Académie des inscriptions & belles -lettres (France ) Commission du Corpus inscriptionum semiticarum, Jean-Baptiste Chabot. Répertoire d’épigraphie sémitique. Vol. 8. Imprimerie nationale, 1900. http://archive.org/details/rpertoiredpigra00gangoog.
Oxford Bodl. Aram. Inscr. 7
TAD D.07.06 RÉS 1793
Metadata
- Collection
- Bodlien Library, Oxford, UK | Bodl (Public)
- Keyword
-
- Missive
- Language
- Aramaic
- Script
- Aramaic
- Find Type
- Unprovenanced: Purchase
- Acquired
- A.H. Sayce [≤ 1907]
- Material
- clay | sherd (for ostracon)
- Palimpsest?
- true
- Text Direction Side 1
- Material lines are diagonal ↘︎
- Text Direction Side 2
- Material lines are diagonal ↙︎
- Updated by
- James D. Moore, 2026-06-28
- Date (Metadata)
- Gregorian -525 to -399 [Persian, 5th cent. BCE]
General Notes
Found after 1911 by the locals.
Porten, Bezalel, and Ada Yardeni. Textbook of Aramaic Documents from Ancient Egypt. 4 vols. Jerusalem: Hebrew University, 1986.
Sayce, A.H. “An Aramaic Ostracon from Elephantine.” Proceedings Of The Society Of Biblical Archaeology [PSBA] 33 (1911): 183–84, pl xxvii.
External Viewer
Textual Notes
This is a curiously written letter. The writer is untrained or not a native speaker of Aramaic. This is one of the few writers who breaks words across lines.
cc 2: THe ◦ on line two is interpreted as the numeral 1 by TAD, who first published the text. It could be זי with a missing/faded yod. It could also be a remnant on the palimpsest, which is what I would guess.
cc 4: תוכל is very strange. it here takes a direct object and is interpreted as an afel. but afels are rare. perhaps the verb is left out? Tukulltu (akk.) trust may be meant here?
the term אמת is strange. The meaning "when" is otherwise very late aramaic. in the context of so many women and awkward syntax, it is perhaps better a reference to a maidservant.
Text and Translation
Choose alternative texts and translations from the filter. Click individual words in a text for more details.
James Moore Last updated 07 April, 2026 by James D. Moore
James Moore Last updated 07 April, 2026 by James D. Moore
To Hôšeˁyah.
Your greetings. Now, look
over the children until
ˀAḥuṭab (3) can come. (4) Do not entrust(?)
them to another
If their bread is ground,
knead bread 1 qab until
their mother will come. Send (word)
to me when you will make the passover.
Continue sending greetings(-notes) of
the children.
Moore, James D.. 'Oxford Bodl. Aram. Inscr. 7.' DEAPS. 12 Dec, 2025. https://deaps.osu.edu/text_objects/11206. Accessed: 29 Jun, 2026.