Herodian Client KingRebellion against Agrippa
(0141) Text: l ‘lm bn ẓn‘l bn ‘lm w mrd ‘l- h- mlk grfṣ f h lt fṣyt ks¹r h- s¹ls¹lt
Translation: By ‘lm son of Zn’l son of ‘lm, and he rebelled against the king Agrippa; and so О Lt grant deliverance of the breaker of the chain.
Commentary: It is not clear what event or even which Agrippa this Safaitic inscription refers to. Plausible speculation could be offered about this inscription being produced during the Judaean War, though it would be no more than conjecture; see similar dating by Agrippa’s military might in §138, §142, §143, §146. The inscription is in Safaitic and so the text is rendered here in transliteration instead of transcription, given difficulties in reproducing the latter (e.g., use of boustrephedon, non-standard characters).
Provenience: stateless desert region (Basalt Desert, Jordan – Ruwaishid Distict of Mufraq Governorate) 37-97 CE
Bibliography: Michael C. A. Macdonald, “Herodian Echoes in the Syrian Desert,” in Trade, Contact, and the Movement of Peoples in the Eastern Mediterranean: Studies in Honour of J. Basil Hennessy, ed. Stephen Bourke and Jean-Paul Descœudres, Mediterranean Archaeology Supplements 3 (Sydney: MeditArch, 1995), 289-290; OCIANA OCI018843 (old); OCIANA #0021667*.