The bilingual tomb inscription from Mleiha, Sharjah, UAE—palaeographical and philological remarks

Abstract

The Aramaic-Hasaitic bilingual tomb inscription from Mleiha published in Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 27 (2016) is one of the most important epigraphic discoveries from the entire Gulf region. The inscription, which is in an extraordinarily good state of preservation, is not only one of the most comprehensive texts from the region in terms of its languages and scripts, but also provides unique historical information. It contains the first ever reference to a kingdom of Oman and is probably dated to the Seleucid era, about the year 222/221 or 215/ 214 BCE (Overlaet, Macdonald & Stein, 2016). Within two years of its publication, epigraphic research in Mleiha and beyond has yielded some new results which contribute to an improved perception of this extraordinary inscription. These mainly concern the palaeography of the Aramaic script, including the modified reading of some letters, the use of the word br for 'son', and the historical background of the functionary title bqr in the Hasaitic version. Finally, reference is made to some more epigraphic artefacts from Mleiha which are suitable for reevaluating the historic importance of the site.

A late pre‐Islamic bowl with Levantine‐inspired decoration from ed‐Dur (UAE)

“…The musnad inscription cannot be taken as proof of an origin in south‐western Arabia (Yemen), since this alphabet had a wide distribution and says nothing about its underlying language (Yule, ; Stein, : 121 n. 42). The use of the script in south‐eastern Arabia is demonstrated by the recent discovery at Mleiha of a bilingual funerary inscription dating to 222–221 or 215–214 BCE, which mentions a mlk ʿ mn , a king of Oman (Overlaet, Macdonald & Stein, 2016; Multhoff & Stein, ).…”