Bilingual Inscription Research Articles

An Eteocypriot-Greek bilingual inscription and the meaning of Cypriot eupatridai

Abstract This paper investigates the eupatridai of Cyprus and their roles on the island. It examines the only two attestations of the Greek term eupatridēs in inscriptions from Amathous and Kafizin, namely IG XV 1.1 n° 7, an original Eteocypriot- alphabetic Greek monumental decree and IG XV 2.1 n° 67, an alphabetic Greek private dedication. Contrary to previous scholarship, which claims that Cypriot elites easily assimilated into the emerging Ptolemaic administrative apparatus, a deeper analysis of the title eupatridēs demonstrates that the integration process was protracted and uneven. While the assimilation of the upper class did occur, it only happened at a later stage. The study shows that this title was introduced to the island in the late Classical period, likely from Greece, retaining primary meanings it had in Classical Athens. It designates members of local elites who fought to maintain their superior status and preserve the traditional Cypriot socio-political structure - which entailed their great prestige and privileges - during a transitional period from the end of the 4th century BCE until the second half of the 3rd century BCE. During those years, the wars among the diadochi, who aimed to take possession of Cyprus, threatened the traditional subdivision of the island into city-kingdoms, which ultimately dissolved under Ptolemaic rule (c. 294-258 BCE). The appearance of the title eupatridēs in late Classical and early Hellenistic inscriptions may be a significant testimony to the Cypriots’ initial reaction against contemporary political upheavals and the introduction of a new administration.

Fish Symbolism in Indus Valley Epigraphy and Protohistoric Accounts

The contribution of the Indus Valley civilization to the historic cultures of South Asia is a matter of debate due to a discontinuity in material culture, from the time of its decline to the reappearance of urbanization several centuries later. Progress in the epigraphy of the Indus Valley has been hindered by the absence of a bilingual inscription and the brevity of its texts. One of the most frequent signs encountered in its undeciphered writing system is the pictogram of ‘fish’. On a few seal inscriptions, this sign appears alone, suggesting that it represented a meaningful word or a name. It is noteworthy that Indian literature of later centuries recounts a protohistoric kingdom named Matsya in the vicinity of the Indus Valley sites, as matsya is the Sanskrit word for ‘fish’ and a divinity in the form of a fish is celebrated in the Indian version of the flood myth. An analysis of these narratives is presented in this paper, revealing the possibility of an association with the Indus Valley civilization of the more distant past. These observations indicate that fish symbolism may have occupied a place of prominence in Indus culture from political and religious perspectives. The Matsya territory mentioned in Vedic and epic literature is discussed in light of the chalcolithic cultures of Rajasthan, and it is suggested that this region witnessed successive waves of migration of different cultural groups due to its economic importance related to the exploitation of copper reserves.

Rethinking the Regional in Rājamatī’s World: Placemaking, Patronage and the Performance of Polity in Chanderi, c. 1479

A bilingual inscription on a stepwell built in 1479 on the suburbs of Chanderi, Madhya Pradesh presents a rare biography of its patron Rājamatī, a female entertainer (bhāṭiṇi), who is said to have received extraordinary largesse from the Sultans of the seven regions of her time. In this gift economy, Rājamatī is not only the beneficiary of generous rewards but herself the benefactor of eminent men arriving from different regions. The rhetoric turns on her patronage of a water facility for travellers, portrayed as an honourable act of public piety (dānadharma) but also as an act of political performance (rājadharma), thus inscribing the influence of a provincial woman in the Persianate world of Hindustan. While such inscriptions constitute valuable documents of social history, they tend to be viewed as philological texts filtered for “credible facts” and “fantastic claims”. Instead, by reading the epigraph in its architectural landscape, I show how this discursive text shaped, and was shaped by, everyday places of interaction, a perspective that affords new insights into the practices of placemaking, patronage and performance through which a female entertainer acquired prestige and visibility in the broader cultural landscape of fifteenth-century North India.

The Saber Highestly Granted to Noyon Bambar Presented in the Collection of Military-Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineer and Signal Corps

Purpose. The paper studies the golden saber from the Military-Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineer and Signal corps (The Artillery Museum).Results. Based on the analysis of the construction and decoration of the blade, tang and guard it is supposed that this sample of long-bladed weapon belongs to the group of “chechuga” sabers. In the original configuration the saber had the hilt decorated with gemstones and scabbard covered with leather with fittings made of copper alloy. The blade bears bilingual inscription and it means that this piece of weapon belongs to the sabers granted to the specific person with indication of his name. This saber was granted to Kalmykian noyon (prince) Bambar for his victory over Kazakhs in 1762. The analysis of archive documents allowed to understand the circumstances of the battle of Feb, 17, 1762 as the Empress Ekaterina II ordered to grant a saber to Bambar for that battle. Bambar brought this saber to Qing empire during the “Torgud escape” in 1771. In the beginning of 20th century during the suppression of the Yihetuan (Boxer) uprising Russian officers paid attention to the saber with the golden inscription in Russian, so the saber was handed to the command of Kwantung fortress and then sent to Saint Petersburg in 1903.Conslusion. The saber is of high scientific value, as it is the only example of the weapons of the Kalmyk princes, on which there is a gold inscription indicating the name of the owner of the saber. This saber is a unique relic of the Russian-Kalmyk relations of the 18th century.

Moravska - potonja Braničevska episkopija i novopronađeni pečat iz Svrljiga moravskog episkopa Nikole

The bilingual inscription on the reverse of the seal of Nikola, the bishop of Moravska, recently found in a medieval suburb of Svrljig, was read and its content and representation of Saint Nicholas on the obverse were analysed in the paper. This resulted in new and important facts about the Serbian Principality of Morava and its diocese which was renamed in 1020. The Byzantine conquest led to addressing the "tema" of Morava, renaming of the diocese and transferring the throne from the town of Morava to the town of Braničevo. Consequently, it was concluded in the paper that this seal had been on Bishop Nikola's letter sent to a fellow monk from Svrljig in the second half of the 10th century or at the beginning of the 11th century.

Some More Inscriptions from Northeast Phrygia

This article presents new inscriptions found in the villages of Mihalıççık, Alpu and Sivrihisar Counties during epigraphic surveys conducted in Mihalıççık, Alpu, Sivrihisar, Çifteler, Mahmudiye and Beylikova Counties in the Eskişehir Province. The paper includes a catalog of the inscriptions, which examines the inscriptions by two periods: The Roman period and the Byzantine period. Finally, it ends by an edition of previously published bilingual inscription found in Babadat village in Sivrihisar County.

Translating Empire: Tell Fekheriyeh, Deuteronomy, and the Akkadian Treaty Tradition by C. L. Crouch and Jeremy M. Hutton

Reviewed by: Translating Empire: Tell Fekheriyeh, Deuteronomy, and the Akkadian Treaty Tradition by C. L. Crouch and Jeremy M. Hutton Samuel Boyd c. l. crouch and jeremy m. hutton, Translating Empire: Tell Fekheriyeh, Deuteronomy, and the Akkadian Treaty Tradition (FAT 135; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019). Pp. xiv + 339. €129. In Translating Empire, C. L. Crouch and Jeremy M. Hutton examine in detail the nature of translation in Iron Age II texts, concentrating specifically on the Tell Fekheriyeh Akkadian-Aramaic bilingual inscription. In the process, they offer a new take on the decades-old question regarding the relationship between Deuteronomy 28 and the curse section in the Vassal Treaty of Esarhaddon: Can the former be described as a “translation” of the latter, as some scholars have claimed? The volume is an expansion of a previous article (“Evaluating Deuteronomy as a Translation of Akkadian Treaties: An ‘Optimal Translation’ Approach,” HeBAI 7 [2018] 201–52) and builds on work that each author has published elsewhere. C. and H. take as their point of departure, and as their focus in most of the book, the relationship between the Akkadian and Aramaic texts of the Tell Fekheriyeh inscription as an attested translation. Moreover, using Optimality Theory, itself adapted to Descriptive Translation Studies, they derive a methodological framework for demonstrating that the relationship between the Akkadian and Aramaic texts in the Tell Fekheriyeh inscription qualifies as an optimal translation. In distinction, and by using the same method, the relationship between Deuteronomy 28 and the Vassal Treaty of Esarhaddon and that between the Sefire texts and the treaty of Aššur-nerari cannot be described in the same terms. The result is a rich, if technical, study and a rigorous model for applying theoretical approaches to philological data. Chapter 1 contains a general overview of the history and research on the Tell Fekheriyeh inscription. C. and H. then turn their attention to the methodological frameworks that set the basis for the following studies. They use Optimality Theory as one of these approaches, or the view that parts of language (such as phonology) operate by navigating output forms through a series of constraints, where certain constraints are “fatal” because the violations relative to other output possibilities render such fatal possibilities as relatively non-optimal. Though H. elsewhere has noted that Optimality Theory “has not been entirely well-received in the broader field of theoretical linguistics” (“Optimality in the ‘Grammars’ of Ancient [End Page 315] Translation,” JHebS 15 [2015] art. 7, p. 2), he and C. rework the theory in combination with Description Translation Studies. They demonstrate how the two frameworks are complementary and can explain how linguistics and translation theory can work together to shed light on ancient languages. While other methods complement their analyses throughout the book (such as cognitive theory), they successfully reenvision the richness of Optimality Theory to put it into conversation with Descriptive Translation Studies. In chap. 3, the authors apply the method to the Akkadian and Aramaic texts of Tell Fekheriyeh A (Fekh. A), which corresponds to lines 1–18 of the Akkadian inscription and lines 2–12 of the Aramaic inscription. They argue that the relationship between the Akkadian and Aramaic satisfies the criteria for labeling the interface between the two as an optimal translation. Examining the relationship between bilingualism, translation, and cognition, C. and H. conclude that the Aramaic of Fekh. A and Fekh. B can both be described as translations that occurred at different times (and not as a single moment of bilingual composition). In chap. 5, C. and H. demonstrate that Fekh. B, likewise, satisfies the criteria for optimal translation. In this case, however, the relationship between the Akkadian and Aramaic requires a few more minimal constraints, which reveals that, while Fekh. B is still an optimal translation, it evinces a translation technique distinct from that of Fekh. A, all of which sheds light on the composition history of the inscription itself. Crouch and Hutton then apply this methodological framework to the relationship between Deuteronomy 28 and the Vassal Treaty of Esarhaddon as well as to the Sefire texts and the treaty of Aššur-nerari, arguing that in each case the relationship between the former text and...

Detecting word endings in an unknown script

Date: Around 2200 BC.Location: Western, southern and eastern Iran.Type: Syllabic Script.Text Corpus: 22 (known a long time), plus 15 (known since 2015).Sign Corpus: 110 sign type, 1340 sign tokens.Status: Principally undeciphered, except the sound values for in, šu, uš, ši, na, and k, drawn from the divine name Inšušinak found in the only bilingual inscription. Several further sound values were proposed. In our paper, some of them are being corroborated, and a new one is presented.Language behind the signs: Based on graphotactical patterns found in the texts, this paper claims that it must be Elamite or a language closely related to it.

The Jewish elite of Sepphoris in late antiquity: indications from burial inscriptions

The inscriptions from the cemeteries of Sepphoris serve as a vivid reflection of Jewish life and culture in this vibrant city of late antique Palestine. Two of these burial inscriptions are studied in this article: a bilingual inscription (Greek and Aramaic) and a Greek inscription that was uncovered more than a century ago and mistakenly read as a dedicatory inscription from an unexcavated synagogue. Reading the first one and rereading the second introduces us to senior Jewish officials in the Roman provincial and imperial administration. It affords us a unique glance into the social and cultural background of the Jewish elite of Sepphoris at the turn of the fourth–fifth centuries, at a time when the Christianization of the Roman administration had accelerated and Jews were forced once again to deal with questions of identity and introspection.

Sidetic masara ↑ue[

Abstract This paper argues that in the bilingual inscription S2 (Nollé) the Sidetic form ↑ue[ corresponds not to Greek ἀνέθηκεν ‘set up’, but rather to πᾶσι ‘all’. It is argued that this Sidetic word for ‘all’ is cognate with Lyc. huwedr(i) ‘all’ and that the spelling ↑ue[ represents something like [ʃwe(dri)] < *suwedri (cf. Luw. šuwatar ‘fullness’). The fricative interpretation of Sidetic ↑ is not contradicted by the personal name śdi↑s = Σιδιδος for which a new analysis is offered.

The First-Century Inscription of Quintus Sulpicius Maximus: An Initial Catalog of Lexical Parallels with the New Testament

Abstract This study is an examination of a first-century funerary monument. The study begins by describing the monument, supplying the bilingual inscription, and offering an English translation. From there, the study examines the monument in relation to the NT by way of lexical parallels. I argue that the broad lexical overlap between this inscription and the NT enhances our understanding of lexicography in the first century AD, while possibly shedding light on many important words, passages, and larger portions of the canonical NT. By offering a modest collection of parallels, this study also highlights the importance of incorporating additional types of evidence for understanding the socioreligious environment during the time of the NT.

Die lydische Athene: eine neue Edition von LW 40

The following article provides a new edition of a Lydian-Greek bilingual inscription from the Athena Temple at Pergamon (LW 40). For the first time, the badly weathered Lydian part of the inscription can be read in its entirety, revealing Malis as the Lydian name of the goddess Athena. The bilingual thereby contributes to our understanding of Lydian religion and elucidates the perpetuation of the name Malis in Greek sources

Notes on the Parthian Block f1 from the Sasanian Inscription of Paikuli*

The celebrative monument of Paikuli, located in the present-day province of Sulaimaniyah (Kurdistan, Iraq), was built at the southernmost edge of the Qaradagh range by the Sasanian king Narseh (293-302/3 ad). It marks the place where dignitaries of the Ērānšahr met the Sasanian sovereign to swear an oath of loyalty to him during a dynastic struggle. The bilingual inscription (Middle Persian and Parthian), originally carved on the walls of the monument, constitutes one of the most important primary sources for the early Sasanian history, despite its fragmentary state of preservation. From 2006 onwards an Italian team has been investigating the monument, conducting surveys in the valley of Paikuli and studying the materials now kept in the Slemani Museum (Sulaimaniyah), both activities continuing to the present day. The following paper aims to advance comprehension of the problematic Parthian block f1, one of the 19 recently-discovered inscribed blocks (Cereti, Terribili 2014), providing a new textual reconstruction and a synoptic reading of its content with the corresponding Middle Persian passages. Due to the peculiar epigraphic material and distinctive block shape, the analysis of f1 offers interesting insight into the distribution of the text on the wall and the related technical issues.

‘To Hear and to Accept’: A Word-Pair in the Tell Fakhariyah Bilingual Inscription

‘To Hear and to Accept’: A Word-Pair in the Tell Fakhariyah Bilingual Inscription

The Epitaph of Mar Solomon, Bishop of South China, Administrator of Manicheans and Nestorians

AbstractThe tombstone of the Christian bishop Mar Solomon is an important witness to communities of the Church of the East and Manichaeans in fourteenth-century China. The epitaph consists of a bilingual inscription in Chinese and Syro-Turkic. Three major points will be discussed—the identification of Mar Solomon as administrator of both communities; the use of the term “Manzi” to designate Mar Solomon’s geographical area of influence; and the significance of the style and languages of the epitaph.

A new decipherment and linguistic reconstruction of the Kitan—Chinese bilingual inscription of 1134 A.D.

This paper presents a new decipherment of the Langjun Inscription of 1134 A.D., including a significantly revised phonological reconstruction of the text, new readings of several graphemes, paleographical notes on certain Kitan and Chinese graphemes encountered in the text, and a glossary of words contained in the text including identifiable etyma. In terms of methodology, the Kitan and corresponding Chinese texts of this bilingual inscription are juxtaposed to facilitate decipherment and reconstruction. Although several important philological studies of this text exist, this article presents the first linguistic reconstruction of the inscription.

German

Reedition of the only known bilingual inscription of Albania (found in Pljočë, probably ancient Amantia), with the help of a drawing of Carl Patsch, discoverer of the inscription in the year 1900. It seems that a fund (for the purchase?) of grain was redesignated by a municipal magistrate. As an imposition of reparation and a fine was refused by the culprit a Roman authority appears to have been asked to intervene, whose decision could have been written on the inscription as a subscriptio.

Tra Cartagine e Cos (materiali per il lessico fenicio - V)

The present study aims to investigate both the etymology and the signification of the Phoenician-Punic word tʿlyh, attested at Carthage and perhaps also at Guelma, and his possible attestation in a well known bilingual (Greco-Phoenician) inscription from Cos. At Carthage (and Guelma) it deals with a manufactured object, but at Cos another word is used, i.e. tʿl, a harbour building erected by the Sidonian prince ʿAbdalonim / Abdalonymos “for the safety of all sailors”.

Pepuza and Tymion: The Discovery and Archaeological Exploration of a Lost Ancient City and an Imperial Estate (review)

Reviewed by: Pepuza and Tymion: The Discovery and Archaeological Exploration of a Lost Ancient City and an Imperial Estate Stephen Mitchell William Tabbernee and Peter Lampe, Pepuza and Tymion: The Discovery and Archaeological Exploration of a Lost Ancient City and an Imperial Estate. Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2008 Pp. xx + 338; numerous figs.; two fold-out maps. In July 2000, appropriately marking the beginning of a new millennium, William Tabbernee, author of the authoritative Montanist Inscriptions and Testimonia (1997), was shown a bilingual inscription in the Turkish museum of Uşak including a Latin rescript of the emperors Septimius Severus and Caracalla addressed to the community of the Tymii at the beginning of the third century C.E. This clue led him to the identification of Tymion, which was named with Pepuza as being at the center of the Montanist movement and the location of the New Jerusalem, prophesied in Rev 21, by the virtually contemporary Christian writer, Apollonius (cited in Eusebius, h.e. 5.18.2). Two days later Tabbernee and his companions identified a highly plausible site for Pepuza itself, a large Roman and late Roman settlement, alongside an apparent monastic complex cut into [End Page 490] the cliff face, on the northern bank of the Banaz Çay, the ancient river Senaros, in western Phrygia. This book is a report of these discoveries and of four seasons of archaeological fieldwork between 2001 and 2004, mainly concentrated on the town and monastic site of Pepuza, directed by Professor Peter Lampe of Heidelberg, in close collaboration with Tabbernee. The presentation is lavish, tending to redundancy. The entire text is presented in English and German versions, printed in parallel columns, with a Turkish translation at the end of each chapter. These translations are not always entirely accurate. Moreover, much of the content of the book, in a strict sense, is not new. The crucial Latin inscription, containing the Severan rescript, has been published: an editio princeps by the Turkish epigrapher C. Tanriver, with detailed commentary by Tor Hauken (Epigraphica Anatolica 36 [2003]: 33–44) and an edition by Lampe and Tabbernee themselves (Epigraphica Anatolica 37 [2004]: 169–78), which corrects a number of minor faulty readings in ed. pr. Chapter Four now presents further discussion by Tabbernee. The topographical information regarding Tymion in this text is incontestable. It was addressed to the colonis Tymiorum et Simoen[sium], a restoration that corrects Simoen[tium] which was preferred in EA 2004. It must be said, however, that none of the published editions offers a convincing restoration and interpretation of the rescript, which requires longer discussion elsewhere. The topographical implications of this discovery have already been explored in an excellent article by Tabbernnee (JECS 11 [2003]: 87–93), including the intriguing suggestion that the whole table-land which stretched about twelve kilometers from Pepuza to Tymion might have been seen by Montanists as the literal extent of the New Jerusalem, which would descend from heaven according to the prophecy of Rev 21. The second half of the book, largely written by Lampe, covers the discoveries of the field seasons. The aims are ambitious: to use interdisciplinary approaches to account for remains of all periods in the region (134), and sensitive survey techniques as tools for exploring not only the social and economic history, but also the religiosity of the inhabitants of ancient Phrygia (143). This is methodologically challenging and there is a long way yet to go. Chapters Nine through Twelve are simply preliminary reports of the archaeological survey, including geophysical prospecting of underground remains, without excavation. In fact they correspond closely to the series of preliminary reports presented at the annual symposia of the results of archaeology in Turkey, published respectively in Araştirma Sonuçları Toplantısı 20 (2003), 1–9 (in English), 21 (2004), 109–18 (German), 22 (2005), 151–57 (Turkish), and 23 (2006), 385–88 (German), with many of the same illustrations as are used in the book. These accounts, as might be expected at this stage, are descriptive rather than analytical. Few of the finds, including the pottery, are chronologically diagnostic, and the buildings are badly ruined. The identification (167–69) of a supposed basilica as...

Early South Arabian‐Islamic bilingual inscription from Najran

At the foot of a mountain locally known as ‘Upper Naṣla Mountain' in the centre of Riǧla quarter which lies on the southeastern part of Najran city, an Islamic inscription written in Arabic Kufic script and a reproduction of its contents in Musnad script were recently found. They are located about three metres apart. Beside the Kufic inscription there were two other Islamic inscriptions; one of them belongs to the same person mentioned in the bilingual inscription, whereas the other refers to a different person. These two inscriptions will be included in this paper because of their temporal and spatial link to the bilingual inscription and their historical significance in assisting its dating (1).