Old South Arabian - Categories of Written Records

Categories of Written Records

  1. Inscriptions in Stone
    1. Votive Inscriptions, often preserve historical accounts of the events that led to the dedication
    2. Inscriptions on Buildings: give the names of the person who commissioned the work and the historical circumstances among other things
    3. Laws and legislation
    4. Protocols and deeds
    5. Inscriptions written for atonement or repentance
    6. Graffiti on Rocks
  2. Literary Texts: if large numbers of any such texts ever existed, they have been almost completely lost
  3. Inscriptions on Wooden Cylinders (only Middle Sabaean and Hadramite). There are about 1000 so far; very few published, mostly in from Nashān, in Wādī Madhāb.
    1. Private Texts
    2. Contracts and orders
  4. Inscriptions on everyday objects


The inscriptions on stone display a very formal and precise wording and expression, whereas the style of the wooden inscriptions written in the cursive script is much more informal.

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