A bronze tablet with a Sabaic inscription, which appeared in the Sana market, offers the first intriguing occurrence of the goddess 'Athtarum outside the Hadramitic city of Raybun. The inscription is a penitential text and its content and linguistic and formulaic features are reminiscent of the Sabaic penitential inscriptions from al-Jawf. This new evidence of a goddess 'Athtarum in the bronze tablet Sana 2004-1 could testify to the existence in the religion of al-Jawf (besides Hadramawt) of female variants of the god 'Athtar, similar to other cultures of the Ancient Near East. The inscription also offers the opportunity of commenting on the question of the gender of deities on the basis of the epigraphic sources.
Evidence from a new inscription regarding the goddess ‘th(t)rm and some remarks on the gender of deities in South Arabia
PRIOLETTA, ALESSIA
2012-01-01
Abstract
A bronze tablet with a Sabaic inscription, which appeared in the Sana market, offers the first intriguing occurrence of the goddess 'Athtarum outside the Hadramitic city of Raybun. The inscription is a penitential text and its content and linguistic and formulaic features are reminiscent of the Sabaic penitential inscriptions from al-Jawf. This new evidence of a goddess 'Athtarum in the bronze tablet Sana 2004-1 could testify to the existence in the religion of al-Jawf (besides Hadramawt) of female variants of the god 'Athtar, similar to other cultures of the Ancient Near East. The inscription also offers the opportunity of commenting on the question of the gender of deities on the basis of the epigraphic sources.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
