U 119

Siglum: U 119
Alternative Sigla: AH 002; D 135
Transliteration: mḏmh/w s²nʾh bn/zd/w mḏmh/bn hll/w ḥẓl/bn ---- ----/w s¹ʿd/bn ---- [ʾ]ẓllw/ẓll/h- nq/l- ḏ– ġbt/f rḍ -hm
Translation: Mḏmh and S²nʾh son of Zd and Mḏmh son of Hll and Ḥẓl son of ---- ---- and S¹ʿd son of ---- {performed} the ẓll-ceremony on the mountain top for Ḏ– ġbt and so favour them

Interpretation

Apparatus Criticus: TEXT Line 3. Sima: (fr)---- rather than hll. He does not consider the lacuna after the word bn; Abū l-Ḥasan: ḥṭl for ḥẓl. Line 4. Sima does not consider the lacuna after the word bn; Farès-Drappeau: ----ẓllw for [ʾ]ẓllw. Line 5. Sima: h{ẓ}{l} ---- rather than ẓll h- nq; Abū l-Ḥasan: [ʾ]ṭllw ṭll for [ʾ]ẓllw ẓll. TRANSLATION Line 5. [ʾ]ẓllw ẓll, Sima: '(they) covered the subterranean water-channel'; Farès-Drappeau: '(they) offered the sacrificef'; h- nq, Abū l-Ḥasan: 'the female camels'; Sima does not translate this word; Farès-Drappeau: 'the female camel'. DISCUSSION Macdonald 2004: 510.
Commentary: There is no photograph available of this text and the reading is based on the Abū l-Ḥasan's copy (1997: 459, pl. 1). ẓll h- nq literally "the ẓll-ceremony of the mountain top" could either mean "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 all the inscriptions mentioning h-nq are located on the way up Jabal ʿIkmah or at the top of Jabal Umm Daraǧ, this interpretation ('on the top of the mountain') seems appropriate and it seems unlikely that nq in these cases would refer to 'female camels' (nūq), as suggested by Abū l-Ḥasan or a single 'female camel' as suggested by Farès-Drappeau.

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

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 61–64 Plate 1
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 213
Sima, A. Die lihyanischen Inschriften von al-ʿUḏayb (Saudi-Arabien). (Epigraphische Forschungen auf der Arabischen Halbinsel, 1). Rahden/Westf.: Leidorf, 1999. pp 32 Plate 27a
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.