Old Syriac Edessean Inscriptions

This volume contains all the known Old Syriac inscriptions from Edessa and the area around Osrhoene in Northern Mesopotamia from the first three centuries C.E., the number of which has substantially increased over the last decades. The texts are given in estrangelo script and are accompanied by an extensive philological and historical commentary. The originals are presented in photographs and line drawings. The volume also contains chapters on the script of these inscriptions, on the language and on the history and culture of Edessa. Two appendices offer the texts of three parchments written in Syriac and originating from the same area, and of known but still unpublished inscriptions. The book concludes with indices of words and proper names, which are complement to the Dictionary of the North-West Semitic Inscriptions (Brill, 1995), and with a full bibliography.

Preliminary material -- INTRODUCTION -- EDESSA'S HISTORY AND CULTURE -- THE SOURCES FOR THE STUDY OF EDESSA'S RELIGION -- THE CULT OF NEBO AND BEL -- THE CULT OF ATARGATIS -- THE CULT OF SIN LORD OF THE GODS AT SUMATAR HARABESI -- THE CULT OF AZIZOS AND MONIMOS AND OTHER ARAB DEITIES -- EDESSAN RELIGION, PAGANISM IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE, AND EARLY CHRISTIANITY -- INDEX -- LIST OF PLATES -- PLATES I-XXXIV.

The thousands of surviving inscriptions in Middle Aramaic (e.g., in the Nabataean, Syriac and Palmyrene dialects) are an underused resource in the study of the Near East in the Roman period, especially in the study of religion and law. Particularly important was the emergence during this period of new peoples with their cultural roots in Arabia, such as the Nabataeans. This volume collects together, under the interrelated themes of religion and law, twenty-three articles by John Healey, with sections on "Petra and Nabataean Aramaic", "Edessa and Early Syriac" and "Aramaic and Society in the Roman Near East". Individual papers discuss the continuation of "Ancient Near Eastern" culture, the Aramaic legal tradition as well as the development of both written and spoken forms of Syriac and Nabatean.

The description, location, chronology, and nature of the bilingual archive from Ma'lana, called Ma'allanate by Assyriologists, is followed by the up-dated analysis of all the Aramaic texts and epigraphs, as well as of the proper names, occurring there or related to them. This material, so far scattered in a dozen of different publications, is now collected and reorganized in four chapters. All the texts dealt with date to ca. 700-620 B.C., from the office tenure of Hadddiy, the palace prefect of Queen Naqi'a/Zakutu, to the time of Sehr-nuri under the reign of Sîn-sarra-iskun. These chapters are followed by a palaeographic study of the inscriptions, presented with facsimiles, a detailed grammatical analysis, and a study of the legal contents of the deeds in light of parallel documents. There follow indices of proper names, subjects treated, sources used, and modern authors. A list of illustrations completes the volume.

This volume draws together essays by fourteen international scholars in the field of Aramaic and Syriac studies. It is published to pay fitting honour to Professor Martin McNamara, who has contributed so much to Targumic studies for almost forty years. The contributions in this collection reflect his interests in the study of the Targums, the development of the Aramaic language and early Jewish and Christian literature. Many of the contributors to this volume have worked with Professor McNamara in preparing volumes for the Aramaic Bible series, to which he has devoted so much time and energy.