BRenv.B 5

Interpretation

Commentary: BRenv.B 5, 6 and 7 are on the same flat face of a block of basalt. It was split into several pieces, of which six survive, after BR.B 5 was inscribed (since the beginning of the text is missing and parts of the same letters are on different sections) but before 7 was written (since it is neatly confined to one section). The side of the block adjacent to the beginning of what remains of 5 is weathered smooth and is patinated to black, which suggests that the break must have taken place a long time ago. It is difficult to know whether 6 was written before or after the block was broken up. There is space for an ʿ between the seventh and eight surviving letters and it could have been lost when the rock was broken, but there is no trace of it, and nmn is said to be attested in ISB 383 (known only from a copy) and Damas 2786 (old 5537) where nm is clear on the photograph but anything after the m is invisible. The final letter is a much tighter curve than the b's of the bn's and may be a r.

Provenance: On the left bank of Wādī Shām, north-west of the water-tower at Biʾr al-Ruṣayʿī. A small outcrop approximately 150 m north of the Wādī. This is site E1 in Macdonald, Al Muʾazzin & Nehmé 1996.

Inscriptions recorded by the Safaitic Epigraphic Survey Programme in 1995 at a small outcrop approximately 150 m north of the left bank of Wādī al-Shām, north-west of the water-tower at Biʾr al-Ruṣayʿī, and published here.