The Sfire or Sefire steles are three 8th-century BCE basalt ''

stelae A stele ( ) or stela ( )The plural in English is sometimes stelai ( ) based on direct transliteration of the Greek, sometimes stelae or stelæ ( ) based on the inflection of Greek nouns in Latin, and sometimes anglicized to steles ( ) or stela ...

'' containing

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 ...

inscriptions discovered near Al-Safirah ("Sfire") near

Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

. The Sefire treaty inscriptions are the three inscriptions on the steles; they are known as KAI 222-224. A fourth stele, possibly from Sfire, is known as KAI 227 (the "Starcky Tablet", at the Louvre).

Discovery of the inscriptions

Sefire I

Discovered in 1930, it is held in the

National Museum of Damascus The National Museum of Damascus () is a museum in the heart of Damascus, Syria. As the country's national museum as well as its largest, this museum covers the entire range of History of Syria, Syrian history over a span of over 11 millennia. It ...

. This is a basalt slab broken in two horizontally. The first two steles each have three faces bearing writing.

Sefire II

Discovered in 1930, it is held in the

. As with Sefire I stele, Sefire II had three faces bearing writing. While most of the text of Sefire II A and B permit coherent translation only with comparison with Sefire I and III, the concluding portion of Sefire II A and B is quite clear.

Sefire III

Discovered in 1956, Sefire III is made up of nine fragments of the reverse of a broad slab. It is held by the

Beirut National Museum The National Museum of Beirut (, ''Matḥaf Bayrūt al-waṭanī'') is the principal museum of archaeology in Lebanon. The collection begun after World War I, and the museum was officially opened in 1942. The museum has collections totaling about ...

The inscriptions

The inscriptions record two treaties that "list curses and magical rites which take effect if the treaty is violated." One is a treaty between two minor kings, Barga'yah and Matti'el, who hailed from the southwestern periphery of the

Assyrian empire Assyrian may refer to: * Assyrian people, an indigenous ethnic group of Mesopotamia. * Assyria, a major Mesopotamian kingdom and empire. ** Early Assyrian Period ** Old Assyrian Period ** Middle Assyrian Empire ** Neo-Assyrian Empire ** Post-im ...

. In the text, Matti'el swears to accept dire consequences for himself and his cities should he violate the stipulations of the treaty:

"....
As this wax is consumed by fire, thus Ma ti'elshall be consumed b fie.
As this bow and these arrows are broken, thus Inurta and
Hadad Hadad (), Haddad, Adad ( Akkadian: 𒀭𒅎 '' DIM'', pronounced as ''Adād''), or Iškur ( Sumerian) was the storm- and rain-god in the Canaanite and ancient Mesopotamian religions. He was attested in Ebla as "Hadda" in c. 2500 BCE. From ...
(= names of local deities) shall break he bow of Matti'eland the bows of his nobles.
As a man of wax is blinded, thus Matti'el shall be blinded.
sthis calf is cut up, thus Matti'el and his nobles shall be cut up."

This loyalty oath from the Sefire inscriptions is similar to other loyalty oaths imposed by Assyrian kings on other less powerful monarchs in the

Levant The Levant ( ) is the subregion that borders the Eastern Mediterranean, Eastern Mediterranean sea to the west, and forms the core of West Asia and the political term, Middle East, ''Middle East''. In its narrowest sense, which is in use toda ...

throughout the 8th and 7th centuries BCE. The inscriptions may, under one possible interpretation, record the names of '' El and

Elyon Elyon or El Elyon ( ''ʼĒl ʻElyōn''), is an epithet that appears in the Hebrew Bible. ' is usually rendered in English as "God Most High", and similarly in the Septuagint as ("God the highest"). The title ' is a common topic of scholarly de ...

,'' "God, God Most High" possibly providing prima facie evidence for a distinction between the two deities first worshipped by the

Jebusites The Jebusites (; ) were, according to the Book of Joshua and Books of Samuel from the Hebrew Bible, a Canaanite tribe that inhabited Jerusalem, called Jebus () before the conquest initiated by Joshua (, ) and completed by David (). According to s ...

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

, and then elsewhere throughout the ancient Levant. Thought to be reflective of Assyrian or neo-Assyrian culture and similar to other documents dating from the first millennium BCE, scholars such as

Joseph Fitzmyer Joseph Augustine Fitzmyer (November 4, 1920 – December 24, 2016) was an American Catholic priest and scholar who taught at several American and British universities. He was a member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). Fitzmyer was considered ...

have perceived

Canaan CanaanThe current scholarly edition of the Septuagint, Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus Testamentum graece iuxta LXX interprets. 2. ed. / recogn. et emendavit Robert Hanhart. Stuttgart : D ...

ite influences in the text, while Dennis McCarthy has noted similarities to second millennium BCE treaties imposed by Hittite kings on Syrian vassals.

Identification of the treaty kings

Two treaties conducted between minor kings from the Kingdom of Arpad inscribed on the stelae are often cited as evidence of the

Aramaean The Arameans, or Aramaeans (; ; , ), were a tribal Semitic people in the ancient Near East, first documented in historical sources from the late 12th century BCE. Their homeland, often referred to as the land of Aram, originally covered cent ...

tradition of treaty-making. The Sefire inscriptions are of interest to those studying beliefs and practices in ancient

and

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

and the text is considered notable for constituting "the best extrabiblical source for West Semitic traditions of covenantal blessings and curses." They tell of ''"The treaty of King Bar-ga'yah of K , with Mati'el son of Attarsamak, king of Arpad."'' Some have identified this as the treaty of "Ashurnerari V" (

Adad-nirari III Adad-nīrārī III (also Adad-nārārī, meaning "Adad (the storm god) is my help") was a King of Assyria from 811 to 783 BC. Family Adad-nīrārī was a son and successor of king Shamshi-Adad V, and was apparently quite young at the time of hi ...

or his son Tiglath-pileser III?) of Assyria and Matiilu (unknown) of Arpad (probably modern

Tel Rifaat Tell Rifaat (, also spelled Tel Rifaat, Tel Rif'at or Tal Rifaat) is a city in northern Aleppo Governorate, northwestern Syria. Located roughly north of Aleppo, the city is the administrative center of Nahiya Tell Rifaat. Nearby localities inclu ...

, Syria).

Gallery

File:Ronzevalle's publication of the Sefire steles - Plate XL.jpg File:Ronzevalle's publication of the Sefire steles - Plate XLI.jpg File:Ronzevalle's publication of the Sefire steles - Plate XLII.jpg File:Ronzevalle's publication of the Sefire steles - Plate XLIII.jpg File:Ronzevalle's publication of the Sefire steles - Plate XLIV.jpg File:Ronzevalle's publication of the Sefire steles - Plate XLV.jpg File:Tablette - 604-562 av. J.C. - Néo-babylonien - Nabuchodonosor II - Alep - Louvre - AO 21063.jpg, KAI 227, "Starcky Tablet", AO 21063

References

Bibliography

Steles I and II

* Dussaud René
Nouvelles inscriptions araméennes de Séfiré, près d'Alep
In: Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 75ᵉ année, N. 4, 1931. pp. 312-321. DOI : https://doi.org/10.3406/crai.1931.76102 * Ronzevalle, S.,
Fragments d'inscriptions araméennes des environs d'Alep
" Mélanges de l'Université Saint-Joseph, 15 (1930-31): 237–60 * Cantineau, Jean,
Remarques sur la stèle araméenne de Sefiré-Soudjin
" RA 28 (1931): 167–178 * Hempel, J. and Bauer, H., "Zeitschriftenschau: Mélanges de l'Université Saint-Joseph. Beyrouth (Liban) XV (1930)." ZAW 50 (1932): 178–83 * Driver, G.R., "Notes on the Aramaic Inscription from Soudschin." AfO 8 (1932-33): 203–6 * Friedrich, J. and Landsberger, B., "Zu der altaramäischen Stele von Sudschin." ZA 41 (1933): 313–18

Stele III

* Dupont-Sommer, A. and Starcky, Jean, "Une inscription araméenne inédite de Sfiré." BMB 13 (1956 ppeared 1958: 23–41 + pls. I-VI. Sf.3 * Dupont-Sommer, A., "Une stèle araméenne inédite de Sfiré (Syrie) du VIIIe siècle avant J.-C.." CRAIBL (1957a): 245–48. Sf.3 * Fitzmyer, Joseph A., "The Aramaic Suzerainty Treaty from Sefire in the Museum of Beirut." CBQ 20 (1958): 444–76. Sf.3

All Steles

* Dupont-Sommer André
Les inscriptions araméennes de Sfiré (stèles I et II)
In: Mémoires présentés par divers savants à l'Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres de l'Institut de France. Première série, Sujets divers d'érudition. Tome 15, 1e partie, 1960. pp. 197-349. DOI : https://doi.org/10.3406/mesav.1960.1129 * {{Cite book , last=Fitzmyer , first=Joseph A. , title=The Aramaic Inscriptions of Sefîre , date=1967 , publisher=Pontifical Biblical Institute , series=Biblica et Orientalia (sacra scriptura antiquitatibus orientalibus illustrata) , volume=19 , location=Rome , oclc=467201 * Fitzmyer, J. (1961)
The Aramaic Inscriptions of Sefire I and II
Journal of the American Oriental Society, 81(3), 178-222. doi:10.2307/595652 * Greenfield, Jonas C., "Three Notes on the Sefire Inscription," ''JSS'' 11 (1966), 98-105. 8th-century BC steles 1930 archaeological discoveries 1956 archaeological discoveries Ancient Near East steles Texts in Aramaic Victory steles Ancient Near East Aramaic inscriptions KAI inscriptions Aleppo Governorate Archaeological discoveries in Syria El (deity) 8th-century BC inscriptions