The El Kerak Inscription


 DESCRIPTION

Photo by Bruce and Kenneth Zuckerman;
West Semitic Research Project 		Language: Moabite
(a West Semitic Language)
Medium: gray-black basalt
Size: 12.5 cm high
14 cm wide
Length: 3 lines of writing
Approximate Date: late 9th cent. BCE
Place of Discovery: Kerak, Jordan
(near Wadi el-Kerak)
Date of Discovery: 1958
Current Location: Jordan Archaeological Museum
(Amman, Jordan)
Inventory number:




TRANSLITERATION
(from Gibson 1971:83)		 TRANSLATION
(Adapted from Gibson 1971:83)
['NK | MŠc | BN | K]MŠYT | M'B | HD[YBNY |] [I am Mesha, son of K]emosh-yat, the Dib[onite]
[. . . . . BB]TY | KMŠ | LMBcR | KY | 'H[BTY |] [in the te]mple of Kemosh as a sacrifice, because I lo[ve . . . .]
[. . . .]NH | WHN | cSTY | 'T [. . . . .]

Transliteration of special characters
  • [ ] = letters in brackets are reconstructed
  • | = word divider
  • ' = 'Aleph
  • c = cAyin
  • Š = Šin
 [. . . .] and behold, I have made [. . .]



SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Dearman, Andrew, editor. Studies in the Mesha Inscription and Moab. Archaeology and Biblical Studies 2. Atlanta: Scholars, 1989.
Freedman, David Noel. "A Second Mesha Inscription." Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 175 (1964) 50-51.
Gibson, John C. L. Textbook of Syrian Semitic Inscriptions. Volume 1: Hebrew and Moabite Inscriptions. Oxford: Clarendon, 1971.
Knauf, Ernst Axel. "Kerak." In Anchor Bible Dictionary, edited by D. N. Freedman, 4:22-24. New York: Doubleday, 1992.
Mattingly, Gerald L. "Mesha." In Anchor Bible Dictionary, edited by D. N. Freedman, 4:707. New York: Doubleday, 1992.
Pardee, Dennis. "Literary Sources for the History of Palestine and Syria II. Hebrew, Moabite, Ammonite and Edomite Inscriptions." Andrews University Seminary Studies 17 (1979) 47-70.
Reed, W. L., and F. V. Winnett. "A Fragment of an Early Moabite Inscription from Kerak." Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 172 (1963) 1-9.
Sawyer, J. F. A., and David J. A. Clines, eds. Midian, Moab and Edom. JSOT Supplement Series 24. Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1983.



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Last Modified: 2 April 2007