Serabit el-Khadim proto-Sinaitic inscriptions
The Serabit el-Khadim proto-Sinaitic inscriptions are about 30 early alphabetic inscriptions in proto-Sinaitic script found at or in the vicinity of Serabit el-Khadim on the Sinai Peninsula.
Description
Romanus François Butin of Catholic University of America published articles in the Harvard Theological Review based on the 1927 Harvard Mission to Serabit and the 1930 Harvard-Catholic University Joint Expedition. His article "The Serabit Inscriptions: II. The Decipherment and Significance of the Inscriptions" provides an early detailed study of the inscriptions and some dozen black and white photographs, hand-drawings and analysis of the previously published inscriptions, #346, 349, 350–354, and three new inscriptions, #355–368. At that time, #355 was still in situ at Serabit but had not been photographed by the previous Harvard Mission. In 1932, he wrote:
The present article was begun with the limited purpose of making known the new inscriptions discovered by the Harvard-Catholic University Joint Expedition to Serabit in the spring of 1930. In the course of this study, I perceived that some signs doubtful in the inscriptions already published were made clear by the new slabs, and I decided to go over the entire field again.[1]
Table of inscriptions
All the inscriptions published between 1916 and 1936 were given identification numbers following those of Gardiner's initial 1916 publication. Gardiner's numbers 1–344 were objects from Sinai with unrelated Egyptian inscriptions, so the Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions numbering began at 345. Future scholars continued this numbering scheme for ease of reference.
| Name | Object | Images | Location | Discovery | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sketch | Photo | Original | Current | ID | Discoverer | Publication | ||
| 345 | Sphinx | Serabit, Hathor temple | British Museum | EA41748 | 1906, Petrie | 1916, Gardiner | ||
| 346 | Statuette | Egyptian Museum | 38268 | |||||
| 347 | Two sphinx heads | Art & History Museum (Brussels) | – | |||||
| 348 | Unknown | Wadi Magharah | Lost | – | 1868, Palmer | 1904, Weill | ||
| 349 | Rock panel | Serabit, Mine L | Egyptian Museum | 52511 | 1906, Petrie | 1916, Gardiner | ||
| 350 | Rock panel | 51517 | ||||||
| 351 | Rock panel | 52514 | ||||||
| 352 | Rock panel | 52510 | ||||||
| 353 | Rock panel | 51513 or 52515 | ||||||
| 354 | Rock panel | 52510 (partly lost) | ||||||
| 356 | Rock panel | 51513 or 52515 | 1927, Lake | 1928, Butin | ||||
| 357 | Rock panel | In situ | ||||||
| 358 | Serabit, Mine M | |||||||
| 359 | Unknown | Egyptian Museum | 52516 | 1929, Hjelt | ||||
| 360 | Slab | Ridge between Wadi Qattar and Wadi Umm Themeyim | – | 1930, Lake | 1932, Butin | |||
| 361 | Small rock | Serabit, Mine N | – | |||||
| 362 | Lozenge | Serabit, above Mine L | – | |||||
| 363 | Serabit, south of Mine L | – | ||||||
| 364 | Fragment | Serabit, in front of Mine M | – | |||||
| 365 | palimpsest | Serabit, Egyptian camp | – | |||||
| 367 | Rock panel | Serabit, south of Mine L | – | |||||
| 374 | Serabit, Mine M | 65466 | 1935, Lake | 1936, Butin | ||||
| 375 | 65467 | |||||||
| Gerster 1 | Wadi Nasb | In situ | Gerster | 1961, Leibovitch | ||||
| Gerster 2 | ||||||||
| Disputed (according to Albright): | ||||||||
| 355 | In situ | 1906, Petrie | 1916, Gardiner | |||||
| 366 | 1930, Lake | 1932, Butin | ||||||
| 368 | ||||||||
| 369 | Statuette | |||||||
| 370 | ||||||||
| 371 | ||||||||
| 372 | ||||||||
| 373 | ||||||||
Bibliography
- Petrie, Flinders; Currelly, Charles Trick (1906). Researches in Sinai. ATLA monograph preservation program. John Murray. ISBN 978-0-7905-2421-4. Retrieved 2023-08-13.
- Gardiner, Alan H. (1916). "The Egyptian Origin of the Semitic Alphabet". The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology. 3 (1). Egypt Exploration Society: 1–16. doi:10.2307/3853586. ISSN 0307-5133. JSTOR 3853586. Retrieved 2023-08-13.
- Gardiner, A.H.; Peet, T.E. (1917). The Inscriptions of Sinai: Part 1: Introduction and Plates. Memoirs (Egypt Exploration Society). Egyptian Exploration Fund.
- Lake, Kirsopp; Blake, Robert P. (1928). "The Serâbît Inscriptions: I. The Rediscovery of the Inscriptions". The Harvard Theological Review. 21 (1). Cambridge University Press: 1–8. doi:10.1017/S0017816000021155. ISSN 0017-8160. JSTOR 1507905. S2CID 161474162. Retrieved 2023-08-13.
- Butin, Romain F. (1928). "The Serâbît Inscriptions: II. The Decipherment and Significance of the Inscriptions". The Harvard Theological Review. 21 (1). Cambridge University Press: 9–67. doi:10.1017/S0017816000021167. ISSN 0017-8160. JSTOR 1507906. S2CID 163011970. Retrieved 2023-08-13.
- Butin, Romain F. (1932). "The Protosinaitic Inscriptions". The Harvard Theological Review. 25 (2). Cambridge University Press: 130–203. doi:10.1017/S0017816000001231. ISSN 0017-8160. JSTOR 1507943. S2CID 161237361. Retrieved 2023-08-13.
- Butin, Romain F.; Starr, Richard Francis Strong (1936). "The New ProtoSinaitic Inscriptions". Excavations and Protosinaitic Inscriptions at Serabit El Khadem: Report of the Expedition of 1935. Studies and documents. Christophers. Retrieved 2023-08-13.
- Leibovitch, Joseph (1961). "Deux nouvelles inscriptions proto- sinaitiques". Le Muséon (in French). 74. L'Association sans but lucratif "Le Muséon": 461 ff. ISSN 0771-6494. Retrieved 2023-08-13.
- Rainey, A. F. (1975). "Notes on Some Proto-Sinaitic Inscriptions". Israel Exploration Journal. 25 (2/3). Israel Exploration Society: 106–116. ISSN 0021-2059. JSTOR 27925505. Retrieved 2023-08-13.
- Beit-Arieh, Itzhak (1982). "New Discoveries at Serâbît el-Khâdîm". The Biblical Archaeologist. 45 (1). The American Schools of Oriental Research: 13–18. doi:10.2307/3209843. ISSN 0006-0895. JSTOR 3209843. S2CID 189473632. Retrieved 2023-08-13.
- Arieh, Itzhaq Beit; Giveon, Raphael; Saas, Benjamin (1978). "Two previously unknown Proto Sinaitic inscriptions (in: Explorations at Serâbît El-Khâdim — 1977)". Tel Aviv. 5 (3–4). Maney Publishing: 183–187. doi:10.1179/033443578788497659. ISSN 0334-4355.
- Sass, B. (1988). The Genesis of the Alphabet and Its Development in the Second Millenium B.C. Ägypten und Altes Testament. In Kommission bei O. Harrassowitz. ISBN 978-3-447-02860-8. Retrieved 2023-08-13.