OCIANA
Online Corpus of the Inscriptions of Ancient North Arabia

WH 3685

Text Information

Siglum
WH 3685
Transliteration
l ʾṯʿ bn ʿḏr w s²m ḥrn
Translation
By ʾṯʿ son of ʿḏr and he drew near to the Ḥawrān

Interpretation

Apparatus Criticus
WH 3685: ns²m ḥbn "a monkey [or: a boil] stinks" for s²m ḥrn "he drew near to the Ḥawrān"
Commentary
The mark immediately after the w, which WH took as a n, is much thinner than the other letters and we suggest that it is extraneous to the text. Our interpretation of s²m ḥrn is purely a suggestion. Compare Arabic šāmmā "to draw near" (to a person, ultimately derived from "he smelt someone"). This is not ideal but it is the best we can offer at present.

Provenance
WH Cairn 46 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 Inscriptions

  • Winnett, F.V. & Harding, G.L. Inscriptions from Fifty Safaitic Cairns. (Near and Middle East Series, 9). Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1978.
Site
WH Cairn 46, Al-Mafraq Governorate, Jordan
Date Found
1958–1959
Current Location
In situ
Subjects
Genealogy, Movement, Place-name
Script
Safaitic
Old OCIANA ID
#0014646
Download Images