Elath (Tell el-Kheleifeh) reg. no. 2070

CV3: Note (1) that the stroke at the end of the line is the descender of N from the previous line, and (2) that the stroke at the beginning of the line is the ascender of the L from the preceding line. The first three letters are not ˁBD as Divito reads, not least because the initial ink rises from the L in the next line. What he reads as B is certainly either M or T, which can often be confused in mid-millennium cursive Phoenician. The second letter has two distinct strokes, unlike a D/R. It is best read as either a slightly effaced M or G—palaeographically, G is to be preferred. The best solution is either MGŠLM or TGŠLM. Of these, MGŠLM seems the easiest to explain as deriving from MGN (mġn) + ŠLM, though compare the Cypriot name TGNṢ, which remains unexplained (Benz, p. 428, KAI 55).