DʿMT & early highlandsAddi Akaweh 1

Rdʾm and the people of DʿMT

A better-preserved parallel to RIÉ 9 confirms and refines the reading of Rdʾm’s DʿMT formula.

Date
Early 1st millennium–5th/4th c. BCE
Place
Addi Akaweh, Ethiopia
Language
Ethiopian Early Sabaic
Script
Ancient South Arabian

01 · Original text

Ethiopian Early Sabaic

Ancient South ArabianSurviving text; DASI lineation retained

𐩧𐩵𐩱𐩣 𐩣𐩡𐩫←𐩬 (𐩮)𐩧𐩲𐩬 𐩪←[𐩧𐩺𐩩 ]𐩣𐩫𐩧(𐩨) 𐩵—
𐩲𐩣𐩩 𐩨[𐩬 𐩨𐩬 𐩪]→(𐩡)𐩣𐩣 [𐩰𐩷𐩧]→[𐩬] 𐩥-𐩮𐩧𐩲𐩩 𐩲—
𐩧𐩫𐩩𐩬 𐩠𐩢[𐩵]←(𐩪)𐩥 𐩣𐩤𐩷←[𐩧𐩩𐩬 𐩡-𐩧]𐩨 𐩨—
𐩲𐩡 (𐩱)𐩥[.𐩢]→ 𐩺𐩥𐩣 𐩣𐩡𐩫→𐩥 𐩵𐩲𐩣𐩩 𐩣—
𐩦𐩧𐩤-𐩠𐩺 𐩥-𐩣←𐩲𐩧𐩨-𐩠𐩺 ←[𐩪𐩨𐩱]-𐩠𐩺 𐩥-𐩲—
𐩨𐩧-𐩠𐩺 [𐩱𐩵𐩣→-𐩠]𐩺 𐩥-𐩮𐩡𐩣→-(𐩠)𐩺 𐩨-𐩪𐩤𐩩|
𐩲𐩪𐩩𐩧 𐩥-𐩠𐩨←𐩪 𐩥-𐩱𐩡𐩣𐩤←[𐩺 𐩥-]𐩹𐩩-𐩢𐩣𐩬
𐩥-𐩹𐩩-𐩨𐩲[𐩵𐩬 ]→𐩥-𐩱𐩨-𐩫 𐩥𐩵→[𐩣] 𐩨𐩬 𐩲(𐩩)𐩫𐩣|

Normalized Old South Arabian letters follow the DASI reading, including its line breaks and editorial brackets. See the image for the engraved letter forms.

Scholarly transliteration

Rdʾm mlk←n (ṣ)rʿn S¹←[ryt ]mkr(b) D— ʿmt b[n bn S¹]→(l)mm [Fṭr]→[n] w-Ṣrʿt ʿ— rktn hḥ[d]←(s¹)w mqṭ←[rtn l-R]b b— ʿl (ʾ)w[.ḥ]→ ywm mlk→w Dʿmt m— s²rq-hy w-m←ʿrb-hy ←[S¹bʾ]-hy w-ʿ— br-hy [ʾdm→-h]y w-ṣlm→-(h)y b-s¹qt| ʿs¹tr w-Hb←s¹ w-ʾlmq←[y w-]ḏt-Ḥmn w-ḏt-Bʿ[dn ]→w-ʾb-k Wd→[m] bn ʿ(t)km|

02 · Translation

English translation

Rdʾm, victorious king of S¹ryt and mukarrib of DʿMT, descendant of S¹lmm Fṭrn and Ṣrʿt the wife, restored two incense burners for Rb, Lord of ʾw[.]ḥ, when he became king of DʿMT—its east and west, its Sabaeans and settlers, its Red and Black—under the protection of ʿs¹tr, Hbs¹, ʾlmqy, ḏt-Ḥmn and ḏt-Bʿdn; may your father Wdm save you from any opponent (?).

DASI CSAI English translation, joined and lightly punctuated; data CC BY 4.0

Joined across DASI display lines; editorial brackets and uncertainty marks are retained.

Sources

Editions & references

Edition, catalogue, and image records used for this entry.

  1. Addi Akaweh 1 / DASI 7551

    Giulia Buono, ‘Addi Akaweh 1’, DASI, first published 2015-01-05

Habesha History corpus

Iwona Gajda and Yohannes Gebre Selassie (2009), p. 49

HYohannes, The Kingdom of DʿMT (2025)