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Aramaic in Tayma: on the Linguistic Situation of the Oasis in the 2Nd Half of the 1St Millennium BC

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Aramaic in Tayma: on the Linguistic Situation of the Oasis in the 2Nd Half of the 1St Millennium BC Peter Stein ARAMAIC IN TAYMA: ON THE LINGUISTIC SITUATION OF THE OASIS ND ST IN THE 2 HALF OF THE 1 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 <in>(?) this house inscription into the late 5th/beginning 4th cen- for[ever]. tury as proposed by J. Naveh (1970), should be taken seriously, most likely Artaxerxes II The text quite obviously follows a Babylonian would come into consideration, which means form: The motif of mentioning names by the that our stele was probably written around the superior triad of gods in lines 2-4 and the year 380. curse formulas in lines 13-16 and at the end of the text are well known from cuneiform The text of the stele is about the transfer of literature, whereas the focus on transfer of ownership of a certain number of date palm agricultural land is reminiscent of the so- trees to the priest of a subordinate deity in called land grant certificates or Kudurru from Tayma with the obvious purpose of secur- Middle- and Neo-Babylonian periods. Also, ing the care of the family of this priest, thus the imagery beautification of the stele has its permanently ensuring the maintenance of the prototypes definitely in the Mesopotamian sanctuary:4 region. Language and writing are neverthe- less Aramaic - and thus follow the customs as On [(day) X of (the month) Tišr]ī of the practiced by the Achaemenids outside of the year 22(?) [of Artaxerxes(?),] (2) [the ki] heartland of cuneiform culture. The Louvre n[g, in Taym]āʾ. stele is therefore at the beginning of several centuries of anchoring of the Aramaic written Ṣalm of [Maḥram, ŠNGLʾ] (3) and [ʾA]šīmā, language, known as Imperial Aramaic, in the the gods of Taymāʾ, for [Ṣa]lm of (4) [H] oasis of Tayma. G[M] [they have mentioned(?)] his name. On this day ... (5–8) [ ... ] (9) [ ... ] Therefore(?) The epigraphic documentation from the oasis ... this [ste]le(?), (10) [ ... Ṣal]mšēzeb, the has grown considerably with the Saudi-Ger- son of Petosiris, (11) in the house of Ṣalm man excavations of recent years. The number of HGM. of known Imperial Aramaic written records from Tayma has almost doubled in the last Therefore the gods (12) Taymāʾ have granted decade from 33 to 64 texts. However - this to Ṣalmšēzeb, the son of Petosiris, (13) and relatively high number is not accompanied to his descendants in the house of Ṣalm of by a corresponding substantive yield of the 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).
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