ANCIENT SOUTH ARABIAN INSCRIBED CALCITE-ALABASTER PANEL

Ca. 200 - 100 BC. A rectangular calcite-alabaster panel bearing a single horizontal line of deeply incised characters in an Ancient Arabian script, probably Dadanitic or a closely related regional alphabet. The inscription employs the tall linear, circular and angular signs characteristic of the epigraphic traditions of north-western Arabia. Dadanitic was used at ancient Dadan, near the modern oasis of al-_Ul_ in Saudi Arabia, principally during the second half of the first millennium BC. The short text appears to preserve an onomastic formula, most probably recording a personal name and patronymic. A provisional translation may therefore be expressed as: ?[Name], son or descendant of [Name].? For similar see: The Walters Art Museum, Accession Number 21.46. Size: 100mm x 250mm; Weight: 2kg Provenance: Private London collection; acquired in Belgium; formerly in a German private collection before 2000.