U 038
Text Information
- Siglum
- U 038
- Alternative Sigla
- AH 029; D 152
- Transliteration
- ḏbn/ʿmr/bn/mrd ʾgw/h- ẓll/ḏh/l- ḏġbt ʿl----mʿ/hn- ʾfklt/b- bnʾl f rḍ -h/w ʾḫr[t] -h w ʾṯb -h/hnʾ/bn/ʿmr
- Translation
- Ḏbn ʿmr son of Mrd organized this ẓll-ceremony for Ḏġbt ---- the priestess in Bnʾl and so favour him and his {posterity} and reward him Hnʾ son of ʿmr
Interpretation
- Apparatus Criticus
- TEXT Line 1. Abū l-Ḥasan followed by Farès-Drappeau: ḏbḫ for ḏbn and mrh for mrd. Line 2. Abū l-Ḥasan: h- ṭll rather than h- ẓll. Line 3. Abū l-Ḥasan: [l/] before hn-ʾfklt; Sima restores several letters in this line which do not appear on the photograph; Farès-Drappeau: ʿl---- for ʿl----mʿ. TRANSLATION Line 2. ʾgw, Abū l-Ḥasan: '(they) offered'; ʾgw h- ẓll ḏh, Sima: '(they) cleared out this subterranean water-channel'; Farès-Drappeau: '(they) offered this meat [of the female camel]'. Line 3. ʾḫrt -h, Farès-Drappeau: 'he has guided him'. DISCUSSION Hidalgo-Chacón Díez 2014: 17, for the place name Bnʾl. Hidalgo-Chacón Díez 2016: 128, for the divine name Ḏġbt.
- Commentary
- It is clear that this inscription postdates those hammered in large letters above and to the right of it (U 037) since the author of U 038 has drawn a line above his text to separate it from them. It would appear that the author had a double name, as occurs often in Dadanitic. Unfortunately, the beginning of line 3 is damaged. It presumably contained the preposition ʿl- followed by the name of the priestess, i.e. "on behalf of N, the priestess...". It is impossible to be sure, but if the ẓll-ceremony was organized on behalf of the priestess, the enclitic pronoun -h in lines 3 and 4 may refer to her. At the end of line 3, ʾḫr -h is clear. This is either a mistake by the carver for ʾḫrt -h, or a case of influence from Nabataean where ʾḫr is the normal word for "posterity", see DNWSI p. 38. It is possible that hnʾ bn ʿmr in line 4 was the son of ḏbn ʿmr bn mrd in the first line. He may even have carved the inscription, and left his "signature" here.
- Provenance
- Al-ʿUḏayb (Jabal ʿIkmah). It is incised on one side of the huge rock, which Stiehl (1971: 4) called 'Block A'
- Original Reading Credit
- OCIANA
- Original Translation Credit
- OCIANA
- Technique
- Incised
- Associated Inscriptions
- It is below and to the left of U 037
- Abū ʾl-Ḥasan, Ḥ.ʿA.D. Qirāʾah li-kitābāt liḥyāniyyah min ǧabal ʿakmah bi-minṭaqat al-ʿulā. Al-Riyāḍ: Maktabat al-malik fahd al-waṭaniyyah, 1997. pp 115–117 Plate 4
- Farès-Drappeau, S. Dédan et Liḥyān. Histoire des Arabes aux confins des pouvoirs perse et hellénistique (IVe–IIe s. avant l'ère chrétienne). (Travaux de la maison de l'Orient, 42). Lyon: Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée — Jean Pouilloux, 2005. pp 219
- Hoftijzer, J. & Jongeling, K. Dictionary of the North-West Semitic Inscriptions. With appendices by R.C. Steiner, A. Mosak Moshavi and B. Porten.. (2 volumes). (Handbuch der Orientalistik, 21). Leiden: Brill, 1995. Vol. 1 pp 38
- Sima, A. Die lihyanischen Inschriften von al-ʿUḏayb (Saudi-Arabien). (Epigraphische Forschungen auf der Arabischen Halbinsel, 1). Rahden/Westf.: Leidorf, 1999. pp 15–16 Plate 8b, 29a, 29b
- Stiehl, R. Neue liḥyānische Inschriften aus al-ʿUḏaib I mit einem Nachtrag M. Höfners. Pages 3-40, 565-566, 569-594, pl. 1-45 in F. Altheim and R. Stiehl (eds), Christentum am Roten Meer. 1. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1971. p 4
- Hidalgo-Chacón Díez, M. del C. Place names in the Dadanitic inscriptions of al-ʿUḏayb. Adumatu 30, 2014: 15-30
- Hidalgo-Chacón Díez. M. del C. The divine names at Dadan: a philological approach. Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 46, 2016: 125–136
- Site
- The oasis of al-ʿUlā, Al-Madīnah Province, Saudi Arabia
- Current Location
- In situ
- Subjects
- Deity, Genealogy, Isolated Prayer, Place-name, Religion, Women
- Script
- Dadanitic
- Old OCIANA ID
- #0033112
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