AGK 2
Text Information
- Siglum
- AGK 2
- Transliteration
-
l gyṣ ḏ ʾl rm h- dr m- dr{b} ṣʿrl
Al-Jallad 2022c
- Translation
-
By Gyṣ of the people of Rome, at this place from the {road} of Ṣrʿl
Al-Jallad 2022c
- Language and Script
- Safaitic 2
Interpretation
- Apparatus Criticus
Al-Jallad et al. 2020: the letters ṣ ʿ r l appear to be enclosed in their own cartouche and were interpreted as a seperate text, written backwards, l rʿṣ.
- Commentary
The final four letters are best interpreted as a part of AGK 2 despite the cartouche.
The {b} of drb is carved in an angular fashion, but there are no other b's in the text with which to compare it. There is a chip at the top of the letter that causes it to resemble a fork, but its patina and stroke weight are slightly different. The fact that the additional stroke fails to form a meaningful glyph suggest that it is secondary damage and that the correct reading is as the letter b.
gyṣ: This is a transcription of the Latin name Gaius.
ḏ ʾl rm: We are motivated to undrestand ʾl here not as lineage group but rather more generally as 'people,' thus 'of the people of Rome.' A similar expression has been attested in the Safaitic inscription of a Nabataean (at the moment unpublished) who refers to himself as ḏ ʾl nbṭ 'of the people of Nabataea.'
This text was likely carved by a Roman accompanying the troop of Ẓnn son of Kḥs¹mn, perhaps as a soldier. On this phenomenon, see Al-Jallad and Bernard 2021. It is impossible to know if Gaius carved his own text, having learned the local dialect and alphabet, or if it was carved for him by a literate Arabic-speaking member of the troop.
- Editio Princeps
- Al-Jallad et al. 2020
- Field Collector
- Z. Al-Salameen, Y. Shdeifat and R. Ḥaraḥsheh
- Technique
- Incised
- Direction of Script
- Top to bottom
- Associated Signs
- cartouche
- Associated Inscriptions
- Al-Jallad, A. The Inscription of Ẓāʿen son of Keḥsemān and Knowledge of Greek Among the Nomads east of Ḥawrān, Adumatu, 23 (2022c): 23-28.
- [AGK] Al-Jallad, A., Al-Salameen, Z., Shdeifat, Y., & Harahsheh, R. Gaius the Roman and the Kawnites: inscriptional evidence for Roman auxiliary units raised from the nomads of the ḥarrah. Pages 355–362 in P. M. M. G. Akkermans (ed.), Landscapes of Survival - The Archaeology and Epigraphy of Jordan’s North-Eastern Desert and Beyond. Leiden: Sidestone Press, 2020.
- Site
- Marabb al-Ghuṣayn, Al-Mafraq Governorate, Jordan
- Date Found
- 2017
- Current Location
- In situ
- Subjects
- Lineage (expressed in other ways), Movement, Outside peoples, Present in a place
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