LP 412

Siglum: LP 412
Alternative Sigla: LP 1038; Is.Mu 112
Transliteration: l k{m}{d} {b}{n} ġṯ bn {ʿ}bd bn ġṯ w wgd ḫṭṭ ʾḫ -h f ẓll ʾṣḫ ʿl- ʾḫ -h f h lt s¹lm l- ḏ s²rd
Translation: By {Kml} {son of} Ġṯ son of ʿbd son of Ġṯ and he found the inscription of his brother and so he remained crying out in grief over his brother and so O Lt [grant] security to him who has fled

Interpretation

Apparatus Criticus: LP: f ẓll ʾḫt ʿl-ʾḫ-h "and he made a sister give shelter to her brother".
Commentary: The inscription was copied by both Littmann (LP 412) and by "servants of the Princeton University Archaeological Expedition" (Littmann 1943: iii). The text starts on the right edge of the face and curves round the centre and then back to beside the beginning. The third–sixth letters are damaged by a chip. However, enough of the fourth letter survives for it to be clear that the first name is kmd. The verb ẓll means "he remained" (usually after someone has died) and ʾṣḫ ʿl- means to "cry out (in grief) over [someone]", cf. ʾṣḫ ʿl-ḍll "he cried out in grief over those who were lost" in LP 409. see Al-Jallad & Jaworska 2019, under ʾṣḫ. It seems likely that 'him who has fled" at the end refers to the brother whose inscription the author found.

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.

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.
Al-Jallad, A. & Jaworska, K.A. Dictionary and Grammar of the Safaitic Inscriptions. Volume I: Dictionary. Leiden: Brill, 2019

Date Found: 1904–1905
Current Location: In situ
Subjects: Deity, Finding inscription(s), Genealogy, Grieving, Isolated Prayer, Relatives
Script: Safaitic
Old OCIANA ID: #0008996
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