Amman Theater Inscription

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The Amman Theater Inscription is an inscription in the Ammonite language , which is located on a basalt fragment, which is kept in the Archaeological Museum of Amman .

The fragment was found during excavations in the Amman Roman Theater in 1961 . It is roughly triangular in shape and measures approx. 27 cm at its widest point. There are remains of letters on two lines. The letters Beth and Ajin , which are open at the top, are interesting palaeographically . Due to these forms, a date goes to the first quarter of the 6th century BC. Near. There is still a word separator in line one.

Due to the fragmentary state of preservation, concrete statements about the content and purpose of the inscription are hardly possible. At the beginning the letters בעל have been preserved. Possibly this is the theophore name element of the ruler who commissioned the inscription. The second word can possibly be read as the 1st person singular imperfect of build . In the second line some researchers try to add [בנעמ [נ (Eng. "Ammoniter"). However, the last letter preserved may be a ש rather than a מ, allowing numerous further readings to be made.

literature

  • Walter E. Aufrecht: A Corpus of Ammonite Inscriptions (Ancient Near Eastern Texts & Studies 4). Lewiston et al. a. 1989, no.58.
  • Rafik W. Dajani: The Amman Theater Fragment. In: Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 12/13 (1967/68), pp. 65-67, Plate 39.
  • William J. Fulco: The Amman Theater Inscription. In: Journal of Near Eastern Studies 38 (1979), pp. 37-38.
  • Kent P. Jackson: The Ammonite Language of the Iron Age (Harvard Semitic Monographs 27). Chico / CA 1983, pp. 45-49.
  • Bustenay Oded: The “Amman Theater Inscription”. In: Rivista degli Studi Orientali 44 (1969), pp. 187-189.