Graffiti and DedicationsAuthor(s): Joseph NavehSource: Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, No. 235 (Summer, 1979), pp.27-30Published by: The American Schools of Oriental ResearchStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1356553 .

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Graffiti and Dedications

JOSEPH NAVEH

The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel

In modern times when a person writes his name on a tourist site, he wishes to show that he visited there, or perhaps he wants to eternalize himself. It does not seem likely that in antiquity this was also the intention of those who engraved or incised their names on rock-faces or on walls of buildings. The vast majority of the ancient graffiti even those which contain only personal names, were actually prayers. As will be demonstrated below, there is a close linkage between the formulas of the graffiti and those of the dedicatory or votive inscriptions. The dedicatory inscriptions consist of two parts: the first part mentions the object (unless the text is written on the object itself), or the contribution, or the vow given to the deity; in the second part there is a call to the deity to hear the offerer's prayer, to remember him, or to bless him. In the graffiti only the second part appears.

About 3,000 Nabataean graffiti, engraved in the 2nd-3rd centuries A.D. on rock-faces, were found in Sinai.' Whether they were written by shepherds, caravaneers, traders or miners,2 their gist is quite clear. The formulae of these graffiti are, generally: dkyr ("remembered be") PN; Nlm ("peace [to]") PN; and bryk ("blessed be") PN. Often these are followed by the expression bb, which literally means "in good", but can be translated as "good luck".' However, these are abbreviated formulae; the whole text is bryk/dkyr/Elm PN btb (mn) qdm DN (before the deity), which occurs in some

Nabataean graffiti as well as in Palmyrene dedica- tions and graffiti.4

On the walls of the temple of Osiris at Abydos in Egypt there were incised some Aramaic graffiti of the Persian period.5 Their formula, bryk PN qdm 'wsry, "blessed be PN before Osiris," occurs also in the Aramaic votive inscriptions KAI 267, 269. The majority of these Abydos graffiti, however, were written in Phoenician; their formula is 'nk PN, "I (am) PN" (KAI 49). Although these texts do not mention any blessing by the deity, the intention of the Phoenician visitors who incised their names in Abydos was the same as that of those who wrote the Aramaic graffiti. The use of the first person is quite frequent in the Phoenician votice inscriptions (KAI 12, 17, 18, 43, 48, 54).

The first person singular appears also in two Palestinian Jewish dedicatory inscriptions in an- cient synagogues. On a lintel at cAlma is engraved: 'nh ywsh br lwy hlwy wmnh dcbdt [hdyn Sqwph], "I am Jose, son of Levi the Levite, the artisan who made [this lintel]" (Naveh 1978b:3). Ona column at Aphek is an abbreviated dedication: 'nh yhwdh hznh, "I am Judah the hazzan," which means "Iam Judah the hazzan who contributed this column" (Naveh 1978b:28). In the graffiti found at the 3rd century A.D. synagogue of Dura Europos the "I am" formula is more common (see Naveh 1978b: 90, 96, 97, 98). The synagogue dedications generally begin dkyr ltb PN, "Remembered be PN for good." This

27

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28 JOSEPH NAVEH BASOR 235

is an abbreviated formula, which occurs also in the Dura Europos synagogue graffiti (Naveh 1978b: 103, dkyr PN; see also 102). But the complete formula was incised as a graffito outside the synagogue of Dura Europos: PN [dky]r Itb qdm [mry sqmy', "PN, [remember]ed be for good before [the Lord of H]eaven" (Naveh 1978b: 104).

The word dkyr also occurs in some Old Syriac graffiti found at Sumatar Harabesi (Drijvers 1972: 13, 17-22) and elsewhere (1972: 29, 35, 63), in three of which there is the entire formula, either dkyr PN qdm lh', or PN dkyr qdm lh3, "Remembered be PN before the god" (1972: 13, 18, 63). The votive inscriptions and graffiti from Hatra generally contain the word Itb, as in the synagogue dedica- tions, and sometimes also linpyr; thus, e.g. KAI 244: dkyr wbryk qdm bcimyn "lh' wqdm D/hD klhwn PN Itb wlinpyr6, "Remembered and blessed be PN for good and for prosperity before the god Bacal-Shamayn and before all the gods." (See also the graffito, KAI 251).

Three stone bowls with late Thamudic and Safaitic inscriptions were recently bought in Jerusalem. The inscriptions read as follows:

A. Incmt wtiwqt I cbdIktb phil wdir slm wqr. "By Nacimat. And she longed for cAbdaktab. So, O Allat and Dushara, (give her) peace and cool- ness."

B. 1. Fqrb bnt gw_t dcPI rks w h pry. "By cAqrab, daughter of Ghauth, of the tribe RKS, and her brother PRY."

2. Imzrt bnt 'ps. "By MZRT, daughter of 'PS." 3. Isryt w'snt mty lhgrm. "By SRYT. And he came

this year to our region." C. Pbmlk wdkrt It zms wmlh wiclh... "By Abumalik.

May Allat remember IJMS and MLH and Shaicallah, and...!"

On bowl B there are also two short Nabataean inscriptions: (1) "~CAqrab"; (2) "Aqumu, son of Yamlik." (see Naveh 1978a: 178-82, Pls. IV-VI on the above.)

Although the provenance of these inscribed bowls is unknown, it seems quite clear that they were dedicated to a certain Arab shrine in the 4th

century A.D. All the formulae are very frequent in the thousands of Thamudic and Safaitic graffiti found on rock-faces in the wilderness of North- Arabia, Transjordan and Syria.

Another discovery belonging in the present category was unearthed in 1975/76 at Kuntilet cAjrud in Northern Sinai. (Meshel 1978). On the rim of a large, heavy stone basin the following text was engraved: Icbdyw bn cdnh brk h' lyhw,

"By7 cObadyau, son of cAdnah. May he be blessed by Yahweh." This is, no doubt, a dedicatory inscription, and so is that on another stone vessel, which contains only the personal name gmcyw bn Czr, "Shemacyau, son of cEzer."8 There were also found two large pithoi, with various paintings and ink-inscriptions. On the first pithos the following text can be read:

'mr X 'mr I-Y wlhywcih w[l-Z] brkt 'tkm lyhwh gmrn wPirth. "X says: Say to Y and Yaucabah and [to Z]: I bless you by Yahweh, our guardian,9 and by his Asherah."

On the other pithos there are two abecedaries and the following text:

'mr 'mryw 'mr Pdny X brktk lyhwh [imrn] wPfrth. "Amaryau says: Say to my lord X: I bless you by Yahweh [our guardian], and by his Asherah."

The cAjrud inscriptions recall the dipinto found in a crevice in the rock above En-gedi (Bar-Adon 1975:226-32), where the formula brk PN lyhwh is to be reconstructed; but mainly the graffito incised in a burial cave at el-K6m, (Dever 1969-70: 158-67), which was later used by a certain Uriyahu as a hiding place. The two upper lines of the el-K6m graffito read as follows

1. 'ryhw hir ktbh. "Uriyahu the governor wrote it." 2. brk 'ryhw lyhwh. "May Uriyahu be blessed by Yahweh."

In the third line there are many letters (sometimes written over the others), some of which certainly do not belong to the original text. I suggest to read here as follows:

3. nsry wPgrth. "my guardian and by his Asherah."'o

Thus both the graffito of el-K6m and the inscrip- tions on the pithoi of cAjrud use the same formula:

El-K6m graffito: brk 'ryhw lyhwh nsry wligrth cAjrud Pithos, I: brkt ~tkm lyhwh gmrn wPfrth

cAjrud Pithos, II: brktk lyhwh [Smrn]wlPrth"

The main difference between the E1-K6m text and those of cAjrud is that while in el-K6m occurs the word nsry, the cAjrud texts use gmrn instead. Both are epithets of Yahweh. The roots gmr and nsr are often used as synonyms in Biblical parallelisms. The fact that in nsry there is a first person singular possessive suffix indicating "my guardian", and in gmrn the suffix is plural, "our guardian", can be easily explained: in el-K6m Uriyahu alone is

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1979 GRAFFITI AND DEDICATIONS 29

mentioned, whereas in the cAjrud texts there are two or more persons.

The texts on the pithoi of cAjrud remind us of the opening formula of the letters well known in Akkadian (ana X qibi-ma, umma Y) and Ugaritic

(I-X rgm, thm Y), meaning "Speak to X: so said Y." However, such an opening and a greeting resembling those of the cAjrud pithoi were used also in the Phoenician letter written on papyrus at Saqqarah (KAI 50):

'mr Plhty 'rit 'mr .htk

bP...brktk lbclspn wlkil ~l thpnhs "Say to my sister 'RST: Your sister BS' says:...I bless you by Bacal-Saphon and by all the gods of Tahpanhes."'2

A similar letter formula was inscribed in Phoenician on a jar found at Sarepta, but only a fragment of it has been preserved: 'mr lPdnn grmlqr[t], "Say to our lord Germelqar[t] (I. Teixidor in Pritchard 1975: 99-100, Figs. 30: 2, 54: 2). On the same fragment can be read the letters h w z h t y, which no doubt belong to an abecedary. This is a striking parallel with what has been written on the second pithos at Kuntilet cAjrud."3

It seems likely that the opening and the greeting formula of the letter were used as dedications when

the donor wished to give his donation not for his own sake, but for the sake of his friend(s), relative(s), etc. This reminds us of the formula used in the Thamudic graffiti I-X wdkrt It Y w-Z... "By X. And may Allat remember Y, Z, etc." (See the Thamudic inscription on Bowl C above.) When Winnett published (1937: 5-7) a similar Thamudic inscription on a block of limestone (23 x 11 x 6 to 12 cm.), he took into consideration the possibility that "we have here the earliest known Arabian letter". But actually this is better understood as a graffito in which a person invoked the blessing of the goddess Allat on a number of his friends.

We have dealt with the Hebrew inscriptions from

CAjrud and el-K6m and have touched upon some Phoenician, Aramaic (including Imperial Aramaic, Nabataean, Palmyrene, Syriac, Hatran and Jewish Aramaic dialects), Thamudic, and Safaitic texts from a comparatively long period of one and half millennia. We have seen not only that the dedications and the graffiti have much in common, but also that the greeting formula-and with it the opening formula-of the letters was adopted for dedications.

NOTES

ISee mainly CIS, Vol. II. Such graffiti were also found in North Arabia and Egypt; see J. T. Milik and J. Starcky in Winnett and Reed 1970: 141-60; Littman 1953: 1-28; 1954:211-46.

2Cf. Cantineau 1932: 24-25; Negev: 1967: 254-55.

3Cf. Cooke, 1903: 259; Littman: 1953, 1954. In the Nabataean graffiti bb may stand alone (it seems to translate the Arabic expression bihayr; see CIS, Vol. II: 1499, 1631). See also the Palmyrene graffiti and dedications; cf. H. Ingholt and J. Starcky in Schlumberger 1951: 143-174 (especially Nos. 53, 66, 78); Mesnil du Buisson 1939:45-48. On the other hand, in the synagogue dedications and in the Hatran texts Itb is always connected with dkir (see below).

4CIS, Vol. II: 572, 698, 912, 1479, 3048, 3072; CIS, Vol. II: 401, 403 (Petra); see also Naveh 1970: 373-74 (Hebrew). For the Palmyrene texts, see Ingholt and Starcky in Schlumberger 1951: No. 2, 17, 78; du Mesnil du Buisson, 1939: No. 15, 25.

5For these inscriptions see Lidzbarski 1915, III: 93-116.

6bcgmyn and klhwn are the correct transcriptions; see Degen, 1971: 125.

7This should be the translation of the initial lamed; I-PN means here (as in the Thamudic and Safaitic dedications ) "given

by PN." Thus this text seems to contribute to the understanding of the lamed in the Samaria ostraca; cf. Yadin, 1959: 184-87.

8It is noteworthy that before the discovery of the cAjrud texts, the only Hebrew or Jewish Aramaic dedicatory inscriptions were found in the ancient synagogues (3rd-7th centuries A.D.).

9The attempt to read yhwh gmrn as Yahweh Somron, "Yahweh of Samaria," does not seem plausible to me. I suggest to vocalize smrn as gomr~na for the following reasons. There are in cAjrud two other instances of defective spelling at the ends of the words: yhw = Yahwa; and, on the first pithos, brkt = b~raktt. It seems quite reasonable that the Phoenician orthographic system (i.e., entirely defective spelling) should be preserved in a ca. 800 B.c. Hebrew text. Moreover, in biblical Hebrew the second person singular suffixes -tu and -ka are written generally without final matres lectionis. As for the first person plural suffix -nil, it should be remembered that the equivalent Aramaic suffix -na was written only as -n until the late 5th century B.c., when -nh began to be the common spelling (first in the personal pronoun 'nhnh). Cf. Segert, 1975: 173, 248. The form 'nhnn, listed and discussed by Segert (166-68), does not exist in any of the dialects dealt with in his grammar; see my review, 1978c: 205- 06.

'0oThis is followed in the text by hw~c lh, and further below is

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30 JOSEPH NAVEH BASOR 235

written lPnyhw, which probably has to be emended into lryhw; i.e., "Save him, (save) Uriyahu."

"For a detailed discussion on Asherah, see Lemaire, 1977: 603-08.

'2Compare with the greeting formula in the Aramaic letters; see Fitzmyer 1974: 214-215.

3For an up-to-date list and discussion on abecedaries, see

Demsky 1977: 14-18. I wonder whether all the abecedaries written in antiquity on various objects should be explained as works of students practicing their lessons. Can it be that at least some of them-perhaps those which were written on jars (i.e., from cAjrud, Kadesh Barnea, Shiqmona, and Sarepta)-have had a magic connotation?

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