OCIANA
Online Corpus of the Inscriptions of Ancient North Arabia

TA 02669.2

Siglum
TA 02669.2
Transliteration
----ḥmd/ʾḫr ʾḫ– rt/
Translation
----ḥmd at last descen- dants [??]

Interpretation

Commentary
See Macdonald (in press, g). This is carved in large and deeply incised letters and is probably boustrophedon with the first line running from right-to-left, and the remains of the second line running from left-to-right. The reading is clear but it is uncertain whether anything has been lost between the end of line 1 and the beginning of line 2. The translation tentatively suggested above is based on the assumption that nothing has been lost at the left end of the face, but that something is missing (such as l “for") at the beginning of the text. It also assumes that a word-divider has been omitted between ʾḫr and ʾḫrt, something which is not uncommon in Taymanitic (see, at random, JSTham 439 where the only word-divider is after the first name, or JSTham 503 where the word-dividers stop after the second name, etc.). These are a lot of assumptions and, though the reading is clear, the interpretation should be regarded as speculative and by no means certain. We have taken ʾḫr in the sense of Arabic aḫīran "at last", and ʾḫrt as meaning “posterity, descendants” as it does in the common Dadanitic formula: f rḍ-h w s¹ʿd-h w ʾḫrt-h “and so favour him and help him and his descendants”. If this is correct, the text would be an expression of joy by someone who had waited a long time to see his line continued (for instance by the birth of grandchildren). However, there is no parallel for this in Ancient North Arabian epigraphy. There is nothing to link the ḥmd of this text with those of TA 09302 and 09303, though it should be noted that it is a rare name in Ancient North Arabian and is known in this form from only two Taymanitic texts outside this collection, JSTham 556 and WTay 45. On the other hand, the compound name, bḥmd, is well-attested in Taymanitic, and it is possible that the name here was originally bḥmd and that the b was lost when the right side of the stone was broken.

Original Reading Credit
OCIANA
Original Translation Credit
OCIANA

Associated Inscriptions

  • Jaussen, A. & Savignac, M.R. Mission archéologique en Arabie. I. (Mars-Mai 1907) De Jérusalem au Hedjaz, Médain Saleh. II. El-ʿEla, d'Hégra à Teima Harrah de Tebouk. Texte et Atlas. III. Les châteaux arabes de Quṣeir ʿAmra, Ḫarâneh, et Tûba. (5 volumes). (Publications de la Société Française des Fouilles Archéologiques, 2). [Reprinted Cairo: Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale, 1997]. Paris: Leroux/Geuthner, 1909–1920. Vol. ii No. JSTham 439, 503, 556
  • Winnett, F.V. & Reed, W.L. Ancient Records from North Arabia. with contributions by J.T. Milik and J. Starcky. (Near and Middle East Series, 6). Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1970. No. 45
  • Macdonald, M.C.A. Catalogue of the Inscriptions discovered in the Saudi-German excavations at Taymāʾ 2004–2015. With contributions by A. Hausleiter, F. Imbert, H. Schaudig, P. Stein, F. Tourtet, and M. Trognitz . Oxford: Archaeopress, 2020.
Site
Taymāʾ, Tabūk Province, Saudi Arabia
Date Found
2005
Current Location
Taymāʾ Museum
Subject
Relatives
Script
Taymanitic
Old OCIANA ID
#0040129
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