Byblos clay cone inscriptions

The Byblos clay cones inscriptions are Phoenician inscriptions (TSSI III 2,3) on two clay cones discovered around 1950.

Byblos clay cones

They were first published in Maurice Dunand's Fouilles de Byblos (volume II, 1954), but it was only twenty years later that their extremely old age was fully realized: they are now dated to the eleventh century BCE.[1]

They are currently at the National Museum of Beirut.

Text of the inscriptions

The two inscriptions are property marks. Both begin with a letter "L", i.e., the preposition la or li, meaning "(property) of", "(belonging) to". One inscription reads:

L‘BDḤMN
belonging to ‘Abd-Ḥammōn

The name Abd-Ḥammōn (literally, "servant of [the god Ba‘al]-Ḥammon") was quite common; in later times it is found in Greek letter inscriptions as Abdimon (Αβδημων, Αβδημουν, or Αβδυμων).[2]

The other inscription reads:

L’Ḥ’ŠBBD (or L’Ḥ’MBBD)
belonging to ’Aḥī’aš (or ’Aḥī’am), son of Bōdī

In the name ’Aḥī’aš/m the first part, aḥi-, is very common, its meaning is brother of ..., or my brother is ... The name Bōdī or Bōdō is also well documented (the element BD’- in proper names = in the hand of, in the service of [a god], Hebrew beyad-).[3]

Bibliography

References
  1. F.M. Cross & P.K. McCarter, Jr., 'Two Archaic Inscriptions on Clay Objects from Byblos', in: Rivista di Studi Fenici 1 (1973) pp. 3-8, cited by: Cross, Frank Moore (2003). Leaves from an Epigrapher's Notebook: Collected Papers in Hebrew and West Semitic Palaeography and Epigraphy. Leiden: Brill. p. 336. ISBN 978-1-57506-911-1.
  2. Krahmalkov, Charles R. (2000). Phoenician-Punic Dictionary. Leuven: Peeters / Departement Oosterse Studies. p. 355. ISBN 90-429-0770-3.
  3. Krahmalkov, pp. 97-100.
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