U 037

Siglum: U 037
Transliteration: ʾrs² / bn
zdlh / w
bn -h / gffh
ʾfyw / [ẓ][l][l] h- nq
l- ḏġbt
OCIANA
Translation: By / son of ʾrs² son of
Zdlh and
his son Gffh
accomplished {the ẓll-ceremony} of the top of the mountain
for Ḏġbt
OCIANA
Language and Script: Dadanitic

Interpretation

Apparatus Criticus: TEXT Line 4. Sima does not restore the word ẓll. TRANSLATION Line 4. ʾfyw, Sima: 'they maintained ????'. DISCUSSION Hidalgo-Chacón Díez 2016: 128, for the divine name Ḏġbt.
Commentary: Line 4. We have restored [ẓ][l][l] before h- nq since this phrase occurs in other texts (see AH 001, 032, 081, 225, U 119), though note that in AH 197 we find ḥggw h-nq "they performed the pilgrimage of the mountain top". H-nq here and in the other texts can either be a place name or a common noun comparable to the Arabic word nīq ‘mountain-top’. The phrase ẓl[l] h- nq, literally "the ẓll-ceremony of the mountain top" could therefore mean either "the ẓll-ceremony performed on the mountain top" (as we have translated it) or "the ẓll-ceremony of the mountain top" implying that there was a special form of the ceremony for performance on the mountain top. Given that the inscriptions mentioning h-nq are located on the way up Jabal ʿIkmah or at the top of Jabal Umm Daraǧ, this interpretation seems appropriate and it seems unlikely that nq in these cases would refer to the sacrifice of female camels (nāq or nūq).

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
[U] Sima, A. Die lihyanischen Inschriften von al-ʿUḏayb (Saudi-Arabien). (Epigraphische Forschungen auf der Arabischen Halbinsel, 1). Rahden/Westf.: Leidorf, 1999. pp 15 Plate 8b, 29a, 29b
[Stiehl A] 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

Updated 08 Jan, 2025 by OCIANA