SAQQARA

 

SAQQARA    or the story of the two sisters.

 

 

Close to the small village of Sakkara (18 km south of Cairo) lies an enormous cemetery of the old Egyptian town of Memphis. Here are also the graves of more than 20 kings under who is the staircase pyramid of Djoser (Zoser).  There are only four inscriptions, but the fourth one is really exceptional.

 

1. Inscription on an amphorae:  end of the 5^th century BC.

 

Mlkmhr           ? Milk haste! (Krahmalkov p.272)

h‘ky                from Akko (Krahmalkov p.366).

’

 

2.Inscription on an amphorae: end of the 5^th century BC.

 

Mslt 9             ? If there is a misspelling, then there are some possibilities.

                                   Mšlt: govern (Krahmalkov p.317)

                                   Mšl: Masol (short form of name-type DN-mšl or mšl-DN) (Benz p.143)

                        There is the number 9, of what?

 

3. Inscription on an amphorae: end of the 5^th century BC.

 

Bl                    If this is an independent word and no aggregation, then the name of the month

                        Bul is a possibility. (Krahmalkov p.103). It is not a personal name.

 

4. Inscription in demotic script, but in the Phoenician language: 6^th century BC. KAI 50.

It is a very common letter in which two daughters in different towns do some kind of business with each-other. This is very peculiar. Most of the Phoenician inscriptions are rather short dedications with at the most a list of names.

 

Line 1:

’l ’ršt bt ’šmny[tn]

To ’Arišut, daughter of ’Ešmunyaton

 

Line 2:

’mr | l’ḥty | ’ršt | ’mr | ’ḥtk | bš’| wšlm | ’t | ’? ’nk | šlm | brktn | lb

Message to my sister Arišut. Here speaks your sister Bš’. Are you doing well? I am oké. I greet you in the name of

 

Line 3:

‘l Ṣpn | wkl ’l | tḥpnḥs ypln | šlm | ’pqn hksp | ’š šlḥt | ly | wtnt

Baal Saphon and of the gods of Daphnae. Moreover, I got the silver that you sent me.

 

Line 4:

z | ly mš[q]l ||| [| k]r wh[z]’‘l | ’t kpr b‘dt wml’t | ‘lt pny | ’yt | kl

Sent me a weight of 4 kr and in addition to it I shall give in full all my

 

Line 5:

ksp | ’š ly | bdk | wyhtt | ’t k ’t bṭh | bdbr[y]‘r ’š ’d‘ | bm’[t ym]t wš

silver into your possession and I shall entrust it to you. Trust in my word.

 

Line 6:

lht ly ’t spr dnqt ’š lmyš[r]…..ky

Sent me within 100 days a letter with the power of attorney.

 

We are witnessing a correspondence between two daughters of Ešmunyaton. Bš’ lives in Daphnae = Tall al-Dafanna, ca.8 km west of al-Qantara and Arišut lives in Saqqara, where she got hold of a lot of silver. The location of the father Esmunyaton is not known.

 

Bš’ > Vocalisation and meaning uncertain. Benz p.101, Krahmalkov p.128.

Tḥpnḥs > Tahpanhès = Daphnae (DCPP 435).

’šmnytn = ’Ešmunyaton (May Esmun grant!) Benz 71-72, Krahmalkov p.83.

’ršt = ’Arišut (short form from Arišutbaal) Benz p.69, Krahmalkov p.75.

 

DCPP = E.Lipinski ed. Dictionnaire de la civilisation phénicienne et punique, Brepols, Turnhout, 1992.

Benz: PERSONAL NAMES IN THE PHOENICIAN AND PUNIC INSCRIPTIONS

Frank L.Benz, Studia Pohl, Rome, Biblical Institue Press, 1972. Studia Pohl: Dissertations scientificae de rebus orientis antique. A cataloque, Grammatical Study and Glossary of Elements.

                   Krahmalkov: PHOENICIAN - PUNIC DICTIONARY

                   Charles R.Krahmalkov. OLA 90. Studia Phoenicia XV.

                   Uitgeverij Peeters en Departement Oosterse studies. Leuven 2000.

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