Two inscribed wine amphoras from Thāj, Saudi Arabia. (4th June 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Højlund, Flemming; Garnier, Nicolas; Stein, Peter
• Is Part Of: Arabian archaeology and epigraphy. Volume 32(2021)Supplement 1
• Page Start: 367
• Page End: 375
• Publication Date: 2021-06-04
• Subjects: Ancient South Arabian -- Aramaic -- cursive or zabūr script -- gas chromatography‐mass spectrometry -- Hasaitic -- Thāj -- wine amphora; Arabian Peninsula -- Antiquities -- Periodicals; Inscriptions -- Arabian Peninsula -- Periodicals; 953
• DOI: 10.1111/aae.12193
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0905-7196

Abstract

Abstract: Two amphoras found at burials outside the ancient city of Thāj, Saudi Arabia, bear inscriptions mentioning wine . The chemical analysis of the content of one of them confirms the presence of wine and more precisely as red wine. Contextual information from one of the graves suggests that wine was consumed as part of burial rituals. One inscription is in Aramaic and the other is in South Arabian cursive or zabūr —in fact the first attestation for this particular script in the core region of the so‐called Hasaitic writing culture. Complementing the recent discoveries of zabūr inscriptions from Mleiha (Sharjah, UAE), this inscription buttresses our idea of the emergence of writing in East Arabia in the Hellenistic period.