NTSB 2.1

Siglum: NTSB 2.1
Transliteration: l ʿqrb bnt ġwṯ ḏ- ʾl rks¹ w ʾḫ -h fby
Translation: By ʿqrb daughter of Ġwṯ of the lineage of Rks¹ and her brother Fby

Interpretation

Apparatus Criticus: TEXT Naveh: f{r}y for fby.
Commentary: The text is inscribed on a stone bowl. As pointed out in the edition the penultimate letter has the form of a b rather than a r (compare the clear r in rks¹) although it resembles the form of the r in NTSB 1. We have therefore read it as b. The name ʿqrb is carved in Nabataean below the same name in the Safaitic text. NSTB 2.2 is a Nabataean inscription reading ʾqwmw br ymlk "ʾqwmw son of Ymlk". The genealogy could be read either as l ʿqrb bnt ġwṯ or l ʿqrb bn tġwṯ. Although the fact that it is followed by ḏ ʾl rather than ḏʾt ʾl might suggest the second, *tġwṯ is not known as a name and there are other examples where ḏ ʾl appears to refer grammatically to the father rather than the female author, e.g. AtIN 3. Note that ʿqrb is also found as a woman's name in Damascus Museum 25834 no. 2 where it is clear that the author is a woman since it is followed by ts²wqt.

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].
Naveh, J. Ancient North-Arabian Inscriptions on Three Stone Bowls. Eretz Israel 14, 1978: 179-182, pls ד–ו figs 1-3 [Hebrew section].