WH 3914

Interpretation

Apparatus Criticus: WH: l ʿmr bn ʿḏn h- hdmy "By ʿmr son of ʿḏn the Hdmite" Macdonald 1980: 197, 358–359: l ʾmr bn bḥl bn rh h- dmy
Commentary: It is clear from the fact that WH cite one of their own photographs, rather than one of Park's, that this stone is not from Jabal Qurma, which they never visited. It is probably from the immediate vicinity of Qaṣr Burquʿ whence it was brought to the Amman Museum with other stones from the same area by Professor George Mendenhall in the early 1980s. The diagonal part of the inscription has been scratched over and the arrow of the archer to the right of it enters the crescent of the m (the firmer line below it cannot be the arrow because it is too low in relation to the bow). The scratches and other damage make it extremely difficult to read this section of the text. In Macdonald 1980: 197 it is suggested that dmy here (as in AbaNS 8, 32, and 44) could be a plural of dmyt, comparable to Classical Arabic duman (see Lane 917b). An alternative explanation would be that the author was from the oasis of Dūmah (modern al-Ǧawf) and that h- dmy is his nisbah, as suggested by Ahmad Al-Jallad in KRS 30. For a comment on the drawing see Macdonald 1993: 328, n. 160. For the presence of the women drawing out their hair see Macdonald 2012: 284.

Provenance: WH worked from photographs taken by Mr Barry Park in 1955 who gave them to Gerald Lankester Harding. Unfortunately, these have since disappeared, and the photographs here were taken during a survey of Jabal Qurma and Tell Farah by Michael C.A. Macdonald, Geraldine King, Ann Searight and David Jacobson in 1982.
Original Reading Credit: OCIANA

Associated Signs: Two sets of 7 lines joined at one end, one set of 7 circles
Associated Drawings: A battle scene on foot with two huge camels standing face-to-face and two women drawing out their hair

Winnett, F.V. & Harding, G.L. Inscriptions from Fifty Safaitic Cairns. (Near and Middle East Series, 9). Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1978.
Macdonald, M.C.A. Safaitic Inscriptions in the Amman Museum and Other Collections II. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 24, 1980: 185-208, pls 111-133.
Lane, E.W. An Arabic-English Lexicon, Derived from the Best and Most Copious Eastern Sources. (Volume 1 in 8 parts [all published]). London: Williams & Norgate, 1863-1893.
Macdonald, M.C.A. Nomads and the Ḥawrān in the late Hellenistic and Roman periods: A reassessment of the epigraphic evidence. Syria 70, 1993: 303-413. [Reprinted with the same pagination, plus addenda and corrigenda as Article II in M.C.A. Macdonald, Literacy and Identity in Pre-Islamic Arabia, (Variorum Collected Studies Series no. 906), Farnham: Ashgate, 2009].
Macdonald M.C.A. Goddesses, dancing girls or cheerleaders? Perceptions of the divine and the female form in the rock art of pre-Islamic North Arabia. Pages 261–297 in I. Sachet et Ch. J. Robin (eds), Dieux et déesses d'Arabie images et représentations. Actes de la table ronde tenue au Collège de France (Paris) les Ier et 2 octobre 2007. (Orient & Méditerranée, 7). Paris : De Boccard, 2012.