DʿMT & early highlandsRIÉ 54

RIÉ 54: inscribed human-headed lion from Addi Kerāmāten

DASI catalogues this inscription on a stone animal figure from Addi Kerāmāten, Eritrea, now recorded at Asmara Archaeological Museum. Duncanson's 1947 field report and the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica identify the object as a crouching human-headed lion, or sphinx, found with a small stone altar at Girmaten/Addi Kerāmāten. This is a separate site from nearby Keskese. The text is on the figure's leg; the object's exact date remains uncertain.

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Date: Early 1st millennium–5th/4th c. BCE (DASI Period A)
Place: Addi Kerāmāten, Senafe, Eritrea
Language: Ethiopian Early Sabaic
Script: Ancient South Arabian

01 · Original text

Ethiopian Early Sabaic

Ancient South ArabianSurviving text; DASI lineation retained

𐩥𐩠𐩨𐩥(𐩵)

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

Whbw(d)

02 · Translation

English translation

Whbwd.

Habesha History translation of the DASI reading, compared with Abraham J. Drewes, Recueil des inscriptions de l’Éthiopie, III/B, revised and adapted by Manfred Kropp, ed. Manfred Kropp and Harry Stroomer (2019), entry RIÉ 54, p. 86.

RIÉ III/B identifies the short text as the personal name Whbwd.

Sources

Editions & references

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

RIÉ 54 / DASI 8678
Giulia Buono (ed.), ‘RIÉ 54’, DASI, first published 2015-07-12.
Duncanson 1947, Girmaten
D. J. Duncanson, ‘Girmaten: A New Archaeological Site in Eritrea’, Antiquity 21 (1947), pp. 159–163, especially pp. 159–162. The 1947 reading and date suggestions are historical interpretations, not adopted as the current inscription reading or a secure object date.
Encyclopaedia Aethiopica I, 77a
Rodolfo Fattovich, ‘Addi Kramatén’, Encyclopaedia Aethiopica I, p. 77a (2003): the crouching human-headed lion from Addi Kramatén.