An Unpublished North West Semitic Inscription from the Collection of the Russian Archaeological Institute in Constantinople

Vestnik Drevnei Istorii. 2022. Vol. 82. No. 4. P. 911–940.

Balakhvantsev A., Kogan L., Lyavdansky A., Tunkina I.

The authors publish a hitherto unknown squeeze made from a North West Semitic inscription. The squeeze originally belonged to the Russian Archeological Institute in Constantinople and is now hosted by the St. Petersburg Branch of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The inscription, performed in relief, may have been made on a large ornamented stone vessel. Paleographic features of the letters point to the mid‑9th century BC as its approximate date. Both paleographic and linguistic features of the text suggest that its origin is to be sought in Southern Canaan (Palestine).
 

Keywords: эпиграфика, epigraphy, Семитские языки, Ancient Israel, древний Израиль, древнееврейский язык, Semitic languages, Эпиграфика Востока, North West Semitic languages, северозападные семитские языки