LP 331

Siglum: LP 331
Alternative Sigla: Is.Mu 145
Transliteration: l ʾḥlm bn khl bn ġṯ s¹nt rʿy h- ḍʾn f h lt s¹lm
Translation: By ʾḥlm son of Khl son of Ġṯ. In the year he pastured the sheep and so O Lt [grant] security

Interpretation

Commentary: It is odd to date an inscription by "the year he pastured the sheep", but maybe this was an unusual activity for the author.

Provenance: Al-ʿĪsāwī is the name of a probably ancient well between two headlands on the eastern side of the Wādī Shām as it runs northwards from the modern Al-Namārah dam to the Ruḥbah. The well is large, stone lined and with stone water-channels running from it. The main concentration of published inscriptions is on the top of the northern headland, but there also many inscriptions on its south-west slopes, coming down to the well and on the southern headland, on the crest of which is a stone tower. Littmann visited the site twice when he and other members of the expeditions copied some 450 inscriptions. Between 1996 and 2003, the Safaitic Epigraphic Survey Programme [SESP] made a comprehensive survey of the site recording over 3500 inscriptions.

Associated Inscriptions

Littmann, E. Safaïtic Inscriptions. Syria. Publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expeditions to Syria in 1904–1905 and 1909. Division IV. Section C. Leiden: Brill, 1943.
Inscriptions recorded at al-ʿĪsāwī by Muna Al-Muʾazzin, on the Safaitic Epigraphic Survey Programme, 1995–2002, and published here.

Date Found: 1904–1905; 1996–2003
Current Location: In situ
Subjects: Date (s¹nt), Deity, Domestic animals, Genealogy, Isolated Prayer, Pasturing
Script: Safaitic
Old OCIANA ID: #0008915
Download Images