Tell Siran inscription

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The Tell Siran inscription is an ammonitic inscription on a bronze bottle that was found on April 27, 1972 on Tell Siran (on the campus of the University of Jordan in Amman ). It is the first complete inscription in the Ammonite language. The bronze bottle is now in the Archaeological Museum in Amman .

The bronze bottle

The completely preserved bronze bottle is about ten centimeters long and weighs about 280 grams. The clearly legible inscription is attached to the outside. The archaeological find context suggests that the bottle was in use until Mamluk times. The paleographic analysis, however, indicates the late Iron Age II as the time the bottle was created. So the object would have been in use for about two thousand years. After removing a cap, the contents of the bottle could be analyzed. These were seeds from barley, wheat and grass, as well as unidentifiable metal remains. A C14 analysis showed the content to be dated to around 460 BC. However, since the bottle was sealed, it is unlikely that the contents were added much later. The difference in the age determination could therefore be due to contamination when the bottle was opened.

The inscription

The inscription consists of eight lines of legible text. They are attached in the direction from the opening of the bottle to its bottom. Line four protrudes into this floor, while line 5 only contains a single word. F. Zayadine and HO Thompson, the first editors, designated the script as Aramaic and palaeographically dated the inscription to the first half of the 7th century BC. BC, but based on historical considerations they dated it to around 600 BC. BC before. FM Cross, on the other hand, sees the inscription as the latest stage of development of the "Ammonite national script" and dates it to around 600 BC for paleographical reasons. Chr.

The orthography is in agreement with the other observations on ammonite inscriptions. The status constructus in the masculine plural is not marked in the typeface. Obviously the final diphthong * aj is already contracted to a vowel, and these are generally not marked. The medial waw in line 7 is controversial , but this rather indicates that the diphthong * aw has not yet contracted. Word separators are included, but are set irregularly. Only line 2 contains one and line 4 three more, one of which may be between article and noun.

Despite the clearly legible text, its interpretation is open in many places. First, an "Amminadab, king of the Ammonites, son of Hiṣṣal'el, king of the Ammonites, son of Amminadab, king of the Ammonites" is mentioned (lines 1-3). The following lines 4-5 mention a vineyard, one (or more?) Gardens, and two words of uncertain interpretation. Presumably they are cisterns and water reservoirs. The closing lines 6-8 contain blessings.

Two problems are decisive for the interpretation: It is controversial to what extent the contents of the inscription and the bronze bottle have to be interpreted together. Furthermore, the meaning and syntactic assignment of the first word m'bd are uncertain. The simple fact that it was placed on a bottle and not on a monumental building speaks against the earlier assumption that the inscription was a building inscription. In contrast, it could be a kind of votive inscription dealing with the king's goods. Against this speaks again that the inscription is not addressed to a deity.

Ch. Krahmalkov took a different route of interpretation, translating the first word as "poem" and interpreting the inscription accordingly. The two unclear words in lines 4 and 5 would therefore be finite verbs of the 1st person singular. O. Loretz interprets the inscription in a similar way. In line 4 he does not understand gnt as garden or gardens, but wine press, and the * h- before "vineyard" and "wine press" not as an article, but as an indication of the vocative. The latter researchers in particular saw the text's similarity to the so-called "royal travesty " in the book of Kohelet ( Koh 2,4-6  EU ). Taking up the idea of ​​a connection between the inscription and the contents of the bottle, R. Coote suggested that the bottle could have been used as a container for anointing oil. However, this contradicts the analysis of the content, which Coote does not go into. J. Azize understands the inscription differently. He interprets the first word as an attribute "pious", related to Amminadab, and refers to the cultic connotation of the root in other Canaanite languages . The shape of the bottle is similar to contemporary Phoenician glass and faience work . It is therefore a purely prestige object.

literature

  • Walter E. Aufrecht: A Corpus of Ammonite Inscriptions. Lewiston et al. 1989, No. 78 ( Ancient Near Eastern Texts & Studies . 4).
  • Joseph Azize: The Ammonite Bottle and Phoenician Flasks. In: Ancient Near Eastern Studies 40 (2003), pp. 62–79.
  • Frank M. Cross: Notes on the Ammonite Inscription from Tell Sīrān. In: Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 212 (1973), pp. 12-15.
  • Hans-Peter Müller: Kohelet and Amminadab. In: Anja A. Diesel et al. (Ed.): "Every thing has its time ..." Studies on Israelite and ancient oriental wisdom. Diethelm Michel on his 65th birthday. ( Supplements to the Journal for Old Testament Science 241). Berlin; New York 1996, pp. 149-165.
  • Henry O. Thompson; Fawzi Zayadine: The Tell Siran Inscription. In: Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 212 (1973), pp. 5-11.
  • Fawzi Zayadine, Henry O. Thompson: The Ammonite Inscription from Tell Siran. In: Berytus 22 (1973), pp. 115-140.

Remarks

  1. ^ Joseph Azize, The Ammonite Bottle and Phoenician Flasks. In: Ancient Near Eastern Studies 40 (2003), pp. 62–79, here pp. 63 f.
  2. ^ Fawzi Zayadine; Henry O. Thompson: The Ammonite Inscription from Tell Siran. In: Berytus 22 (1973), pp. 115-140, here especially p. 117.
  3. ^ Frank Moore Cross: Notes on the Ammonite Inscription from Tell Sīrān. In: Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 212 (1973), pp. 12-15, here pp. 13-14.
  4. ↑ Charles R. Krahmalkov: An Ammonite Lyric Poem. In: Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 223 (1976), pp. 55-57.
  5. ↑ Oswald Loretz: The ammonite inscription of Tell Siran. In: Ugarit-Forschungen 9 (1977), pp. 169-171.
  6. ^ Robert Coote: The Tell Siran Bottle Inscription. In: Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 240 (1980), p. 93.