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A short Aramaic inscription on basalt was discovered at al-Mal in Syria in 1973. The inscribed basalt block had been cut by builders for use in a modern building. The text is not entirely preserved. It was discovered and photographed by an Israeli expedition following the Yom Kippur War. [1]
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The inscription reads:
[In the month. . .,]
the year three hundred
and five, Yqym,
son of Ḥmlt, son of
Nṣrmlk,
built a temple. [2]
The date of 305 in the Seleucid era corresponds to the year 7 or 6 BC. [2] The name Yqym should be vocalized Yāqīm, a biblical name attested in Nabataean Aramaic and Safaitic inscriptions. Ḥmlt is Ḥamilat, also attested in Nabataean and Safaitic. [3] These names are thus "Arabian" and may indicate "a member of a mixed Jewish-pagan population". [4] The name Nṣrmlk is not otherwise attested. [5] The phrase translated 'temple' may be translated 'house of god (=אלה)'. [6]
The script of the al-Mal inscription is almost identical to Palmyrene. Its spellings, however, are more typical of Nabataean. [6] It also contains unusual spellings found in Jewish Palestinian Aramaic and Christian Palestinian Aramaic. [2] Joseph Naveh thought the inscription may have been carved by an Ituraean. [6] He argued that the script was 'Seleucid Aramaic', from which Palmyrene and Syrica were developed. [7]
Klaus Beyer classifies the language of the al-Mal inscription as 'Pagan Old Palestinian', [a] specifically 'Pagan Old East Jordanian'. It is the only surviving example of this dialect. [9] Holger Gzella, however, writes that "the text is too brief and too formulaic to exhibit any linguistic peculiarities, so it remains open whether it attests to another, non-Jewish, written tradition of Aramaic during this period." [4]