Semitic Epigraphy

A new West Semitic inscription from Khirbet Qeiyafa is presented. It was incised in Canaanite alphabetic script on a pottery storage jar before firing. Radiometric dating of the relevant layer has yielded a date of ca. 1020–980 b.c.e. The last few years have seen the publication of several new Semitic alphabetic inscriptions dated to the late 11th–10th centuries b.c.e. and originating at controlled excavations in Israel (Khirbet Qeiyafa, Beth Shemesh, Tell eṣ-Ṣâfi, and Jerusalem). The new inscription is an important addition to this corpus.

A lot has been said and written about the so-called Ethiopic civilization said to have been built by unspecified white South Arabians into Black Africa, chiefly the Horn, in the 3 rd century Christian era. While such colonial mentality has gradually ebbed away in this (pot-)modern era, its vestige is yet thriving in Ethiosemitic circles. Scholars have hardly subjected this narrative to critical analysis. Only Ayele Bekerie has significantly destabilized this century-old phantasmagorical history. He explicated that it was but an hegemonic epistemology imposed upon African Ethiopians by few Indo-Semitic external paradigm that, in turn, continued to miseducate Abyssinian historians originating out of monastic education. Yet, Bekerie himself falls short of a paradigm-shifter role, since he, among other fallacies, could not make a break with the unexplained Ge'ez or Ethiopic speaking 'people'. This paper critically and multidisciplinarily analyzed both Bekerie's skeptic and Indo-Semitists' de-Africanizing discourses in the name of 'Ethiopic'. It showed that 'Ethiopic' was a colonial era conspiracy fabricated by means of dogmatic translation/transliteration and/or systematically distorted re-construction with the intention to misappropriate the autochthonous peoples' social epistemological texts, linguistic or non-linguistic, and ultimately left them physically, nationally and ideologically ever divided and 'historically' disoriented. This not only disrupted their civilization but also pulled them back to pre-classical times of 'nation-building'. This conspiracy is also partly responsible for unending tendencies of separationism, ethnocentrism, fundamentalism, and theocracticalautocratic-militarist totalitarian states and, consequently, unending and equal share of impecuniousness. This paper explicates how and why Ethiopic has neither been engineered by a social history of their own (Ethiosemites or Abyssinians) nor of by their South Arabic 'ancestors'. It also shades lights on how this miseducation is significant area of further critical inquiry for future young researchers on Ethiopian and Horn of African history from postcolonial, open-mind, deconstructivist and reconciliatory and peacebuilding perspective.

Some comments on the Inscription of Zuhayr, allegedly mentioning the death of Caliph Umar. Final proofs, to appear in M. Groß & K.-H. Ohlig, Die Entstehung einer Weltreligion V, Der Koran als Werkzeug der Herrschaft;
INÂRAH, Schriften zur frühen Islamgeschichte und zum Koran Band 9, Schiler & Mücke, Berlin 2020, 11-51.

A new West Semitic inscription from Khirbet Qeiyafa is presented. It was incised in Canaanite alphabetic script on a pottery storage jar before firing. Radiometric dating of the relevant layer has yielded a date of ca. 1020–980 b.c.e. The last few years have seen the publication of several new Semitic alphabetic inscriptions dated to the late 11th–10th centuries b.c.e. and originating at controlled excavations in Israel. The new inscription is an important addition to this corpus.

The term «neopunic» was chosen by epigraphists for epigraphical purposes: to name and distinguish a writing system and the inscriptions written adopting it. This paper analyses features and problems related to this writing system and to its group of documents as a part of the Punic world’s writing history. It discuses the problematic use of the «neopunic» label with historical or cultural meaning and attempts to improve the knowledge about the historical period or cultural form which the term could define.

El término «neopúnico» fue creado por epigrafistas para propósitos epigráficos: denominar y distinguir una escritura y las inscripciones en las que era usada. El presente texto analiza las características y problemas de este sistema gráfico y de su grupo documental como parte de la historia de la escritura en el mundo púnico. Pretende contribuir al debate sobre el eventual uso del término con propósitos históricos o culturales y al conocimiento de la etapa o forma cultural a la que definiría.

Wenn wir einen Blick auf den spätantiken Großraum Syrien/ Palästina des 7. Jahrhunderts werfen, der Zeit, als der Islam als Religion entstanden sein soll, dann blicken wir auf ein interessantes und komplexes Mosaik von Kulturen und Sprachen. Mehrere Sprachen wurden gesprochen und geschrieben, wir treffen aber auch auf eine weitverbreitete Fehleinschätzung: dass die Araber nämlich in vorislamischer Zeit Analphabeten gewesen seien. Nichts könnte der Wahrheit ferner liegen. Grob gesagt war das antike Arabien in drei geographische Regionen geteilt: Arabia Felix, Deserta and Petraea.

This article presents an analysis of the neo-Punic funerary inscriptions construed with the verb ṭnʾ - traditionally translated as “to erect.” A new etymology and meaning of this verb is presented. Furthermore, other morpho-syntactic issues are discussed, including the usage of z as a relative pronoun in neo-Punic.

It is rather unusual for inscriptions with the name of a biblical settlement in the Land of Israel to be found at the actual site to fix its identification conclusively.  It is fortunate if one such inscription is found. In the case of Tell el-Jezer, by the latest count, no less than 13 lapidary inscriptions, seemingly contemporary with one-another, have come to light confirming that it is indeed the site of biblical Gezer. The last of these was discovered by chance in 2012. This short review examines the special distribution of their respective find spots and considers both their possible date and purpose.

In Near Eastern texts, mention is made of a goddess ‘ttrt ḫr/‘štrt ḥr which is sometimes rendered as the “Hurrian Astarte.” Until now, the second element * ḫr* has not been satisfactorily explained. In this article, a new etymology of the latter word is proffered
and this manifestation of the goddess Astarte is then associated with  Ἀφροδίτης λιµνησία “Aphrodite of the salt marshes.” It would then seem that this avatar of this Greek maritime goddess was borrowed from the Semitic world.

Nordarabique ancien est une appellation conventionnelle qui regroupe plusieurs écritures alphabétiques consonantiques de la tradition sémitique du sud et attestées par des milliers de graffiti et d'inscriptions : taÿmanitique, dadanitique, safaïtique, hismaïque et thamoudique (ce dernier incluant, à son tour, plusieurs variétés graphiques).

Important note:
The following text is a slightly revised version of:
Manfred Kropp:  “Versioni independenti o traduzione? – Rilettura delle lamine d’oro di Pyrgi”, in: Cultural Circulations in the Ancient Mediterranean. Atti della Sesta giornata Camito-Semitica e Indeuropea = I Convegno Internazionale di Linguistica dell'area mediterranea, Sassari, 24-27 April 1991. Cagliari 1994. 189-196.

The English translation was done automatically by DeepL. The result of the automatic translation has not been revised by human mind.
Any proposals for a place of publishing are welcome.

Authors: Arbach M., Rossi I. The four new inscriptions published here (Kamna 30 A, B, 31, 32 and 33), which come from illegal excavations and belong to a Yemeni private collection, shed new light on the relationship between the kingdom of Sabaʾ and the city-states of the Jawf. They provide new synchronisms between the kings of Sabaʾ and those of Kamna, allowing the proposal of a more precise chronology of the city-states of the Jawf for the second half of the eighth century and the early seventh century BC.