Nabataean echoes in al-Ḥarrah: New evidence in light of recent field work^†

† The inscriptions presented here were collected by the authors while conducting field work in the eastern part of al-Ḥarrah in 2017. This project could not have been conducted without the help and support received from al-Hussein Bin Talal University and Mu'tah University who sponsored the entire project. Many thanks to the Department of Antiquities of Jordan for giving permission to conduct this survey. We are very grateful to Dr. Ahmad Al-Jallad and Michael Macdonald for their valuable suggestions and comments on an earlier draft of this article. For proofreading assistance thanks are due to Casey D. Allen. All errors are, of course, ours.

ABSTRACT

During a survey conducted by the authors in the eastern part of al-Ḥarrah in Jordan in 2017,¹ a number of new Safaitic and Nabataean texts were found. Some of them mention events dated during the reigns of ḥrṯt and rbʾl, others refer to the revolt of dmṣy. Other Safaitic texts contain references to the Nabataeans. Three Nabataean graffiti were also found and are presented here. These sixteen new texts constitute a remarkable addition to the corpus of Safaitic and Nabatean texts found in this region.

KEYWORDS:

• Safaitic inscriptions
• Nabataeans and Safaities
• Nabataean inscriptions
• al-Ḥarrah

Notes

† The inscriptions presented here were collected by the authors while conducting field work in the eastern part of al-Ḥarrah in 2017. This project could not have been conducted without the help and support received from al-Hussein Bin Talal University and Mu'tah University who sponsored the entire project. Many thanks to the Department of Antiquities of Jordan for giving permission to conduct this survey. We are very grateful to Dr. Ahmad Al-Jallad and Michael Macdonald for their valuable suggestions and comments on an earlier draft of this article. For proofreading assistance thanks are due to Casey D. Allen. All errors are, of course, ours.

1. The term al-Ḥarrah is used to refer to the basalt steppe-desert located in northern Jordan and southern Syria.

2. For more details about this title see (Monferrer-Sala 2013, 104-06).

3. The name of this tribe has been attested in Safaitic texts discovered in H5 (ṣafāwī), Zalaf, Burquʿ, Umm al-Jimāl, Ḫān az-Zabīyb and Badnah in northern Arabia which indicates that the member of this tribe moved and settled in a wide geographical region from Jabal Drūze in Syria to northern Arabia (Ar-Rūsān 1992, 282).