U 047

Siglum: U 047
Alternative Sigla: AH 019; D 148
Transliteration: nḫb/bn/ʿbdḫrg w rgʿ/ḏ ʾl/hrbt ʾẓllw/l- ḏġbt bʿd/nḫl -hm/f rḍ [-h]m w ʾṯb {-h}m
Translation: Nḫb son of ʿbdḫrg and Rgʿ of the lineage of Hrbt performed the ẓll-ceremony for Ḏġbt for the sake of their palm trees and so favour {them} and reward {them}

Interpretation

Apparatus Criticus: TEXT Line 2. Sima suggests that ḏʾl / hrbt is a scribal error for ḏ ʾlh [for ḏ ʾhl] rbt. In this he was followed by Macdonald (2004: 508 §5). However, ḏʾl / hrbt is clear on the photograph and there seems no need to make this complicated series of emendations. Line 3. Abū l-Ḥasan: ʾṭllw for ʾẓllw. Line 5. Abū l-Ḥasan followed by Farès-Drappeau does not read the phrase w- ʾṯb, and therefore considers that the enclitic pronoun -hm belongs to the expression f- rḍ of line 4. TRANSLATION Line 3. ʾẓllw, Abū l-Ḥasan: '(they) offered'; Sima: '(they) covered (the subterranean water-channel)'; Farès-Drappeau: '(they) offered (the sacrifice)'. Line 4. bʿd, Sima: 'in the direction of'; Farès-Drappeau: 'on behalf of'. DISCUSSION Hidalgo-Chacón Díez 2016: 128, for the divine name Ḏġbt.
Commentary: Line 3. The verb ʾẓllw means "they performed the ẓll-ceremony", the exact nature of which we do not know. Usually, but not always, this verb is followed by the noun h-ẓll meaning "the ẓll-ceremony". Thus, ʾẓllw and ʾẓllw h-ẓll both mean "they performed the ẓll-ceremony". Line 6. The last line is shorter than those above it.

Provenance: Al-ʿUḏayb (Jabal ʿIkmah). The inscription is chiselled on a rock inside the gorge
Original Reading Credit: OCIANA
Original Translation Credit: OCIANA

Associated Inscriptions: It is to the right of U 048 and to the left of U 046

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 97–98 Plate 3
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 217
Sima, A. Die lihyanischen Inschriften von al-ʿUḏayb (Saudi-Arabien). (Epigraphische Forschungen auf der Arabischen Halbinsel, 1). Rahden/Westf.: Leidorf, 1999. pp 19 Plate 12a, 12b
Macdonald, M.C.A. Ancient North Arabian. Pages 488-533 in R.D. Woodard (ed.), The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
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