 246,photoʿAlī ʿAqīl,ʿAzza and Antonini, Sabina 2007. Bronzi sudarabici di periodo preislamico. Repertorio iconografico sudarabico. 3. Paris: de Boccard / Rome: IsIAO. [Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres; Istituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente]
Fleischer and Schulz 2012: 10-15, figs. 7-10Fleischer, Robert and Schulz, Regine 2012. Figurale Bronzen ägyptischer und griechisch-römischer Art vom Jabal al-ʿAwd, Jemen. Archäologische Berichte aus dem Yemen, 13: 1-90.