#New on #OCIANA - from the cosmopolitan world of ancient Arabia: ʾAkzam son of Ġawṯ, of the people of Rm (Rome?), records being driven away from the road (𝑠𝑎𝑏𝑖̄𝑙!) by the tribe of Thamūd, mentioned in the Quran! From near ʿarʿar عرعر KSA. Find more: ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions...

Great interview of Dr. Charles Häberl on Mandaïc and other forms of Aramaïc and his work on them. youtu.be/UJLZBMGxjZ4?...

INTRODUCING: Near East by Midwest Podcast, hosted by the department of Near Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures at OSU! First episode discusses Mandaic, Mandaeans, and other matters with Prof. C. Häberl. Don’t miss it! www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJLZ...

#New on #OCIANA - a remarkable #Dhofari 1a text containing 3 generations of a family devoted to the deity 𝐑𝐚̄𝐦 'high, exalted'. The verb of devotion is 𝒌𝒘𝒓 (cf. Mehri kīwer) 'to love'. Find more: ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions...

#New on #OCIANA - Perhaps one of the commonest themes in graffiti world wide are records of sexual intercourse. Ancient graffiti are no exception! This Script 2 #Dhofari txt reads: {r}{ḥ}km w nk hls¹m 'Rḥkm and he had sex with Hls¹m' Find more: ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions...

#New on #OCIANA, the 1st #Dhofari Script 2 txt is now online. It is a simple 3 generation genealogy, 𝒅̣𝒍ʿ𝒕 (𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒇) ʿ𝒎𝒓 (𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒇) 𝒍𝒃𝒏𝒎. These texts are written horizontally rather than vertically and have a lovely butterfly 𝒎. Find more: ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions...

While #Dhofari Script 1a is well understood and its corpus is growing, the much less frequently attested Script 2 remained illusive. Here are some notes on that variant for discussion: academia.edu/144277088/Al... To learn about #Dhofari, tune in here: open.spotify.com/episode/0zVe...

#NEW on #OCIANA - Drought is a major theme in the #Safaitic inscriptions. This text records a drought in the spring, during 𝒅̱𝒏𝒃 𝒅̱𝒌𝒓 (ذنب ذكر) 'the tail of Aries'! And calls upon the god Yayṯeʿ to deliver from the dry land. ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions...

Happening at OSU this Friday-Sunday - #NACAL_48! Three days of Afro-Asiatic linguistics. See the link for the program and registration. nesa.osu.edu/events/north...

New issue of Journal of Semitic Studies Vol. 70, No. 2 (2025) academic.oup.com/jss/issue/70/2 @oxfordacademic.bsky.social @safaitic.bsky.social

The first epigraphic attestation of the Modern South Arabian lexical isogloss ġayg 'man' in a #Dhofari text 'Bar-Shahm son of Mb---- has love for a man' Amorous expressions are common in the inscriptions, as is concealing the identity of the lover with generic nouns! ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions...

Lots of new grammar in the #Dhofari inscriptions, suggesting further links with the Modern South Arabian languages. The verb yġfrm 'may they pardon' shows the plural ending -m. See these two new texts just uploaded to #OCIANA ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions... ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions...

By special request: A Safaitic-Greek bilingual inscription, demonstrating the transcription of interdentals and all other sorts of fun things. @bnuyaminim.bsky.social @maartenkossmann.bsky.social @lameensouag.bsky.social Find more: ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions...

#New on #OCIANA, perhaps the first rhymed Dhofari text: an expression of weeping out of lovesickness, themes in Safaitic and in Jāhilī poetry. 'here, he has wept; in him is much weeping; because of his excess love (صبه), he is silent' Find more: ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions...

New on #OCIANA! A remarkable text carved 'when the reign of Dahr caused difficulty', i.e., when deified death ravaged the land. This is our first attestation of Dahr as a divine title in the pre-Islamic epigraphic record! Likely an epithet of Mot 'Death', Manay 'Fate' ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions...

Remarkable! #Dhofari inscription KMC 28 just deciphered and uploaded records the dedication of rock art to a deity called mʿl mḥmd, exalted mḥmd. The epithet mʿl was previously applied to divine sun. It seems mḥmd 'praised one' also has the same referent! find more: ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions...

#New on #OCIANA: a #Dhofari inscription from east Oman discovered by Prof. al-Jahwari. The text seems to give the name and lineage of an individual. If this is correct, then Dhofari 𝒉𝒍 would correspond to Arabic ʾahl 'family'. Find more: ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions...

An challenging #Dofari inscription, with a preliminary analysis on #OCIANA: ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions... A man falls ill, after travelling by night, and comes to the present place to make an offering...I think :). Comments are very welcome at this early stage of understanding this new language.

#New in #OCIANA: A remarkable prayer in #Dhofari in praise ℎ̣𝑚𝑑 of a deity called ʾ𝑦𝑙. Is ʾ𝑦𝑙 a local pronunciation of the pan-Semitic father deity, ʾilu? The deity seems to be later in the inscription called ℎ̣𝑦 'living'! See the commentary: ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions...

#New on #OCIANA: 3 #Dhofari texts, attesting much in the way of grammar: a preposition k-, a suffixed article, and a new verb, s³ʿl, the meaning of which is unclear. Find more: ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions... ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions... ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions...

Read about the decipherment of the #Dhofari script in @science.org: www.science.org/content/arti... The Dhofari inscriptions are slowly being translated and inserted into #OCIANA. See this fascinating inscr. that invokes the exalted Sun, Shams, to heal a woman: ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions...

With the decipherment of the Dhofari script, we can now explore the corpus. This contribution provides the first readings/interpretations of select Dhofari inscriptions www.academia.edu/129854455/Al... 23: w ʿl-h yd smh 24: sll 25: {b}-ḥwg '‘In need was Sll so may the hand of Smh be upon him’

#Phenomenal #Hismaic inscription just edited for #OCIANA by J. Norris. The text is by a man with a Greek name of the lost tribe of ʿ𝒂̄𝒅. He calls on the goddess Allāt to be mindful of his friends 𝒚𝒉𝒅 “Judah” (Yəhûdâ) and 𝒚𝒔ʿ “Jesus” (Yēšûaʿ). See: shorturl.at/jKaua

A fun puzzle. This Hismaic inscription contains a unique prayer: 𝒉 𝒍𝒕𝒎 ʾ𝒕 ʾ𝒉̣𝒚𝒍𝒕 'O Allāt you are ʾḥy-Allāt! The text seems to be equating a divine name with its epithet. The first element ʾḥy must have something to do with 'life', but what is it exactly? ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions...

The pre-Islamic script from Dhofar was undeciphered and therefore there are no inscriptions of this type in #OCIANA. Now we have the decipherment of the main variant of the Dhofari alphabet: t.co/ngtzPB9ZPz

This paper provides an overview of Ancient North Arabian writing traditions, and attempts to understand their development through the evolution of formulae. www.academia.edu/129747926/Al...

Great collection of authentic bigfoots, haters will say they're bears

Is #Ancient_North_Arabian confusing? Having a hard time understanding what is what in #OCIANA? See this document, with definitions of each epigraphic category, history, bibliography, and some example texts. Lots of questions, and lots more to be done. www.academia.edu/129719170/Al...

#New on #OCIANA : Our knowledge of the pre-Islamic inscriptions from Central Arabia is extremely poor and fragmentary. Here is a short text in an unidentified North Arabian variety from near #Riyāḍ containing a prayer to the old god #Ruḍaw. Find more: t.co/COwrSNhOka

A conversation with my friends @terodotus.bsky.social and @roxannairani.bsky.social on the archaeology of Allāh. www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7au...

#Updated on #OCIANA: a building text by a priest ʾ𝒂𝒇𝒌𝒂𝒍 (cf. Akk. apkallu) of ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑎̄ℎ, which is #Dadanitic for Allāh. A priest in service of (𝐡)𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐚̄𝐡 indicates that he had an associated temple and cult, somewhere in northern Arabia in the 1st millennium BCE. Find more: ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions...

Perks of fieldwork - even when there are no inscriptions, there are great views.

New on #OCIANA - Thamudic D inscriptions on an important route between Mecca and Ṭāʾif, Rīʿ al-Zallālah. This fantastic panel boasts a large-scale drawing of a seated man with a scepter & 3 Thamudic D columns next to him. Find more: ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions... Bonus(next slide)

Who was Allah before Islam? The first glimpses of Allah's mythological profile based on a newly discovered Safaitic inscription and archaeological site. Complimentary download here: academic.oup.com/jss/advance-...

Proofs just submitted and coming out soon. One of the most exciting discoveries and most challenging inscriptions I’ve worked on yet. Let’s see.

Arabs, Romans, and Persians, oh my! Some 2k years ago an Arab commander named Wahballāh son of Ẓann-ʾEl led a troop with an Arab soldier called "Scorpion," a Roman called "Big Mark," and Persian called "held by Ahura Mazda." Here are their inscriptions in #Greek and #Safaitic

Gaius' companion, Ẓāʿen (ظاعن), then turned to write his own text in Greek. He got his name right, but when trying to write the verb 'he wrote' ἔγραψε, everything goes wrong. 1 wonders what kind of pidgin Greek was used in the deserts in such mixed troops! Find more: ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions...

We saw ancient Arabs writing in Greek but what about Romans using Arabic? Perhaps an example of this is a #newly uploaded #Safaitic text to #OCIANA by a man named 𝒈𝒚𝒔̣ (Gaius) 𝒅̱ ʾ𝒍 𝒓𝒎 'of the people of Rome'. Find more: ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions...

#updated on #OCIANA: the Romans were a force to be feared in the desert. Our man, despite feeling deep into the basalt, failed to find refuge from them - “fa lam ya’el” فلم يَئِل. Find more: ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions...

#New on #OCIANA: one of the most remarkable #Safaitic texts. Our author pastures during the #Pleiades, called the seven stars, complains abt the Evil Eye and calls upon Allāt from ʿOmān and Dushara from Raqmo (Petra) to save him. Find more: ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions...

@moudhy.bsky.social a most wonderful gift arrived in the mail today from an amazing scholar and delightful person - thank you, dear Moudhy! I look forward to it!

#New on #OCIANA: A #Safaitic invocation calling upon a new deity - ḏgn /ḏū genn/ 'master of the Jinn'! This along with other circumstantial evidence suggests that a belief in ginn spirits was current among the Safaitic writers some 2k ago. Find more: ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions...

Did the nomads east of Ḥawrān worship Yahweh alongside their other gods? #New_edition: a Safaitic inscription might record an invocation to 𝒚𝒉/yahō/, asking for a blessing 𝒃𝒓𝒌. But the text is only known from a poor hand copy from the 90s. Find more: ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions...

An enjoyable conversation with Prof. Kaldellis on exploring ancient Arabia and a forthcoming publication - who was ancient Allah? urldefense.com/v3/__https:/...

Databases are useful, but they are also dangerous. An excited colleague consulted us on the OCIANA 1 record below, attesting the name ʿmlq = עֲמָלֵק = عملاق for the first time! But this turned out to be a phantom. Use OCIANA 2! ‎Correct reading: ⁦‪ ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions...

The interpretation of many ancient texts is uncertain and databases should present that uncertainty. While the first two lines of the famous #Taymanitic #Nabonidus text are clear, the last has resisted interpretation. See why on the updated #OCIANA card: ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions...

Frank Lopez: You know what a chazzer is? Tony Montana: No, Frank, you tell me. What is a chazzer? Frank Lopez: It's a *Safaitic* word for "pig." See, the guy, he wants more than what he needs. He don't fly straight. New on #ociana the Safaitic pig 𝒉̮𝒛𝒓: ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions...

An ancient celebration : a dancing scene with a double-reed flute in the black desert some 2000 years ago. BES19s 30: www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8o-...

Many have heard of the lost tribes of Israel, but there were also lost tribes of Arabia, the so-called 'extinct Arabs' العرب البائدة. Most mysterious among them is ʿĀd. Newly ⁦‪published‬⁩: a Safaitic txt by a ʿĀdite dating some 2000BP For a Tedx talk on the subject see: youtu.be/VCmE-cmnEjo?...