The New Parthian Inscription from New Nisa

Abstract

The article publishes a fragment of a ceramic vessel with a Parthian inscription preserved on it, discovered in 2012 at the site of New Nisa (Turkmenistan), approximately 120 m northeast of Tower XIII, and currently kept in a private collection in Russia. A small sherd (maximum dimensions 73×45 mm) 5–8 mm thick is most likely a fragment of a jug covered with white engobe. It is possible that, judging by the color of the engobe and the shard in the fracture, as well as the use of a high-temperature oxidative firing regime, the jug was made not in Parthyene, but in Margiana. A one-line inscription written in black paint or ink, of which only nine characters have come down to us, is located on the outside of the vessel, apparently on its hangers. The surviving part of the inscription reads ](y/z) ZNH ʻL wt(?)[. Its translation reads: “[The vessel] is for Vat...” It is possible that the name of the owner of the jug read as Wtpn (*Vātapāna) – “having the protection of the wind(-god)”, known from an Aramaic inscription from Persepolis. Judging by the fact that there is no hint of cursive in the inscription – each letter is written separately, it can be dated in the same way as the entire body of documents from Old Nisa, i.e. e second half of the 2nd – end of the 1st centuries BC.