Proceedings of the Twenty Thrid SEMINAR FOR ARABIAN STUDIES held at London on 18th - 20th July 1989 || THE BASALT DESERT RESCUE SURVEY AND SOME PRELIMINARY REMARKS ON THE SAFAITIC

THE BASALT DESERT RESCUE SURVEY AND SOME PRELIMINARY REMARKS ON THE SAFAITICINSCRIPTIONS AND ROCK DRAWINGSAuthor(s): Geraldine KingSource: Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, Vol. 20, Proceedings of the TwentyThrid SEMINAR FOR ARABIAN STUDIES held at London on 18th - 20th July 1989 (1990), pp.55-78Published by: ArchaeopressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41223258 .

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55

THE BASALT DESERT RESCUE SURVEY AND SOME PRELIMINARY REMARKS ON THE SAFAITIC INSCRIPTIONS AND ROCK DRAWINGS

Géraldine King

The basalt desert in northern Jordan lies in the northeast of the country stretching from about 15 kilometres east of Mafraq to a few kilometres west of Ruwaishid. Within this region during the course of oil exploration over 600 kilometres of seismic lines have been constructed by removing the surface scatter of boulders and rocks to allow seismic vibrators access to this extremely difficult terrain- The lines form an irregular grid across an area of approximately 14O kms from west to east. Along each line there are two parallel tracks about 55 metres apart with intermittent tranverse tracks between them. During the construction of the tracks two bulldozer teams worked simultaneously on different lines- Each team consisted of four bulldozers , two working along each track, the one in front carrying out the initial clearance and the other following behind tidying or "cleaning up*. The lines were flagged out by means of compass bearings about 1 kilometre ahead of the bulldozer teams. The surveyors worked in a corridor of error of approximately 500 metres and once the bulldozing was

completed they returned to plot the actual position of the lines.

In an area of such archaeological and epigraphic richness it

was evident that during the construction of the tracks , a large number of structures and sites , as well &s Safaitic inscriptions

and rock art would be destroyed and it was with the intention of

recording these that the basalt desert rescue survey was intiated.

Miss Rebecca Montague conducted the archaeological aspect of the

survey and I recorded the epigraphic material.



56

Fig. 1: Approximate extent of the basalt region in northern Jordan

We started work in the middle of January- By the time we arrived over 50% of the total length of the tracks had been cleared- The bulldozing, however, continued for a further six weeks and we walked, or where the terrain permitted and the speed of the bulldozers necessitated it, we drove in front of the crews. We were able to make brief sketch plans, surface collections of artefacts and to take photographs of the sites and epigraphic material- The larger sites and structures were only partially damaged or dissected by the bulldozed tracks but smaller structures or groups of inscriptions were completely destroyed and in several

cases when we returned to a site we found that all traces of it had

disappeared-



57

The speed with which we had to work meant that it was often impossible to photograph all the inscriptions and rock art and so a selection was made on the subjective basis of the importance and significance of the material. The location of sites was done with the 1:50,000 maps of the area although these were often found to be inaccurate and after the vibrator points had been marked along the tracks we were able to use these as well.

Once the bulldozing was completed, we spent a further three weeks returning to sites on the lines in order to make more detailed records and to investigate other potentially important sites within the immediate vicinity of the tracks. In addition we drove along some of the lines that had been bulldozed before we arrived, recording the archaeological and epigraphic material threatened by its proximity to the tracks. The distances involved meant that almost all the subsequent survey work was conducted by car and usually only along one of the two parallel tracks. The results therefore present no more than a sampling of epigraphic and archaeological sites as without covering an area on foot, flint scatters, isolated inscriptions and less distinct structures are inevitably missed.

During the survey 409 archaeological sites were located and recorded. Epigraphic material (largely Safaitic inscriptions and rock art) was found at 140 of these and at a further 68 locations lying in boulder scatter without any asscociated structures- Sites were located dating from the Middle Palaeolithic to modern times, the latter, represented by bedouin campsites, corrals and graves. The epigraphic material recorded includes approximately 2000 Safaitic inscriptions, 4 Thamudic В inscriptions, 3 Aramaic

inscriptions, 7O Kufic and 3 Greek inscriptions as well as 35О

drawings.

Apart from the value of the rescue work of the survey, the

corpus of epigraphic material recorded is extremely important. The

Safaitic inscriptions contain many new expressions and the rock

art, much of which is very well preserved, is of exceptionally high

quality and depicts interesting details. At this stage it is only



58

possible to give a brief description of some of the points that

have emerged from an initial sorting of the material.

There are many new proper names and new names of the social

group *l9 designated in the inscriptions by the expression d * I.

The long genealogies give us new family trees as well as additions

to those occurring in published collections- Among the previously unattested compound names occur * ršmnwt where the deity's name is

written with a plene spelling against the more usual mni ; the

deity *ktb, attested in Lihyanite compound names and in a Safaitic

text of unknown provenance (Naveh TSB A) occurs in the name

cbdh* ktb; byd* I ^through or with the hand of 'I' is previously

attested in Sab. (Hin: 126) and in Ammonite (Jackson 1983: 511) -

Two non-Semitic names occur in the name and patronym of an author

grgs bn *qlds "Georgius son of Claudius" .

Naturally within such an extensive region the bulldozers

worked across a variety of terrain and areas of different types of

basalt. To a certain extent these differences influenced the

distribution and quantities of inscriptions that were found, as, in

areas of light scatter or where the rocks are vesiculated and rough

although there were usually some inscriptions, the paucity of rock

or its bad quality did not attract large numbers of inscribers. The

texts were found at diverse locations , in boulder scatter in areas

of no distinctive topographic features, on or near basalt outcrops

and on isolated plugs. Large numbers of texts were often found on

or near structures.

The archaeological report being prepared by Miss Montague will

show the variety of these structures which ranged from broad based

cairns, cleared circular areas to indistinct low-lying mounds of

stones. The inscriptions mention h bly (cf. Sab. blwt "a tomb'

(Beeston et al. 1982:29) and Ar. bal i yy ah "a she-camel that is tied

to the grave of its master and left to die'), h r§m (cf. Ar. rajam

"cairn'), w çwy (cf. Ar. sawwaya "set up stones'), h nçb, h mçb

(cf. Ar. nadaba, "set up a stone'), h nfst (cf. Nab. nfš (Cantineau

1932:121))- Semi-circular structures are referred to as h -У ir or h

strt (cf. Ar. sitr and sutrah "shelter, cover, hide'). Frequently,



59

the use of these sites both prior and subsequent to the Safaitic period means that it is difficult to work out the exact nature of the Safaitic structure. Even during the Safaitic period as the inscriptions inform us, they were used for different purposes . An interesting expression occurs in a text which states w * hd h rgm "And he took possession of the cairn" which probably implies the author took over an existing cairn . At three of the sites we recorded texts that claim the cairn is for someone ( I N h rgm) and in one case an inscription reads / N h rgm w mçlgc m The latter word might be loosely translated "resting-place* although the meaning of madjac in Ar. "a place in which one lies upon one's side' is more

7 specific .

There is a fairly large attested vocabulary in Safaitic of

words expressing grief or sorrow for dead or absent friends or

relations (see for instance the list in Winnett and Harding 1978:

29). Winnett and Harding list the different relations that are

mentioned in their publication in "grieving' contexts (father,

mother, grandfather, son, brother, uncle, loved one). In the

present corpus a man grieves for mrbyh zn* I "his fostered child

гпМ1 (Ar. murraban) and htnh "his wife's relation (see С 4988)

and, in another inscription in this context a previously unattested

broken plural occurs э dwdh * rbc t "his four paternal uncles' (pi- of

dd (cf. Syr. dad)). The text also mentions yhwlh 9 rbc t "his four

maternal uncles' (see С 2534, 2779, 29558 cf. Ar. hni, *ahwUl)m

Many of the texts refer to the pasturing of camels, goats and

sheep and in this context refer to a variety of topographic

features: w rcy h nhl (see WH 3104 cf. Syr. nehei) "valley'; w rcy h sr (see С 3234, cf. Ar. sirr) "low part of a valley'; w rcy h c rçí

(See С 2ООЗ etc. cf. АГ. c irci) "the low-lying ground'; w rcy h tlct

(see С 2206, cf. Ar. talacah) "high or elevated ground' ; w rcy h

rçít (see WH 2142 etc., cf. Ar. rauçtah) "a verdant tract of land'; w

rcy h rhbt (see WH 74 etc., cf. Ar. rahabah) "a tract, spacious

piece of ground'9; w rcy h ?hf t (cf. Ar. çafihah) "a wide, broad i о

stone' perhaps referring to an area of flat rocks . The texts

mention the basalt region Ar. harrah specifically and water

courses that flow from basalt covered land w rcy h rglt and w rcy h



60

šrgt (cf.. Ar. rijlah and šarj (or šarjah "a place in which water

flows' ))12.

The texts describe the type of pasture э/ (cf. Ar. yanf) "the

first pasture*, bql (cf. Ar.baqi) "spring pasture'. It is possible

that particular plants are mentioned in the texts £h,(cf.Ar. šth) " Artemisia* , w rcy h šrgt šh13 and hfg, (cf. Ar. hafaj)

" Diplotaxis

Hanns9, w rcy h *Ы hf§±4t.

Unlike the Thamudic E texts found in the Hismi desert of

southern Jordan and northwestern Saudi Arabia the inscriptions are

often accompanied by a curse on anyone who damages the text.

Frequently blindness is invoked in the expression c wr I d cwr (or

in variant forms of it) although there is a wide variety of less

commonly invoked adversities: hrs (see WH 368, С 1865 etc., cf. Ar.

haras) "dumbness', c r J (see WH 368, C1087 etc., cf. Ar. caraj)

"lameness', hkk (see WH 368, cf. Ar. hukUk) "itching', grb (see WH

368, C277915, cf. Ar. Ja rab) "mange', mhlt (see WH 24, cf. Ar. mahl)

"dearth, drought',. In one of the texts found several other

misfortunes are invoked; hrm (cf. Ar. harm) "mutilation of the

nose', srm (cf. Ar. ârm) "severance (from friends)', |w* (cf. Ar.

tawal) "madness', bhm (cf. Ar. * abham) "dumbness', ksr (cf. Ar.

kusira and kisr) "broken limb' bhr (cf. Ar. bahr) "being overcome'.

The authors record movements. One man states w syr m mdbr I

hmst *rh "And he Journeyed from the desert for five months' where

the word 'rh, which must be a broken plural, is used for "months'

(cf. Syr yarhU and Sab. vrh Beeston et al. 1982: 162) rather than

>šhr (Ar. šhr, pl.'Sfcr, see WH 2302, 3792a)16- The authors

occasionally give the name of the place to or from which they are

travelling. nmrt, Nemarah, and tdmr9 Tadmur (Palmyra), for

instance, are mentioned. In the present collection someone relates

that he was hastening from £Ícd, Gilead, an area roughly equivalent

to the BalqeT region of modern Jordan (Koehler and Baujngartner

1985: 185-186) to Tadmur (KR 1, see Fig. 2 and PI. I a)17, fflftd,

Salkhad, is mentioned in a different context in another

18 inscription



61

There are only a few references in the published Safaitic

Corpus to the slaughter of animals or sacrifice, the word mostly used is dbh (cf. Ar. dabaha) . They usually occur in small groups from the same site and most simply state "he sacrificed' although С 4358 and 4360 read ( w dbh I bclsmn) ~he sacrificed for bc Ismn9 . Ule

found references to sacrifice at two sites. At one, a father and

son claim the high ground h smd (cf. Ar. S'ama) and state that they sacrificed or slaughtered a camel or camels on it. The elevated

ground referred to is the top of a wadi bank although the stones

were found lying in a circular structure slightly below the top. We

do not of course know whether the texts had been moved or whether

the circular structure has any relevance to them.

The second group of texts came from the same valley. We found

seven texts altogether written by three brothers and their sons as

well as an individual whose relationship to the others cannot be

determined- The texts were all found in the same area of the site

and one of them reads ь> dbh f h šchqm sim cl h 5Ь/ mtc i I mdbr

"and he sacrificed and O šchqm [grant] security for these camels

provisions for [the] desert* {mtc t cf. Ar. matUc 'provisions' and

mut c ah "small quantity of food' .

At one site we found two texts dated to snt wsq cbdrb*l Ihyn

"the year cbdrb* I confronted Ihyn9 (see Fig. 2, KR 2 and PI. I b)

The name cbdrb* I is clearly of Nabataean origin, and probably

belongs here to a Nabataean20- It is most likely that Ihyn refers to

a people or tribe21, an obvious candidate being the Lihyãn known

from inscriptions found at el-°Ula and its surrounds in the

northern Hejaz. Winnett (Winnett and Reed 197O: 119-120) has dated

the Lihyanite kingdom from the latter part of the fifth century

B.C. to possibly the second or first century B.C after which it was

absorbed into the Nabataean realm . The confrontation of codrb* I

with Ihyn might refer to an event during the Nabataean take-over

which would place it, at the latest, to some time in the first

century B.C. The texts would therefore be early . It must be borne

in mind, however, that a dating from the Lihyanite texts, only

gives us a terminus for the existence of an independent Lihyanite

kingdom and it is quite likely that the people continued to be



62

known locally as Ihyn. it is possible, therefore, that the

confrontation referred to occurred at a later date after the Lihyan lost their independence.

At another site we found a text which states ь> mrd cl h mlk

grfs ~And he rebelled against the king Agrippa* (KR 3, see Fig. 2

and PI -II a) . The title of the king does not help us to identify

whether the Agrippa referred to is Agrippa I (A.D. 37-44) or

Agrippa II (A. D 50-(?)92/93) ¿6 . The expression w mrd cl might

describe a local act of aggression against the king or the

inscriber of the text might have taken part in a more widespread

dispute, possibly the uprisings in Jerusalem and northeastern

Palestine (A.D. 66-67) throughout which Agrippa II sided with the

Romans.

At the beginning of the survey we were fortunate to find a

Safaitic alphabet (KRA, see Fig. 2 and PI. II b) . It is written on

a small face of a loose boulder with two other inscriptions on a

larger face. It is only the third Early North Arabian alphabet to

have been found in Jordan. A Safaitic alphabet was published by Mr

Michael Macdonald in the Proceedings of the Seminar 1986 and a

Thamudic E /South Safaitic27 alphabet by Dr. Axel Knauf in Levant

1985. The letter order of the three alphabets are:

KRA (Safaitic) Ih^dçbnhdmgwtsèfrdhqt&kztzyt

MaSA Macdonald 1986 (Safaitic)

lscbnzb)gtdrkšfmhšqdt Os h d 5 h t z y

KnA Knauf 1985 (Thamudic E/South Safaitic))

lbgdhwzhtykmnçrcfqstêdut * ? * h

The letters of both the Safaitic alphabets are, on the whole,

arranged according to shape although different criteria have been

used producing a different order except in few cases.

All three alphabets start with I and the two Safaitic ones have

ön near the beginning. Macdonald (1986) argues that the inscribers

of MaSA and KnA had originally intended to write an inscription

giving their names and then, for different reasons, decided to



63

28 write the alphabet . At a first glance KRA also appears to start with the inscriber's name I h* dç bn hdm, the similarity in shape of the letters h* dç being incidental and the idea of writing out the whole alphabet only occurring to the inscriber after the ro. It is,

2 9 however, extremely difficult to explain the letters h> ds as a name and I think it is quite possible that he intended to write the alphabet from the start although such an interpretation raises the question as to why he continued with the sequence of letters bnhdniso m

After the m he has clearly intended to write the alphabet and arranged the letters according to shape, m, g,w and c are based on a loop or a circle and the #,£,/ and I think one might include the г are based on wavey lines or zig-zags. The next seven letters d, b> Я* i> s> k9 z, t9 z are less systematically arranged although all the letters involve straight lines. The sequence t , £ and у occurs in both Safaitic alphabets. In MaSA у is the final letter but here the letter is followed by t which was written in the gap between the h and d on the one side and t and z on the other because the lack of space forced the writer to turn back on himself, y is a letter with a line and a loop and t a line with a loop at either end and so their juxtaposition according to shape is appropriate. The proximity of the t to d, which is a letter with a straight line and a loop in the centre is apt but accidental.

A short report such as this cannot do justice to the corpus of rock drawings recorded during the survey, a detailed study of which would yield considerable information about the Safaitic bedouin. As one would expect (Winnett and Harding 1978; ' 22) the most common drawings are those of single camels most usually described as bkri (Ar. bakrah) "young female camel* (see KRDr. 1 , PI. Ill a, as a

typical example) but also as nqt (Ar. ntlqah) "female camel* and the

male equivalents bkr (Ar. bakr) and gml (Ar. Jamal). They are

represented in different ways, either by outline alone, a single

or in some cases a double or multiple outline, or infilled using

hammering, what appears to be a rubbing technique or different

types of hatching. Hairs are often clearly depicted on the hump and

elsewhere. Drawings of two-humped bactrian camels (Winnett and



64

Harding 1978; 23, 119-120) are comparatively rare but we found a few. In one, the animal is described as h gml , the same word that is used for single-humped camels. There are drawings of mating camels and females suckling their young. Hobbles and udder bags (used to control the amount of milk drunk by the calves) are depicted-

Compositions depicting mounted camels show details of reins, saddles and trappings such as tassels tied to neck bands and girths. KRDr 2 (PI- III b) shows a camel with two riders- One of them in front, holding a stick and the other a radi f , sitting behind the hump. Both men have a T-shaped stick attached to the waist and quivers on their backs. The radtf is holding his bow out in front. Two girths have been drawn, the rear one has what is

possibly a skin pouch hanging from it. In front of the camel four men are fighting on foot with bows and arrows and a fifth is

depicted, slain, with his bow lying behind him.

There are many drawings of horses and horsemen. Different kinds of hatching and decoration are used on the body of the horses (see,

3 3 for instance, KRDr 3 , PI. IV a). Sometimes long flowing manes are

depicted and plumes attached to the horse's forehead. The riders are often carrying spears or a type of lance and hunting animals. The man in KRDr 3 is spearing a somewhat baboon-like representation of a feline, possibly a lion. There is an archer between the legs of the horse and another to the right.

Other fauna that occur alone or in hunting scenes include

ostrich, gazelle and oryx. The last, usually referred to in

Safaitic as dsy (Macdonald 1979: 140), are described as bqr

(Ar.baqar.) in the present collection

A different aspect of Safaitic life is shown in a drawing of a

man ploughing (KRDr 435, PI. IV b) . The yoke is drawn from above and

the animals face out in opposite directions on either side. The man

is shown holding a plough share in one hand and a stick in the

other. Above is a drawing of a scorpion. Unfortunately the

inscription does not refer to the subject of the drawing but the



65

composition may well indicate that the Safaitic bedouin took

advantage of heavy winter rains to plant crops just as the bedouin

do today.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS :

Six weeks of the field work was sponsored by Fina Exploration

Jordan and grants for travel, consolidation work and processing of

the material were given by the British Institute at Amman for

Archaeology and History, Jasmin Tours, the Seven Pillars of Wisdom

Trust (London), the Society of Antiquaries (London), the Wainwright

Fund (Oxford). We would like to thank Dr. Ghazi Bisheh, the

Director General of the Department of Antiquities and Mr K.

Jreisat, the Director General of the Natural Resources Authority

for their help and support during the project. In Amman Mr Pierre

Payan, the General Manager of Fina Exploration Jordan and Dr. A.

Garrard and Miss A. McOuitty of the British Institute at Amman for

Archaeology and History greatly assisted with preparations and

subsequent needs of the project. Our work would not have been

possible without the help given to us by Mr Roger Dowdney and Crew

1669 of Halliburton Geophysical Services who allowed us to use

their facilities and gave us essential logistical support in the

desert. The idea and intial impetus for a rescue survey came from

Mr Michael Macdonald and the project is greatly indebted to him for

his untiring help and support -

NOTES :

1cf. the spelling mnwt in Nab. (Cantineau 1932: 116) and the

variations in Lihyn. * smnt (Hin: 46) and hn*mnut (Hin: 626).

2In Lihyn., see for example grmhn'ktb (Hin: 160), zdhn'ktb (Hin:

297). The name in Naveh TSB A is cbd*ktb. The frequently attested

name >ktb (Hin: 61) might be the deity's name used as a ç>rofêr name

(Milik and Starcky 1975: 119).

3I am grateful to Mr Michael Macdonald for pointing out the

occurrence of the name in Ammonite.

4 Gk. Георугос, Nab. grgys (Milik 1976:150); Saf. qlds .(Hin: 6Oj,

Gk. KKavöbOQ, Nab. qldys (Cantineau 1932: 143).



66

5 For example see the texts at Winnett and Harding 1978 Cairns 9A and В which in addition to referring to rjm, mention h strt (WH

405-406), h сыу (WH 409a-b,646), h mzr (WH 318, 1916, 1961b), h

nfst (WH 2004a).

cf. the use of * hd in Lihyn. JS 45 1.3, 65 1.2, for instance, and *hd in Nab. (Cantineau 1932:59).

In Harding 1953 and 1978 the skeletons were found lying on their

right sides, in Clark: 1981 the bodies had been placed in a supine

position or face downwards at least where the skeletons were

sufficiently in tact to identify the burial position.

The Corpus reads * hwnh in all these inscriptions. 9 Winnett and Harding 1978 interpret h rhbt as the region Ruhbat

which lies southeast of Damascus, however, it is much more likely

in this context that it is a substantive describing the area where

the author was pasturing. 10 The word might be translated from suffnhUt

~ camels whose humps

have become large* but this is less likely. That the word refers to

the topography of the area might be indicated by the fact that the

text is written in sprawling letters over a flattish piece of

rock. 11 Winnett and Harding 1978 translate hrt as a place name in WH 179

(w gzz Ь hrt), 736 (u> qbl I hrt) and 3049 (w qyz hrt) but I think

the word should be translated as "basalt region*, see Oxtoby (ISB

113 v d|* hrt) and Clark (CSNS 107 to dt* mdbr f hrt ~he spent the

spring in [the] desert and basalt region* (/ is the conjunction Ar.

/a and not as Clark suggests "in* Ar. ft)).

12The word šrgt occurs in KR 4 on PI. Ill a.

I3#yh in С 1667 {ь> rcy h rhbt šyh) might also refer to the

Artemisia, a plural form of šth, šiyuh is listed in Kazimirskit

1295.



67

The Arabic name hafaj was given to me by a member of the Sharifut section of the э Ahi al Jebel . i would like to thank Sue Colledge for identifying the plant as Diplotaxis Harret from a photograph and pressed specimen and for pointing out to me that Townsend and Guest 1980: 861 cite descriptions of the plant as good for grazing. WH 171 reads to rc у hfg and ISB 113 to dty hrt hfg (See Beeston 1970: 220

for the translation 4he hcirrah of hfg*) both of these could also

be translated as the name of a plant .

Where the word is read c[to]r.

Since the word is plural we cannot tell what the intial radical

is but it seems to me that torh might attested in WH 597 w rcv toCrJh h dr9 641a to byt b h * rd torh b bql, 2854 I rb bn ghl h dr torh to gzz

where a translation of torh as "for a month' (an adverbial

accusative) is perhaps more satisfactory than Winnett and Harding' s to rh ~And he lived in comfort' (see also Winnett and Harding 1978:29). A variant spelling might occur in yrhn in С ЗО64 which was interpreted by the Corpus and Hin : 666 as a place name but

equally might be translated as a dual "for two months'.* 1 7 The text comes from Site A 382, 1:50,000 map of Jordan, Sheet 3455

II, Grid ref. 473974. I am grateful to Mr Michael Macdonald for

pointing out to me that glcd is already attested in the published Safaitic inscriptions, С 2473, although it was not read as such by the editor. The complete translation of KR 1 would read: "By cqrb son of mc z son of gz I t ; and he found the inscription of msk and

ng5 t ; and so he was tongue tied ? and miserable; and he hastened from glcd to tdmri and so O šchqm [grant] security and freedom from want for whoever is in need*. tcql is previously unattested and I am uncertain how to translate it. Form VIII of the root cql in

Arabic ictaqala means "be unable to speak' and perhaps his misery made him tongue-tied, dtoy (cf. С 383, 2734) Ar. datoiya ~be ill' and

Syr. d*toU "be saď. šhs , (cf. С 8, 12 and LP 342) Littmann 1943:88

translates the word as "want' giving a wider meaning to Ar. šahas

"want of milk* -

±Ssnt brht slhd "the year of the affliction of slhd9 ? cf. Ar. barh

"difficulty, affliction* and see Lane I: 182 for the possibility of

a form birahah or burahah.

* Cf. Glossaire datînois. 1507.



68

1 9 Provenance: Sîte A 235, 1:50,000 map of Jordan, Sheet 3454 IV, Grid Ref. approx. 180819. KR 2 translates: "By whš son of bdbl son of slm son of r/5 i son of kcmh son of cwd son of nzmt of the tribe of hzy; and he built the shelter the year cbdrb* I confronted Ihyn. The other text (a photograph of which is not published here) ends w

tšwq 9l * hh b mdbr f h It sim w hdr snt wsq cbdrb* I Ihyn " And he

longed for his brother in [the] desert; and so It [grant] security; and he was present [here] the year cbdrb* I confronted Ihyn9 .

2°But not necessarily so. A compound name of which ah element is the

name of a Nabataean king {cbdcbdt) is borne by an author of a

Safaitic inscription from Jathum (King, forthcoming). For the name

cbdrb* I in Nabataean, see Cantineau 1932:126. 21 Ihyn occurs as a personal name in Saf. (HIn:513) but other texts

in which the expression snt wsq occurs refer to peoples, see, for

instance, С 742, 2297, 2318.

22Caskel 1953: 39-44 ascribes a much later date to the Li_hyanite texts .

23The Safaitic inscriptions are generally held to have been written

between the first century B.C. and fourth century A.D. For a recent

discussion of the dating of the Safaitic texts, see Macdonald

forthcoming. If the event mentioned in these texts did occur in the

first century B.C. then the element rb* I in the name cbdrb* I would

refer to Rabbel I who reigned during the latter half of the second

century B.C (Starcky 1966:905 and cf. Negev 1975:

535).



69

Provenance: Site A 385, 1:50,000 map of Jordan, Sheet 3455 II, Grid Ref. approx. 563062. A translation of the whole text might read "By c Iïïî son of ?n* I son of c lni; and he rebelled against the king Agrippa, and so О И [grant] deliverance of the breaker of the chain' ?. §rfs Gk. Аургтгяас and Nab- hgrfs (Littmann 1914: 81 no. 102). The transcription of Greek siems and Nabataean sam&kh is already attested in the name dmsy Nab. dmsy (Winnett 1973:54-57). cf. Milik (1960: 179) who questions Winnett's identification of qsr in SIJ 88 as Caesar on the grounds that in Safaitic the name is

spelt with sud but in Nabataean it occurs as qysr with samekh (see also WH 1698, 1725B). I am uncertain about the translation and

interpretation of the end of the text. fsyt (Ar. fasyah) "deliverance' is attested elsewhere in prayers (see, for instance, С 165О) ; ksr (cf. Ar. ¿asara) here perhaps a participle "breaker'; slst (cf. Ar. sisilah ) "a chain'. The expression "the breaker of the chain* might refer to the author of the text who saw himself as the overthrower of the oppression of authority.

25See Schürer 1973; 442-454, 471-483. ^6 Provenance: Site A 18, 1:50,000 map of Jordan, Sheet 3555

III, approx. Grid Ref. 649991.

Knauf has called the inscriptions written in this script'South Safaitic' but I prefer to use Uinnett's (1937) label "Thamudic E' .

26He argues therefore that the I at the beginning of those two texts was originally intended as a Ism suctoris. Knauf 1985:205 had

suggested that the I occurs at the beginning of KnA because it is the letter with which most Safaitic and South Safaitic inscriptions start. 29 h* Us might be a name beginning with the definite particle h (cf. for instance hcbd Hin 617) but I cannot find a root from which the rest of the name might be explained.



70

30 If he had decided to write the alphabet from the start it is unlikely that he would have written his patronym at this stage at least, given that his own name does not occur. He might have written this sequence because his recollection of the letters by shape faltered after s. The sequence b,n is one that he would easily remember from the association of the two letters in the frequently written word on "son of. h,d and m might simply have been the next letters that occurred to him although not on the basis of similarity of shape. If his original intention was to write the alphabet then the I at the beginning is not a lam

Quctoris but, as a straight line, would be an obvious choice for the sequence of letters by shape that first occurred to him - a

straight line, a straight line with a fork, a straight line with a

fork at either end, a straight line with a prong and a straight with a fork at one end and a loop at the other. 3 1 Provenance : A 26, 1:50,000 map of Jordan, Sheet 3555 III , Grid

Ref. approx. 657024. 32 Provenance: Site A 407, 1:50,000 map of Jordan, Sheet 3555 III, Grid Ref. approx. 634023.

^Provenance: Site A 68, 1:50,000 map of Jordan, Sheet 3455 II, Grid

Ref. approx. 513027.

34cf. tr (Ar. taur) in WH 3657b which is surely a bull oryx and

not, as Winnett and Harding 1978: 23 suggest, a bull, implying a

reference to cattle.

35Provenance: A 27, 1,50,000 map of Jordan, Sheet 3555 III, Grid

Ref. approx. 657024.



71

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Beeston, A.F.L. 1970 Review of ISB. JRAS: 219-221.

e£ ai. 1982 Sabaic Dictionary. Louvain/Beirut. Clark, V.A. 1981 "Archaeological Investigations at two

Burial Cairns in the Harra Region of Jordan' . ADAJ 25: 235-265.

Cantineau, J. 1932 Le Nabateen. Vol.11. Paris.

Caskel, W. 1954 Lihyan und Lihyanisch. Cologne and Opladen.

Harding, G.L. 1953 ~The Cairn of Hani". ADAJ 2: 8-56. 1978 ~The Cairn of Sa°d* in Moorey, P.R.S. and

Parr, P.J. eds. Archaeology in the Levant : Essays for Kathleen Kenyon. Warminster. 242-249.

Jackson, K.P. Ammonite Personal Names in the Context of the West Semitic Onomasticon in Meyers, C.L. and О * Connor , M . eds . The Word of the Lord Shall Go Forth. Essays in Honor of David Noel Freedman. American Schools of Oriental Research. Indiana.

King, G.M.H. forthcoming, "Wadi Judayid Epigraphic Survey: A Preliminary Report.* ADAJ (in the press).

Knauf, E. A. 1985 ~A South Safaitic Alphabet from Khirbet es-Samra' ' . Levant 17: 204-206.

Koehler, L. and Baumgart ner, W. 1985 Lexicon in Veteris Testamenti Libros. Leiden-

Littmann, E. 1914 Nabataean Inscriptions. Division IV, Section A of Publications of the Princeton, University Archaeological Expeditions to Syria in 19O4-19O5 and 1909: Leiden. 1943 Safaitic Inscriptions. Division IV, Section С of Publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expeditions to Syria in 19O4-19O5 and 19O9. Leiden.

Macdonald, M. С. A. 1979 Review of WH. PEQ : 137-14О. 1986 ~ABCs and Letter Order in Ancient North

Arabian'. PSAS 16: 101-168.



72

forthcoming "Safaitic Inscriptions' to appear in The Anchor Bible_ Dictionary.

Milik, J.T. I960. Review of SIJ. SYRIA 37: 178-181. and Starcky, J. 1975 Înscriptions récemment

découvertes à Petra.' APAJ 20: 111-13CK Negev, A. 1975 "Nabataeans and the Provincia Arabia* in

Temporini, H. ed. Aufstieg und Niedergang der romischen Ulelt. 2 prt.3: 520-686. Berlin.

Ryckmans, J. 1953 "Inscriptions Historiques Sabéennes de l'Arabie Centrale'. Le Museon 66: 319-342-

Schlirer, E. 1973 The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Christ. Revised and edited by Millar, F. and Vermes, G. Edinburgh.

Starcky, J. 1966 ^Pêtra et la Nabaténe' in Pirot, L. et «i.eds. Supplement au Dictionnaire de la Bible, 6: cols. 886-1017. Paris.

Townsend, C.C and Guest, E. 1980 Flora of Iraq. 4 prt. 2. Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform. Baghdad.

Winnett, F. V. 1937 A Study of the Lihyanite and Thamudic Inscriptions. 1937. 1973 "The Revolt of Damasi; Safaitic and Nabataean Evidence'. BASOR 211: 54-57.

and Harding, G.L. 1978 Inscriptions from Fifty . Safaitic Cairns. Toronto.

and Reed, W.L. 1970 Ancient Records from North Arabia. Toronto.

ABBREVIATIONS

Ar. Standard Arabic С Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum, Pars V, Tomus

I, Fase. I, Paris, 1950-1951. CSNS Clark, V.A. A Study of new Safaitic Inscriptions

from Jordan. Ph.D. thesis, University of Melbourne. 1979: Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms International- 1983.

Gk Greek



73

Hin Harding, G.L. An Index and Concordance of Pre-

Islamic Names and Inscriptions, Toronto- 1971. ISB Oxtoby, W.G., Some Inscriptions of the Saf aitic

Bedouin. American Oriental Series 5O. New Haven. 1968.

JS Texts in Jaussen, A and Savignac, R. , Mission

Archéologique en Arabie, Paris. 1909-1922.

Kazimirski Kazimirski, A., Dictionnaire Arabe Français. I860. Reprint Librairie du Liban, Beirut. 1980,

KR K(ing) RCescue survey) texts

KRA К (ing) RCescue survey) A(lphabet) KRDr К (ing) R(escue survey) Dr(awings) KnA Thamudic E/South Safaitic Alphabet published

in Knauf 1985.

Lane Lane, E.W. An Arabic-English Lexicon. Parts 1-8

1863. Reprint Librairie du Liban, Beirut. 1980.

Lihyn . Lihyanite LP Inscriptions in Littmann 1943.

MaSA Safaitic alphabet published in Macdonald 1986.

Nab. Nabataean

Naveh TSB Inscriptions in Naveh, J. "Ancient North Arabian

Inscriptions on Three Stone Bowls' . Eretz-Israel

14, 1978: 129 (English summary), 179-182

(Hebrew).

pl. plural Sab. Sabaic

Saf. Safaitic

Syr. Syriac WH Texts in Winnett and Harding 1978.



74

Fig. 2: KR 1-3 and KRA (The scale is 10 cms long).



75

PI. I a: KR 1, Z cqrb bn m': z bn gzlt w wgd sfr msk ы hg* t f t c q 1. ы dioy w m ty m gìcd I tdmr J h šchqm sim w gnyt i d $hs

PLI b: KR 2, l wh$ bn bdbl bn sim bn rf*t bn kcmh bn c wd bn nzmt d *l hzy w bny h str snt wsq cbdrb*l I hyn



76

PI. II a: KR 3, l c Im Ьп zn4 Ьп с Im w mrd cl h mlk grfs j h It fsyt ksr h slsl t

PI. II b: KRA, l h 5 d s b n h d m g w c $ è f r d ìì q t s k z t ::< У t



7 7

PI- III a: KRDr 1 and KR 4, / hmth bn rbc h bkrt w rc y h Srgt

PI. Ili b: KRDr 2 and KR 5, l tohb bn hfy bn ' / l h bkrt



78

PI- IV a: KRDr 3 and KR 6, I šmt* l bn *zl bn rsl h hit

PI. IV b: KRDr 4 and KR 7, / bhtn bn $cd bn * nc m io fyl I h ďr



Documents

Proceedings of the Twenty Thrid SEMINAR FOR ARABIAN STUDIES held at London on 18th - 20th July 1989 || THE BASALT DESERT RESCUE SURVEY AND SOME PRELIMINARY REMARKS ON THE SAFAITIC