A short

Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...

inscription on

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

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 The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was fought from 6 to 25 October 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states led by Egypt and S ...

. The inscription reads: n the month. . ., the year three hundred and five, ''Yqym'', son of ''Ḥmlt'', son of ''Nṣrmlk'', built a temple. The date of 305 in the

Seleucid era The Seleucid era ("SE") or (literally "year of the Greeks" or "Greek year"), sometimes denoted "AG," was a Calendar era, system of numbering years in use by the Seleucid Empire and other countries among the ancient Hellenistic period, Hellenistic ...

corresponds to the year 7 or 6 BC. The name ''Yqym'' should be vocalized Yāqīm, a biblical name attested in

Nabataean Aramaic Nabataean Aramaic is the extinct Aramaic variety used in inscriptions by the Nabataeans of the Transjordan_(region), East Bank of the Jordan River, the Negev, and the Sinai Peninsula. Compared with other varieties of Aramaic, it is notable for ...

and

Safaitic Safaitic ( ''Al-Ṣafāʾiyyah'') is a variety of the South Semitic scripts used by the Arabs in southern Syria and northern Jordan in the Harrat al-Sham, Ḥarrah region, to carve rock inscriptions in various dialects of Old Arabic and Ancient N ...

inscriptions. ''Ḥmlt'' is Ḥamilat, also attested in Nabataean and Safaitic. These names are thus "Arabian" and may indicate "a member of a mixed Jewish-pagan population". The name ''Nṣrmlk'' is not otherwise attested. The phrase translated 'temple' may be translated 'house of god (=אלה)'. The script of the al-Mal inscription is almost identical to Palmyrene. Its spellings, however, are more typical of Nabataean. It also contains unusual spellings found in

Jewish Palestinian Aramaic Jewish Palestinian Aramaic also known as Jewish Western Aramaic was a Western Aramaic language spoken by the Jews during the Classic Era in Judea and the Levant, specifically in Hasmonean, Herodian and Roman Judaea and adjacent lands in the ...

and

Christian Palestinian Aramaic Christian Palestinian Aramaic was a Western Aramaic languages, Western Aramaic dialect used by the Melkite, Melkite Christian community, predominantly of Jews, Jewish descent, in Palestine (region), Palestine, Transjordan (region), Transjordan an ...

. Joseph Naveh thought the inscription may have been carved by an Ituraean. He argued that the script was 'Seleucid Aramaic', from which Palmyrene and Syrica were developed. Klaus Beyer classifies the language of the al-Mal inscription as 'Pagan Old Palestinian', specifically 'Pagan Old East Jordanian'. It is the only surviving example of this dialect. 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."

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* * * {{refend Aramaic inscriptions 0s BC in the Roman Empire