Tell Sheikh Hamad tablet 98/6949 I 882 (294+631)

The seal bearing an inscription in an Arabian alphabet is on a tablet recording the sale of a female slave by her two owners. Sass (2015) recognized that the Arabian inscription transcribes the Akkadian name of one of the slave's owners, Adad-tabni-uṣur 'Hadad, protect the foundation'. The documented is dated to the eponymate of Sîn-šarru-uṣur, the governor of Ḥindānu, 634 BC, during the reign of Ashurbanipal.

The transcription of the name suggests that the d of Hadad and the t of tabni 'foundation' were assimilated in pronunciation. The absence of a homorganic glide or glottal stop between tabni and uṣur 'protect' further suggests that these two vowels had coalesced in pronuncation. These observations indicate a pronunciation along the lines of /hadattabniṣur/.

Sass (2015) concludes the choice of Adad-tabni-uṣur to write his name in an Arabian script may suggest that he had dealings with the Arabian Peninsula based on the caravan trade. It is also possible that Adad-tabni-uṣur was an Arabian who simply took an Akkadian name but chose to write in his 'native' script as an expression of identity.