AIBL, CIS Box 6, copy 2 = Squeeze of Cairo EM JdE 36448

The crux is understanding the god’s name in the final line, assuming there is one. The DEAPS RTI photographs of the AIBL squeeze present a clearer reading. The first word ends in -Y. The second word is DN◦TY or RN◦TY, where the ◦ = either Ḥ or, more likely, Ṣ, given the size and placement of Ḥ on the line in the other words. Thus, {DNṢTY | RNṢTY} is the most likely reading. As for the possible meanings, (1) one is tempted to see the first word ending in (◦)◦⸢P⸣Y, in which case ḤPY, the god of the Nilometer, comes to mind. If this is the reading, then {DNṢTY | RNṢTY} must be an epithet, but it matches no known epithet of Ḥapi known to me. (One is tempted to see rst, “(Ḥapi) of Upper Egypt,” as the reading, since the Khnum temple held the Nilometer, but to overcome the Egy. s > Aram. Ṣ is impossible.) (2) {DNṢTY | RNṢTY} can be read as a gentilic, in which case the god would be an otherwise unattested foreign god. Compare the Xanthos inscription. This is a compelling reading, as it fits the inscriptional and multicultural context of the Persians’ imperial agenda in southern Egypt, though it suffers from the lack of a firm identification. (3) Lastly, we may be reading the syntax incorrectly. {DNṢTY | RNṢTY} could be a foreign, non-Semitic personal name, in which case the first word could be a verb, such as BNY, “PN built (for) the god. Peace [be on him …].” This suffers from the clarity of the new RTI photographs, which indicate that the most likely reading of the first word is {(◦)◦⸢W⸣Y | (◦)◦⸢P⸣Y | (◦)◦⸢S⸣Y}. Given the use of Persian loanwords in the inscription, it seems probable that this is a commemorative inscription of an easterner or a foreigner trained by / traveling with eastern scribes. Given the large evidence of eastern Aegean and eastern Mediterranean people or commodities at Elephantine in the latter half of the 5th century BCE, and the possible corollaries with the Xanthos inscription (which is admittedly over a century later), it seems best to tentatively see this as an unattested Aegean Mediterranean deity and gentilic who built a chapel on the island or contributed a niche to (most likely) the Yaho or (less likely) Khnum temple. There is no problem overcoming the fact that the inscription states being written in Syene though it was found on Elephantine, because Syene and Yeb could be used interchangeably. Certainly, it seems unlikely that the stone was carved at Syene and then brought to Elephantine, but if so, it is unlikely that the stela is distinguishing the act of inscribing as having occurred at Syene rather than Elephantine (Moore).