BES20 154

Interpretation

Commentary: The inscription is very difficult to make sense of. It seems that the author has either confused b and s¹ or a vandal has added tails to the two letters. {l}: The bottom and top of the apparent lām auctoris are difficult to see. The bottom of the line reaches the damage on the edge of the stone and the top seems to continue onto another face of the stone. {b}{t}: The first letter very much resembles a s¹, but is almost certainly a b from the context. The following letter appears to be a t, forming bt a variant of bnt. If correct, this would therefore be one of the few examples of a Safaitic inscription by a woman.

Inscriptions recorded during the Badia Epigraphic Survey 2020 and published here

Site: Wādī al-Mismā al-Šarqī, c. 52 km north-west of Al-Ruwayšid, Al-Mafraq Governorate, Jordan