Peter Stein
Aramaic in Tayma: On the Linguistic Situation of the Oasis in the 2nd Half of the 1st Millennium BC
I, Ninurta-kudurrī-uṣur, governor of the leads from Dedān, today’s al-ʿUlā, along country Sūḫu and Mari: Tayma and Dūma in a northeastern direction People from Tēma (lúte-ma-ʼ-a-a) and Saba to Babylonia (Fig. 1). (lúšá-ba-ʼ-a-a), whose residence is far away, whose messengers have never come to me This strategic location on the direct con- and have never traveled to me - nection between Mesopotamia and western their caravan came (...) and entered into the Arabia may also have been a reason for the city Ḫindānu. fact that Nabonidus, the last king of the Neo- In the city Kār Apla-Adad I heard at noon Babylonian Empire (556-539 BC), chose such time the news from them; a supposedly remote place as his residence I put horses to my wagon and crossed the for ten years. The background of this retreat river at night, of the king to Arabia still presents a mystery, and the next day (still) before noon I reached however, in the meantime there is evidence the city Azlajjānu. of this royal household in Tayma established For three days I waited in Azlajjānu, and on from archaeological evidence. In the Saudi- the third day they arrived. German excavations of recent years several One hundred of them I took (captive) alive, cuneiform texts, including a fragment of a and their two hundred camels together with royal stele clearly attributable to Nabonidus their charge: Blue purple wool, (...), wool, came to light.2 These findings prove that the (or iron, precious(?) stones, at least an) administrative language in Tayma all kinds of goods, what you could even ask at the time of the Babylonian occupation in for, I conquered. the mid-6th century BC has been Babylonian- Their big booty I carried away and brought Akkadian. it into the land Sūḫu.1 The next written testimony from Tayma is the This report of a Mesopotamian local ruler at famous stele with Aramaic inscription, which the central Euphrates around the middle of was already discovered in 1880 by Charles the 8th century BC, contains one of the earli- Huber and Julius Euting in the city area of est references to the name Tayma. The text Tayma and then shipped to Paris, where it is says nothing more and nothing less than that located until today in the collection of Oriental merchants from Tayma were traveling together Antiquities at the Louvre (CIS II 113 = KAI with Sabeans with a large caravan in northern 228, Figure 2).3 With this certificate, we are Mesopotamia. That Tayma has been strongly obviously at the transition from the Babylonian involved in international trade, is obviously to the Achaemenid era (and thus the focus of owed to the location of the oasis on an impor- this conference): While the iconography of tant branch of the Frankincense Trail, which the reliefs on the left side surface of the stele
Stuttgarter Theologische Themen - Band/Vol. VIII (2013) 31 Fig. 1: Map of the Arabian peninsula in the middle of the 1st millenium BC
32 Band/Vol. VIII (2013) - Stuttgarter Theologische Themen Fig. 2: Tayma stele (Photo: DAI Orient-Abteilung, Mirco Cusin)
Stuttgarter Theologische Themen - Band/Vol. VIII (2013) 33 shows yet clear Babylonian influence (which HGM (the following gift). And anyone, in the past has repeatedly caused confusion (14) who destroys this stele – the gods of about the dating of the piece), the inscription Taymāʾ (15) may they eradicate him, and his clearly favors a dating into Persian time: the descendants and his name from the face of text is preceded by a characteristic dating (16) Taymāʾ. formula of the Achaemenid royal inscriptions: And behold, this is the gift, which (17) Ṣalm of Maḥram, ŠNGLʾ und ʾAšīmāʾ, (18) the b-[xx l-tšr]y šnt 22[xxxxxxxx] (2) [m]l[kʾ gods of Taymāʾ, [have given]to Ṣalm of b-tym]ʾ HGM [...]: (19) of (ordinary) land (of) date On (day) X of (the month) Tišrī of the year palms: 18(?), and of the land (20) of the king 22(+X) of [...], the king, in Taymāʾ. (of) date palms: 6, all date palms (in sum): (21) 21(!), year by year. The above mentioned number of (at least) 22 years allows only one of the three kings Neither gods nor a man/people (22) shall Darius I (522-486), Artaxerxes I (465-424) remove Ṣalmšēzeb, the son of Petosiris, (23) and Artaxerxes II (405-359) to come into ques- from this house nor his descendant[s] or tion. If the palaeographic classification of the his name (24) (as) priests
34 Band/Vol. VIII (2013) - Stuttgarter Theologische Themen texts. Comprehensive, linguistically rich texts we would, for example, refer to the relative have not yet emerged, comparable to the large pronoun zy, which occurs here in its linguistic- stele, although some small fragments sup- historically older form, while in other, com- port the basic existence of other such stelae. pletely comparable texts regarding content, However, even the existing texts are fruitful however, occurs in the younger form dy (e.g. both linguistically and in terms of content. in TA 981/1: mytb ʾ dy qrb). Such differences These yields we will consider in the follow- will play a significant role in the chronological ing by means of representative examples in fixing of the Aramaic era in Tayma. order to finally approach the question which significance the Aramaic language in Tayma Historically relevant are also dating formulas actually occupies.5 frequently documented in building and dedi- catory inscriptions, especially if they can be The most commonly documented text genre brought in accordance with external histori- are grave inscriptions, which make up about cal data. Here we have first and foremost to one-third of the known inscription stock. In respond to a newfound building inscription, the simplest case, a grave inscription contains which contains not only detailed historical only the name of the deceased: data, but also belongs to the most extensive and best-preserved text finds from Tayma (Fig. 3). ʿzyzw (2) br ḥnzrw (TA 8947) The text may be translated as follows: ʿAzīzū, the son of ḤNZRW. [On (day) X] of (the month) ʾAdār of the More detailed grave inscriptions precede the year [x]+3 of Lawḏān, the king (2) [of Li] name with the noun npš (actually “soul”) in ḥyān. Naṭīrʾel, the governor of Taymāʾ the transferred meaning “tomb” (i.e. npš X (pḥt tymʾ). br Y “Tomb of X, son of Y”). Only very spo- At that time (3) Naṭīrʾel, the governor of radically are grave inscriptions dated (Teima Taymāʾ – may the Lord and the garrison (4) 22). This limited form allows, apart from the of Taymāʾ be remembered! –, h[as set up] proper name (more on that later), hardly more this gate. (TA 964) in-depth discussions on linguistic history. Apart from the archaeological relevance of The genus of dedicatory inscriptions, com- the text that reports from the construction parable by approximately 20 representatives, work of the inner city wall, where it has been is far more productive in content. The form found in the rubble, here two central political consists of a nominal identification of the authorities are named, who were completely object in question, which is followed by the unknown from Tayma so far: the author of the actual dedication ceremony in the form of a inscription, and thus the client is a “Governor relative clause: of Tayma” (pḥt tymʾ). Although this person as- sumes the title päḥā, the well-known Aramaic [m]ytbʾ zy qr(2)[b] mʿnn br ʿm(3)rn l-ṣlm ʾlh(4) designation from Imperial Aramaic texts, this ʾ l-ḥyy npš-h (Teima 2) does not mean that we are still in the area of The pedestal, which Maʿānān, the son of influence ofthe Achaemenid Empire. Rather, ʿAmrān, offered to the god Ṣalm for the the introductory dating formula mentions life of his soul. a certain Lawḏān (Aramaic lwdn), King of Liḥyān, as supervisor of our governor. As this example shows, a dedicatory inscrip- tion is usually concluded by one or more ste- This is by far not the only example. In a build- reotyped purposes. On the grammatical level ing interpreted as a shrine, a stele and two pil-
Stuttgarter Theologische Themen - Band/Vol. VIII (2013) 35 Fig. 3: Building inscription from Tayma (TA 964, Photo: DAI Orient-Abteilung, Mirco Cusin)
36 Band/Vol. VIII (2013) - Stuttgarter Theologische Themen Fig. 4: Inscribed pillar from Tayma (TA 2382, Photo: DAI Orient-Abteilung, Mirco Cusin)
Stuttgarter Theologische Themen - Band/Vol. VIII (2013) 37 lars were excavated, whose entire inscriptions absence of concrete synchronisms, out of are dated after a round (!) year of reign of a necessity, even the name of our King Tulmay, king Tulmay of Liḥyān, e.g. (Fig. 4): which could be deduced as a loanword from Greek Ptolemy (although this is controversial), b-10 l-šbṭ dy (2) šnt 20 tlmy (3) mlk lḥyn ˀd (4) is used as a witness for a Hellenistic dating. […] (TA 2382) On the 10th (day) of the (month) Šəbāṭ of Here now our Aramaic inscriptions can con- the year 20 of Tulmay, the king of Liḥyān. tribute to some degree to an elucidation. If we At that time [ ... ] summarize the presented historical, palaeo- graphical and linguistic findings, we will reach The other two texts (TA 4916 and TA 4915) the conclusion that the disputed inscriptions indicate the year 30, respectively, 40 of the from the time of the kings Lawḏān and Tulmay same king. Even if the subsequent text is lost in Tayma have come into existence in any case in all three cases, the striking distance of ten much later than 380 (the probable date of the years each, makes likely the assumption of a paleographically significantly older Louvre regularly scheduled ceremony, such as a con- stele). Thus we most likely move already into secration, which was performed by the king the Hellenistic period, which provides a suf- in this sanctuary. ficient historical evidence of the political break between the (still manifested in the Louvre What kind of kings are Lawḏān and Tulmay? stele) Achaemenid domination and the seizure We know the kingship of Liḥyān so far almost of power by a local Arab kingdom in Tayma. exclusively from inscriptions in the so-called The Aramaic inscriptions from Tayma that Dedanic or Liḥyanic dialect,6 a local repre- mention a Liḥyanic supremacy, and the texts sentative of early North Arabian and distant to be paleographically connected with them, relative of classical Arabic. There are several should therefore be dated at the earliest in the hundred inscriptions,7 in the majority graffiti, outgoing 4th century BC.9 but also monumental rock inscriptions, in a separate expression of early North Arabic That the texts also could not have come into script, which have been left in the oasis of existence much later, is suggested by philo- Dedān, today’s al-ʿUlā, 150 kms southwest logical considerations. A striking example of Tayma. In these inscriptions, mostly in at the phonological level is the treatment of the context of dating formulas, members of the original interdental voiced fricative /ḏ/, a Liḥyanic royal family are repeatedly men- which is reproduced because of the absence tioned, including several bearers of the names of a corresponding grapheme in the 22-conso- Lawḏān and Tulmay, e.g. nantal writing system in North-West Semitic languages, as we know, either with z (as in snt (8) ʿšrn tlmy [mlk l](9)ḥyn (AH 64/7–9)8 Hebrew) or d. Whereas the later Aramaic (in) year 20 of Tulmay, the king of Liḥyān. unanimously shows d, z can be found in the older language stages; however, the transition However, although already 12 different rulers between the two spellings is allocated to the of Liḥyān, some even with filiation, could be (best documented in this period) Egyptian- proven in this way, neither the internal chro- Aramaic in the 5th century BC.10 nology nor the absolute dating of the Liḥyanic kingship has been clarified. The approaches In the inscriptions of Tayma both spellings are vary between the 6th and 2nd century BC, found, whereby signs of a transition in the texts however, recently a limitation is preferred to of the Liḥyanic era become visible: Whereas the Achaemenid-Ptolemaic era. In complete we have in the building inscription TA 964
38 Band/Vol. VIII (2013) - Stuttgarter Theologische Themen (with the king Lawḏān) still present the older written on perishable materials, which have spellings with z (in the participle zkyr in line been preserved only in exceptional cases. 3 and in the demonstrative pronoun zʾ at the But this material is linked to the question of very end of the text),11 the stele inscription TA the language of the people in everyday life, 2382 written under Tulmay with the relative therefore, linked to the ethnic composition of pronoun dy at the end of the first line, shows the population of the oasis. already the later practice. Therefore, this tran- sition with reference to the Egyptian-Aramaic If we ask about the ethnicity of the authors findings, should not be determined too late. of our texts, their names give us first reliable evidence. As we have seen, the names of There are historical considerations, too. If the persons mentioned in the texts are only we count together all previous years of the partly in Aramaic (e.g. Naṭīrʾel referred to in reign of the Liḥyanic kings mentioned in the the building inscription TA 964). In contrast, inscriptions, we come to a total of at least the name of the priest of the Louvre stele 180 years, which needs, given the incomplete Ṣalmušēzib (or Aramaizing Ṣalmšēzeb) is tradition situation,12 certainly to be signifi- clearly under Babylonian influence, the name cantly rounded up. Considering a Liḥyanic of his father, Petosiris, even of Egyptian origin. establishment of the monarchy in the wake of the decline of the Achaemenid Empire in Most commonly, however, personal names of the 2nd half of the 4th century BC, we arrive Arabic origin are attested, such as in with about 200 years minimum duration of the dynasty easily in the outgoing 2nd century npš tym (2) br zyd (Teima 23) BC, and thus in a time that is shaped by the Grave of Taym, the son of Zayd. rise of a new regional power, the Nabataeans. The Nabataean kingdom should have estab- Also the name of the deceased of the above- lished its until today impressive monumental cited grave stele TA 8947, ʿAzīzū is clearly rock tomb outpost in Ḥegrā no later than the of Arabic provenance (with the later very 1st Century BC (Arabic Madāʾin Ṣāliḥ) in the characteristic suffix /-ū / for the Nabataean). immediate vicinity of the old Dedān, thus The same goes for the founder of the pedestal becoming the successor of the Liḥyān as rul- Teima 2. These “Arabs” now of course are by ers of the region. Nabataean inscriptions are no means semi-nomadic surrounding neigh- consequently present also in Tayma. As in the bors of the oasis who have been confronted northwestern bordering regions, the Nabataean with the city and its literary culture only in language replaces Imperial Aramaic as a writ- passing. As some inscriptions in early North ten language. Arabic script have documented, these Arabs have already occupied highest offices in the Babylonian - Imperial Aramaic - Nabataean: administration of the city under Nabonidus: Within just half a millennium of archaeologi- cally documented settlements, the written cul- ʾn mrdn ḫlm nbnd mlk bbl (2) ʾtwt mʿ rbsrs ture of the oasis of Tayma has changed twice … (‘Taymāʾ 1’/1f.)13 foundationally. This of course applies only I am Māridān, the companion of Nabonid, to the epigraphic form of literacy: inscrip- the king of Babel. tions in the public realm for the purpose of I came together with the house-court-master representative display. Mundane records such … as business documents or letter correspon- dence are not found among them - as in most This text in the most beautiful (early North) neighboring regions this kind of literature was Arabic language stands in line with about 400
Stuttgarter Theologische Themen - Band/Vol. VIII (2013) 39 other short inscriptions and graffiti that have for a long time a local tradition of writing, it been found in the city and the nearby areas of was not used in public life. This should prob- Tayma, commonly dated in the 6th-5th century ably be explained by the fact that institutions BC. It is a part of the formerly designated as which make such a use of writing necessary, Thamudic, widely scattered inscription corpus, such as a provincial administration with asso- which is subdivided in recent times in various, ciated bureaucracy, have been installed only in clearly defined regional dialects, including a the course of the residence of King Nabonidus so-called Taymanic (formerly: Thamudic A).14 in Tayma. Such an administrative machinery Even the numerical preponderance of these with professional scriptorium, self-evident in inscriptions compared with the Akkadian or Babylonia, with archives and the like should, Aramaic texts makes it clear that here we have once set up, also have been taken over by the to look for the real mother tongue of the ma- new rulers, the Achaemenids. Only that, fol- jority of the population. Like the neighboring lowing the practice in the rest of the empire, the oases Dedān (see above) or Dūma, Tayma was Aramaic has established itself as the written inhabited by an Arabic-speaking community, language. The density of the Aramaic tradition which - at least for the purpose of spontaneous in Tayma in comparison with the neighboring expressions of presence in the sense of “I was oases makes it likely that the center of the here!” - could also utilize their own writing, Achaemenid administration of north-west resulting from intra-Arabic tradition. Arabia had been installed here.17
That this writing experienced a certain per- That the officers of this administrative appara- ception even superregionally, could be read tus whose training is not just limited to reading from the deeds of a Syrian local ruler in and writing, but must have included a thorough Carchemish from the period around 800 BC. instruction in certificate forms, legal terminol- In this hieroglyphic-Luwian inscription, a ogy and the like, is obvious. In a peripheral certain Yariris boasts, not only to know 12 administrative center as Tayma these special- languages, but in addition to the local (i.e. ists are therefore not initially recruited locally, hieroglyphic), the Assyrian (cuneiform), and but have been seconded from the respective possibly the Phoenician (su-ra, probably < political and intellectual centers there. This Ṣūr = Tyre) but also to have been conversant may explain why among the priesthood or in with a “Taymanic” (ta-i-ma-ni-ti) writing.15 the provincial administration, we can find bear- Although here the employed toponym allows ers of Babylonian or Aramaic names, while a number of other interpretations, the reading the majority of the population was probably of “writing from Tayma” appears (in the sense Arabic origin. Also the fact that the Aramaic of early North Arabic script generally) readily writing culture in Tayma was preserved even plausible, especially if we consider that only after the fall of the Persian Empire, can be a few decades later actually a caravan titled given an explanation in this way: to the new as “Taymanic” in the Syrian region has been rulers, the kings of Liḥyān, an appropriate on the road, which takes us once again to our administrative apparatus with pronounced first text example.16 literary culture was simply not available. As far as we know, the use of liḥyanic writing, So we have to state in Tayma a steady coexis- like its early northern Arabic neighbors (as in tence of (at least) two writing systems - a local Tayma) remained mostly limited to the field early northern Arabic and an external one, of epigraphy, i.e. representative inscriptions which correlates with the conventional system mostly on rock walls. Whether there has been a used elsewhere by the respective prevailing developed everyday correspondence in Dedān super power. Although there obviously existed and in which language and writing this was
40 Band/Vol. VIII (2013) - Stuttgarter Theologische Themen composed, is unknown up to now. The almost is replaced in the entire region through a new total absence of Aramaic inscriptions in the stage of development: the Nabataean. This oasis of al-ʿUlā18 suggests in any case that the transition, which is likely to have taken place Aramaic here acquired no comparable mean- in the course of the 1st century BC, gradually ing as in Tayma. This may be related to the emerges in Tayma. A number of inscriptions fact that the very formative Achaemenid state from this period has peculiarly deformed ca- power in Tayma did not extend in the same dences which provide already discernible dis- measure as far as Dedan. tinct echoes of the Nabataean writing and, as far as we can see, has been so far verified only Anyway, in Tayma the once established Ara- in Tayma (TA 8181 and more pronounced TA maic writing culture is continued under the 3335 and TA 4457, cf. CIS II 336). The transi- new local rulers until the Imperial Aramaic tion from the spread of the Imperial Aramaic
Fig. 5: Nabatean grave inscription from Tayma (Photo: DAI Orient-Abteilung)
Stuttgarter Theologische Themen - Band/Vol. VIII (2013) 41 writing culture throughout the whole Near Nabataean writing (and thus the Aramaic ele- East towards the regional differentiations of ment) in northwestern Arabia is sustained at the BC/AD era can be reconstructed in Tayma least until well into the 5th century, only to be apparently quite consistently.19 Thus Aramaic almost imperceptibly replaced by the Arabic remains present in Tayma - in the shape of the writing culture.22 Even though we are missing lingua franca of the Nabataean Empire. written documents from Tayma itself, it can be assumed that at the latest with the expulsion of The Nabataean language and writing will the Jewish population during the Islamization hold its ground in Tayma - until well into the of the oasis in the early 7th century, Aramaic post-Christian period - in the entire North as a written language in Tayma has become West region of the Arabian Peninsula. As one obsolete. inscription discovered in 2009 in the city area of Tayma shows, the religious and political circumstances have changed radically in the meantime (Fig. 5):
This is the grave (2) of Isaiah (ʾšʿyh), the councilman(?), the son of Josef (ywsp), (3) the head of Tayma (rʾš tymy), which (4) ʿAmram und ʿŠMW, his brothers, have erected above him (5) in the month Iyyār (6) in the year 98 of the province (= 203 n.Chr.).20
No longer the polytheistic cosmos of gods of northern Arabia, but the Jewish religion now shapes the social life in the oasis. The names of the protagonists of this grave inscription are largely, though not exclusively, Jewish conno- tations, and obviously a follower of Judaism was at the head of the local administration. That this was not an isolated case, has long been documented by a grave inscription known for quite some time from Madāʾin Ṣāliḥ, the ancient Nabataean outpost northeast of Dedān/ al-ʿUlā, which is dated into the year 356 AD (251 of the province) and mentions the descen- dant of a Samuel as prince of Tayma (line 3f.: ʿmrw br ʿdywn br šmwʾl (4) ryš tymʾ).21
A reminiscence of this Jewish dominance in PETER STEIN (Dr. habil.), Jena, is pri- the oasis has even preserved the later Arab vate lecturer for Hebrew and Semitic tradition that knows of a Jewish poet named languages at the University of Jena. Samuel among the poets of the pre-Islamic His major research area is Ancient th period (as-Samawʾal ibn ʿĀdiyā), in the 6 South Arabia. Numerous publications century AD who is said to have resided in in Ancient South Arabian linguistics Tayma. But the poems attributed to him are and epigraphy. already written in (pre-classical) Arabic. The
42 Band/Vol. VIII (2013) - Stuttgarter Theologische Themen BIBLIOGRAPHY Arabian archaeology and epigraphy 11 (2000), pp. 28–79 Al-Najem, M./Macdonald, M. C. A., A new Macdonald, M. C. A., Ancient North Arabian, Nabataean inscription from Taymāʾ, in: in: R. D. Woodard (ed.), The Cambridge Arabian archaeology and epigraphy 20 Encyclopedia of the World’s Ancient (2009), pp. 208–217 Languages, Cambridge 2004, pp. 488–533 Cavigneaux, A./Ismail, B. Kh., Die Statthalter Müller, W. W./al-Said, S. F., Der babylonische von Suḫu und Mari im 8. Jh. v. Chr., in: König Nabonid in taymanischen Baghdater Mitteilungen 21 (1990), pp. Inschriften, in: N. Nebes (ed.), 321–456, Tf. 35–38 Neue Beiträge zur Semitistik. Erstes Eichmann, R./Schaudig, H./Hausleiter, A., Arbeitstreffen der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Archaeology and epigraphy at Tayma Semitistik in der Deutschen (Saudi Arabia), in: Arabian archaeology Morgenländischen Gesellschaft vom 11. and epigraphy 17 (2006), pp. 163–176 bis 13. September 2000 an der Friedrich- Farès-Drappeau, S., Dédan et Liḥyān. Histoire Schiller-Universität Jena, Wiesbaden des Arabes aux confins des pouvoirs perse 2002 (Jenaer Beiträge zum Vorderen et hellénistique (IVe–IIe s. avant l’ère Orient 5), pp. 105–122 chrétienne), Lyon 2005 (Travaux de la Muraoka, T./Porten, B., A Grammar of Maison de l‘Orient et de la Méditerranée Egyptian Aramaic. Second revised 42) edition, Leiden/Boston 2003 (Handbuch Hausleiter, A./Schaudig, H., Stèle cintrée der Orientalistik I/32) de Nabonide, roi de Babylone, in: A. Naveh, J., The Development of the Aramaic I. Al-Ghabban/B. André-Salvini/F. Script, Jerusalem 1970 (Proceedings Demange/C. Juvin/M. Cotty (Hrsgg.), of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Routes d’Arabie. Archéologie et histoire Humanities V/1) du royaume d’Arabie saoudite, Paris Nehmé, L., A glimpse of the development of 2010, p. 252f. the Nabataean script into Arabic based on Knauf, E. A., The Persian Administration in old and new epigraphic material, in: M. Arabia, in: Transeuphratène 2 (1990), C. A. Macdonald (ed.), The development pp. 201–217 of Arabic as a written language, Oxford Livingstone, A., New light on the ancient 2010 (Supplement to the Proceedings of town of Taimāʾ, in: M. J. Geller/J. the Seminar for Arabian Studies 40), pp. C. Greenfield/M. P. Weitzman (eds.), 47‒88 Studia Aramaica. New Sources and Robin, Ch. J., La lecture et l’interpretation de New Approaches. Papers delivered at l’abécédaire Raʾs Shamra 88.2215. La prevue par l’Arabie?, in: C. Roche (ed.), the London Conference of The Institute D’Ougarit à Jérusalem. Recueil d’études of Jewish Studies, University College épigraphiques et archéologiques offert à London, 26th-28th June 1991, Oxford Pierre Bordreuil, Paris 2008 (Orient & 1995 (Journal of Semitic Studies Suppl. Méditerranée 2), pp. 233‒244 4), pp. 133–143 Schwiderski, D., Die alt- und reichsaramäischen Macdonald, M. C. A., Trade routes and trade Inschriften. Band 2: Texte und goods at the northern end of the ʻincense Bibliographie, Berlin/New York 2004 roadʼ in the first millennium B.C., in: A. (Fontes et Subsidia ad Bibliam pertinentes Avanzini (ed.), Profumi d’Arabia. Atti 2). del convegno, Roma 1997, pp. 333–349 Sima, A., Aramaica aus Dedan und Taymāʾ, Macdonald, M. C. A., Reflections on the in: Arabian archaeology and epigraphy linguistic map of pre-Islamic Arabia, in:
Stuttgarter Theologische Themen - Band/Vol. VIII (2013) 43 10 (1999), pp. 54–57 (=1999a) cal and historical aspects can be found there. Sima, A., Die lihyanischen Inschriften von al- Already published inscriptions are cited with ʿUḏayb (Saudi-Arabien), Rahden/Westf. Siglum Teima+Number according to the num- 1999 (Epigraphische Forschungen auf der bering of Schwiderski (2004) 410–413. Arabischen Halbinsel 1) (=1999b) 6 For the terminological discussion cf. Mac- Stein, P., Ein aramäischer Kudurru aus donald (2000), who prefers the name „Dada- Taymāʾ?, in: M. Krebernik und H. nitic“. The separation into an (older) Dedanic Neumann (ed.), Babylonien und seine and a (later) Liḥyanic phase found in older Nachbarn in neu- und spätbabylonischer literature cannot be sustained. Zeit. Wissenschaftliches Kolloquium aus 7 In his foreword to the monography of Farès- Anlass des 75. Geburtstages von Prof. Dr. Drappeau (2005) 17 Ch. Robin speaks of Joachim Oelsner. Jena, 2. und 3. März up to 1000 known Liḥyanic inscriptions, of 2007, Münster (Alter Orient und Altes which one have has been published. The ibid. Testament) (i. Dr. 1) 127–231 edited texts, which mainly contain the Stein, P., Die reichsaramäischen Inschriften larger inscriptions, count 166 numbers. Several der Kampagnen 2005–2009 aus Taymāʾ, further texts have been edited by Sima (1999). in: Taymāʾ I (i. Dr. 2) 8 Cited according to Sima (1999) 38. Cf. for the following ibid. 49–51 as well as Farès- Drappeau (2005) 122–126. ENDNOTES 9 For the assumption of coexistence of a Liḥyanic dynasty with Persian rule (thus for 1 Cavigneaux/Ismail (1990) Nr. 2, col. iv, instance Knauf (1990) 205f.) there is no ap- 26–38 (translation changed according to parent reason: The addition of the name of a ibid., 351). This is a clay table copy of an Liḥyanic king in a lacune mentioning “Gov- unpreserved commemorative inscription of ernor of Dedān” (fḥt ddn) in the end of JSliḥ this ruler, which must have been set up in one 349 = Caskel 55 = D 153 is in no way binding of his residences in or around the city Anat (cf. the edition in Farès-Drappeau (2005) 221, in middle Euphrates. For the interpretation which leaves open the end of the text). of the content of this text cf. also Macdonald 10 Thus Muraoka/Porten (2003) 3 – 6. Certainly (1997) 338–340. this has been a gradual process whose imple- 2 Cf. tentatively Eichmann/Schaudig/Hauslei- mentation may have taken several generations ter (2006) sowie Hausleiter/Schaudig 2010. longer in peripheral regions of Aramaic writing 3 Cf. for the following tentatively Stein (i. Dr. culture than in cultural centres. 1) which substantiates the intperpretation of 11 The name of the ruler in l. 1 of this inscrip- the inscription which is taken as basis here, tion renders the etymologically identical including references to older literature; an sound /ḏ/ with d which could be a reflex of extensive revision of the text according to an this transition period. On the other hand it is autopsy of the stele which has been carried out not established at all that the realization of by A. Hausleiter and P. Stein is in preparation. this phoneme in the Aramaic of the time was 4 The text is subdivided into sense units; the identical with that of the neighbouring early raised numbers stand for line positions on the north Arabian dialect of Liḥyān. stele. 12 That the rulers which are mentioned in the 5 The texts which are introduced in what fol- Liḥyanic inscriptions only represent a part of lows will be published in Stein (i. Dr. 2); also the dynasty is illuminated by the circumstance information on the already published inscrip- that in the Aramaic inscriptions from Tayma at tions from Tayma as well as a detailed discus- least one further so far completely unknown sion of the only slightly mentioned philologi- king of Liḥyān appears (TA 8827+8828:
44 Band/Vol. VIII (2013) - Stuttgarter Theologische Themen Ġulaym (or ʿUlaym) Šahrū). Also the length Macdonald (2009) 212–215. of reigns must surely exceed the years which 22 The epigraphic finds of recent years from (by chance) are mentioned in the texts. the entire north-west of the Arabian peninsula 13 Cf. the extensive publication of Müller/al- make clear, that the assumed gap between the Said (2002). dwindling Nabatean sources and the emer- 14 Cf. again for clarification Macdonald (2000), gence of Arabic writing culture in the 6./7. especially 33f. incl. note 30. The best historical centuries can no longer be taken seriously, on linguistic description of early north Arabian this matter cf. especially Nehmé (2010). dialects is given by Macdonald (2004). 15 Karkamiš A15b § 19f., cf. the latest edition of Hawkins (2000) 130–133. On the ibid. 133 offered proposals for the identification of the respective toponyms cf. the extensive plea of Livingstone (1995) 134–137 for the above given interpretation, which is also cautiously followed by Macdonald (1997) 340f. 16 Cf. Robin (2008), who also considers Tayma as a hub through which early north and ancient south Arabian writings might have been dis- tributed on the Arabian peninsula. 17 This conclusion is already reached by Knauf (1990) 206f by means of the epigraphic finds which were known then, but have – as has al- ready been shown – doubled in the meantime. 18 Which are very few – aditionally to the very short rock inscriptions from al-ʿUlā and sourroundings (cf. Sima (1999a) 54f.) – and by number stand in no proportion to the cor- responding documentation in Tayma or to the wider evidence of Liḥyanic inscriptions in Dedan. 19 This transition even becomes evident within one written document that has been found during the campaign of the year 2011. The grave stele TA 10277 contains the grave inscriptions of three women from different periods underneath each other: one in imperial Aramaic relief script whose characteristic style corresponds almost completely to that of the pillar inscription TA 2382, one in transition form and a third in Nabatean script. 20 Without siglum published by Al-Najem/ Macdonald (2009); the interpretation given above follows the former description. 21 First published by Franz Altheim and Ruth Stiehl in the year 1968; cf. the extensive new edition with corrected a reading by Al-Najem/
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