s ection 10: Q ueries
TA 6151 Square: Area E
Stratigraphic Unit: SU 3426 Context: Debris
Season in which it was excavated: 2006
Location: The south-western part of Building E-b1 (local coordinates: 10002.87 E; 10042.02 N) Material: Sandstone
Dimensions: 18 × 5.5 × 20.5 cm.
A small flake with ap-parent letters in relief, Unfortunately, too little remains to determine the script. However, compare TA 8846 in Section 2.
TA 6151 Square: Area E
Stratigraphic Unit: SU 100 Context: Surface
Season in which it was found: 2008
Location: Surface, outside of excavation trench Material: Sandstone
Dimensions: 8.5 × 10.7 × 3 cm.
A small flake with apparent letters in relief, Unfortunately, too little remains to determine the script. However, compare TA 8846 in Section 2.
Fig. 10.2 TA 6151 (© DAI, Orient-Abteilung, J. Kramer).
Fig. 10.1 TA 4852 (© DAI, Orient-Abteilung, M. Cusin).
ٌ ءزج
Michael C. A. Macdonald
170 TA 9111.1
Square: Area E, Building E-b1 / E1 Stratigraphic Unit: SU 1767 Context: Fill
Season in which it was excavated: 2009 (Hausleiter 2018a, 73)
Location: Eastern part of Building E-b1, shaft of the tunnel (local coordinates: 10009.06 E, 10051.19 N)
Material: Pottery (altogether four sherds of a jar)
One of four body sherds of a globular closed vessel characterised by its orange colour and its coarse sandy texture. Macrofabric 5 (see Hausleiter 2014, 424 Table 2). The inscription was grooved into the surface before the application of a slip. The sherd probably belongs to the same vessel as TA 17304.1 (see below), also found within the fill of the tunnel between E-b1 and the well to East of it. According to the stylistically homogeneous pottery assemblage retrieved from the tunnel fill SU 9551, the vessel can be dated at the earliest to the second quarter of the 1st mil-lennium AD (Francelin Tourtet).
It should be noted that while TA 9111.1 and TA 17304.1 may have belonged to the same vessel, the “inscriptions” on them have very different forms and cannot have belonged to the same text.
Fig. 10.3 TA 9111.1 (© DAI, Orient-Abteilung, M. Cusin, C. Hölzel).
TA 9111.1
Fig. 10.4 TA 9111.1 (© DAI, Orient-Abteilung, E. Götting, A. Borlin).
ٌ ءزج
ٌ
ٌروّخبٌةقرحمٌنم TA 14280
ٌ(
ٌرماركٌ.يٌ،قرشلاٌمسقٌ،ينامللأاٌراثلآاٌدهعملٌةظوفحمٌرشنلاٌقوقح
ٌ.)
ٌ
لكشلا
ٌٌٌ10.1 TA 4852
ٌٌ
ٌٌراثلآاٌدهعملٌةظوفحمٌرشنلاٌقوقح(
ٌمسقٌ،ينامللأا
ٌقرشلا
ٌٌ.مٌ،
ٌن َزوك
ٌ).
ٌ
لكشلا 10.2
ٌٌٌ
TA 6151
ٌٌ
ٌٌراثلآاٌدهعملٌةظوفحمٌرشنلاٌقوقح(
ٌمسقٌ،ينامللأا
ٌقرشلا
ٌ،
ٌي
ٌرماركٌ.
ٌ).
ٌ
لكشلا
ٌٌٌ10.3 TA 9111.1
ٌٌ
ٌراثلآاٌدهعملٌةظوفحمٌرشنلاٌقوقح(
ٌٌمسقٌ،ينامللأا قرشلا
ٌَزوكٌ.مٌ،
ٌن
ٌسٌ،
ٌ.ٌ
ٌلستلوه
ٌ).
ٌ
لكشلا 10.4
ٌٌٌ
TA 9111.1
ٌٌ
ٌراثلآاٌدهعملٌةظوفحمٌرشنلاٌقوقح(
ٌٌمسقٌ،ينامللأا قرشلا
ٌ،
ٌ.إٌٌ
ٌ توغ
ٌنيلروبٌ.أٌ/ٌغن
ٌ).
ٌ
لكشلا
ٌٌٌ10.5 TA 14280
ٌٌ
ٌٌراثلآاٌدهعملٌةظوفحمٌرشنلاٌقوقح(
ٌمسقٌ،ينامللأا قرشلا
ٌٌ،
ٌي
ٌرماركٌ.
ٌ).
ٌ
لكشلا 10.6
ٌٌٌ
TA 17304.1
ٌٌ
ٌٌراثلآاٌدهعملٌةظوفحمٌرشنلاٌقوقح(
ٌٌمسقٌ،ينامللأا قرشلا
ٌٌ،
ٌي
ٌرماركٌ.
ٌ).
ٌ
لكشلا
ٌٌٌ10.7 TA 17304.1
ٌٌ
ٌٌراثلآاٌدهعملٌةظوفحمٌرشنلاٌقوقح(
ٌٌمسقٌ،ينامللأا قرشلا
ٌ،ٌٌ
ٌإٌ.
ٌ توغٌٌ
ٌنيلروبٌ.أٌ/ٌغن
ٌ).
ٌ
S.170
لكشلا 10.4 TA 9111.1
راثلآا دهعمل ةظوفحم رشنلا قوقح(
مسق ،ينامللأا قرشلا
، .إ توغ غن ، نيلروب .أ ).
S.173
لكشلا 10.8 TA 17304.1
راثلآا دهعمل ةظوفحم رشنلا قوقح(
مسق ،ينامللأا قرشلا
، إ . توغ غن ، نيلروب .أ ).
171 TA 12271.20
Square: Area-E-East/E18 Stratigraphic Unit: SU 1775 Context: Floor
Season in which it was excavated: 2012 Location: East of E-b1
Material: Pottery
Dimensions: 7.2 × 8.3 × 1.2 cm
A sherd with what could be four Dadanitic letters scratched into it.
A body fragment from a vessel of indeter-minable shape and date. Macrofabric 3 (see Hausleiter 2014, 424 Table 2). There are incisions which were made on the leather- hard, unfired vessel the original surface of which was probably covered by a slip. How-ever, nothing of this remains, apparently not even in the incised lines. The context (SU 1775; Square E18) from which it comes probably dates to the late first millennium BC, but it also contains earlier material and thus does not allow a closer dating of the vessel (Francelin Tourtet).
Too little remains of the incisions to determine whether they are lettters and, if so, what script they would represent.
Fig. 10.5 TA 12271.20 (© DAI, Orient-Abteilung, F. Tourtet).
TA 14280
Square: Area E / E–South/F, baulk between E3 and E6 Stratigraphic Unit: SU 6558
Context: Debris
Season in which it was excavated: 2014
Location: Above Building E-b9 (local coordinates: 10002.00 E, 10028.11 N) Material: Sandstone
Dimensions: 29.9 × 28.4 × 6.1 cm
The front of a sandstone incense burner. The face is divided into two areas with a band of vertical cuts between deep horizontal incisions above each. The upper panel contains two lines of text and the lower one three surviving lines, but everything below the third has been lost. A large and deep chip has removed the left-hand third of the upper panel and, in the lower panel, another chip has removed the last letter of the first line and the left half, or more, of the second and third lines and everything below them. The characters are carefully incised but they look as if they are a mixture of Nabataean forms with letters from an unknown script. It is difficult to identify any of the signs in the upper register. However, in the lower register one could perhaps read
(3). {r}y{n/ʿ}{ʾ} lḥ----(4). hy {p/w}{l}----(5). ḥh
لكشلا 10.5 TA 12271.20
راثلآا دهعمل ةظوفحم رشنلا قوقح(
مسق ،ينامللأا قرشلا
، هيتروت .ف ).
لكشلا 10.5 TA 12271.20
راثلآا دهعمل ةظوفحم رشنلا قوقح(
مسق ،ينامللأا قرشلا
، هيتروت .ف ).
Michael C. A. Macdonald
172 Commentary
It should be emphasized that this reading is extremely tentative and the text is too fragmentary and uncertain to interpret. At the beginning of line 3, the sign read as {r} looks like the left side of a h (compare the letter immediately below it). Howev-er, there is clearly no right vertical stroke on the stone, so, in view of the two clear examples of h in the text, this letter must be something else. My suggestion that it could be a r is made very tentatively. Its two strokes are not joined and, of course, in a r, the lower one should be vertical not diago-nal. The flat top suggests that it might be a r rather than a d since the latter tends to retain its flourish when the two are differentiated.
The second letter in line 4, which has the shape of a normal Nabataean y could leave my reading of the second letter in line 3 as a y open to question. On the other hand, if we are to take the text as Nabataean, it is diffi-cult to see what else it could be. The third letter in line 3 could be a tailless ʿ (?) or possibly a n in which the lower stroke is di-agonal rather than horizontal, and the fourth could possibly be a badly formed ʾ, though the way it is formed does not really support this. After a space, the fifth and sixth letters would seem to be l and ḥ. The ḥ is on a flake which has come away from the surface and anything after it has been destroyed.
In line 4, the first two letters are a clear
Nabataean h and y. After a space, the next letter is possibly a p, though it might be a w followed by what may be the top of a l. The only surviving letters in line 5 are a Nabataean ḥ (?) and h.
TA 17304.1
Square: Area E / E1
Stratigraphic Unit: SU 9551 Context: Fill
Season in which it was excavated: 2015
Location: Building E-b1 (local coordinates: approx. 10007.90 E, 10049.60 N) Material: Pottery
Dimensions: 9.5 × 6.1 × 1.1 cm
Four body sherds – three of them joining – from a globular closed vessel characterized by its or-ange colour and its coarse sandy texture (Macrofabric 5, see Hausleiter 2014, 424 Table 2). There are three lines of inscription on the joining sherds, and it remains uncertain whether the inscribed line on the fourth sherd, which does not join them, belongs to one of those lines or to an addition-al one. It is assumed that the sherds of TA 9111.1 belonged to the same vessel. According to the
Fig. 10.6 TA 14280 (© DAI, Orient-Abteilung, J. Kramer).
لكشلا 10.6 TA 14280
راثلآا دهعمل ةظوفحم رشنلا قوقح(
مسق ،ينامللأا قرشلا
، ي رمارك . ).
لكشلا 10.7 TA 17304.1
راثلآا دهعمل ةظوفحم رشنلا قوقح(
مسق ،ينامللأا قرشلا
، ي رمارك . ).
لكشلا 10.8 TA 17304.1
راثلآا دهعمل ةظوفحم رشنلا قوقح(
مسق ،ينامللأا قرشلا
، إ . توغ نيلروب .أ / غن ).
لكشلا 10.6 TA 14280
راثلآا دهعمل ةظوفحم رشنلا قوقح(
مسق ،ينامللأا قرشلا
، ي رمارك . ).
لكشلا 10.7 TA 17304.1
راثلآا دهعمل ةظوفحم رشنلا قوقح(
مسق ،ينامللأا قرشلا
، ي رمارك . ).
لكشلا 10.8 TA 17304.1
راثلآا دهعمل ةظوفحم رشنلا قوقح(
مسق ،ينامللأا قرشلا
، إ . توغ نيلروب .أ / غن ).
173
stylistically homogeneous pottery assemblage retrieved from the tunnel fill SU 9551, the vessel can be dated at the earliest to the second quarter of the 1st millennium AD (Francelin Tourtet).
While it is possible that these sherds and those of TA 9111.1 belong to the same vessel, the two
“inscriptions” have very different forms and cannot be part of the same text.
Fig. 10.7 TA 17304.1 (© DAI, Orient-Abteilung, J. Kramer).
Fig. 10.8 TA 17304.1 (© DAI, Orient-Abteilung, E. Götting, A. Borlin).
لكشلا 10.6 TA 14280
راثلآا دهعمل ةظوفحم رشنلا قوقح(
مسق ،ينامللأا قرشلا
، ي رمارك . ).
لكشلا 10.7 TA 17304.1
راثلآا دهعمل ةظوفحم رشنلا قوقح(
مسق ،ينامللأا قرشلا
، ي رمارك . ).
لكشلا 10.8 TA 17304.1
راثلآا دهعمل ةظوفحم رشنلا قوقح(
مسق ،ينامللأا قرشلا
، إ . توغ نيلروب .أ / غن ).
لكشلا 10.6 TA 14280
راثلآا دهعمل ةظوفحم رشنلا قوقح(
مسق ،ينامللأا قرشلا
، ي رمارك . ).
لكشلا 10.7 TA 17304.1
راثلآا دهعمل ةظوفحم رشنلا قوقح(
مسق ،ينامللأا قرشلا
، ي رمارك . ).
لكشلا 10.8 TA 17304.1
راثلآا دهعمل ةظوفحم رشنلا قوقح(
مسق ،ينامللأا قرشلا
، إ . توغ نيلروب .أ / غن ).
S.170
لكشلا 10.4 TA 9111.1
راثلآا دهعمل ةظوفحم رشنلا قوقح(
مسق ،ينامللأا قرشلا
، .إ توغ غن ، نيلروب .أ ).
S.173
لكشلا 10.8 TA 17304.1
راثلآا دهعمل ةظوفحم رشنلا قوقح(
مسق ،ينامللأا قرشلا
، إ . توغ غن ، نيلروب .أ ).
174
175