LP 341

Siglum: LP 341
Alternative Sigla: Is.M 129
Transliteration: l ʿqrb bn mlk bn {w}{h}blh w wgm ʿl- ʾb -h w h dṯn h- s¹fr
Translation: By ʿqrb son of Mlk son of {Whblh} and he grieved for his father and O Dṯn [protect?] the inscription

Interpretation

Apparatus Criticus: LP 341: w (ḥ)dt h- s¹fr “and he made this new inscription” for w h dṯn h- s¹fr "and O Dṯn [protect?] the inscription"
Commentary: The initial letter of the first name and the first two letters of the third name have been have been damaged by heavy over-hammering but are still visible. The ʿ of ʿqrb is a circle not a “dot” as suggested by Littmann. The invocation is absolutely clear on the stone and what Littmann considered to be a “flaw in the stone” following the ṯ is in fact a n. Thus, the prayer is addressed to the deity Dṯn found in other texts at al-ʿĪsāwī, see Macdonald, Al Muʾazzin and Nehmé 1996: 474–476. Whether the verb has been omitted or is to be understood or the prayer is simply calling the deity's attention to the inscription is unclear.

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.
Original Reading Credit: OCIANA
Original Translation Credit: OCIANA

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.
Macdonald, M.C.A., Al Muʾazzin, M. & Nehmé, L. Les inscriptions safaïtiques de Syrie, cent quarante ans après leur découverte. Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions & Belles-Lettres 1996: 435-494.
Inscriptions recorded at al-ʿĪsāwī by Michael Macdonald, on the Safaitic Epigraphic Survey Programme, 1995–2003, and published here.