WH 2502
Text Information
- Siglum
- WH 2502
- Transliteration
- l ḥrg bn ḫms¹ w yrb h- k{s¹}w
- Translation
- By Ḥrg son of Ḫms¹ w yrb h- k{s¹}w
Interpretation
- Apparatus Criticus
- MNH p. 328 n. 163: on interpretation of drawing and that kbw unlikely to be related to qbw.
- Commentary
- This was published in the ed. pr. as WH 2502 a.
- Provenance
- WH Cairn 34 and this inscription were rediscovered and photographed by the Badia Epigraphic Survey in 2018 and the co-ordinates given are exact.
- Original Reading Credit
- OCIANA
- Associated Drawings
- A battle scene in which 2 stick-figure men are fighting with swords on either side of a long vertical line (possibly held in the left hand of the one on the right), which WH (p. 374) thought might be a testudo (a formation in which Roman soldiers placed their shields [scuta] over their heads when attacking a walled city or fortress, see Goldsworthy 2003: 194). However, as suggested in MNH p.328, n. 163, this does not really fit the drawing. On the other hand, it is possible that it represents an exaggeratedly long scutum, the shield used by Roman legionaries (Goldsworthy 2003: 31). To the left of them, 2 other stick-figure men appear to be exchanging blows. Above them is a stylized male figure with raised arms in the same technique as the drawing below, and below them also in the same technique, an unidentifiable object. Finally, at the bottom of the face there is a stick figure animal, probably an equid, in the same technique, and above the fighting men is a thinly incised stick-figure human with outstretched arms. To the right of the end of WH 2502 are some confused light scratchings, which are probably more recent, and some Arabic letters.
- Associated Inscriptions
- Winnett, F.V. & Harding, G.L. Inscriptions from Fifty Safaitic Cairns. (Near and Middle East Series, 9). Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1978.
- Macdonald, M.C.A. Nomads and the Ḥawrān in the late Hellenistic and Roman periods: A reassessment of the epigraphic evidence. Syria 70, 1993: 303-413. [Reprinted with the same pagination, plus addenda and corrigenda as Article II in M.C.A. Macdonald, Literacy and Identity in Pre-Islamic Arabia, (Variorum Collected Studies Series no. 906), Farnham: Ashgate, 2009].
- Goldsworthy, A. The Complete Roman Army. London: Thames & Hudson, 2003.
- Inscriptions recorded during the Badia Epigraphic Survey 2018 and published here
- Site
- WH Cairn 34, Al-Mafraq Governorate, Jordan
- Date Found
- 1958–1959
- Current Location
- In situ
- Subject
- Genealogy
- Script
- Safaitic
- Old OCIANA ID
- #0013390
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