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Translations of Hellenistic Inscriptions: 248


EPITAPH OF ZAYD'IL


Original text:   RES 3427
Language:   Minaean
Date:   (?) 263 B.C.
Format:   see key to translations

This epitaph was inscribed on a sarcophagus, found at an unknown location in Egypt. The translation is adapted from P. Swiggers, in "Immigration and Emigration Within the Ancient Near East", p. 342 ( Google Books ). Swiggers assigns the inscription to the reign of Ptolemy II - which would give the date shown above - but this is not certain, and later kings have been suggested, down to Ptolemy X (93 B.C.).

There is a brief discussion of this inscription, in the context of trade between Arabia and Ptolemaic Egypt, by M.A. Cobb, "Rome and the Indian Ocean Trade from Augustus to the Early Third Century CE", pp. 33-34 ( Google Books ).


Sarcophagus belonging to Zayd'il, son of Zayd, of the Zayran clan, that of Wabb, he who imported myrrh and varieties of calamus for the temples of the gods of Egypt in the days of Ptolemy, son of Ptolemy; 2 Zayd'il became ill and died in the month Hathor, and they sent linen from all the temples of the gods of Egypt as their mat, a byssus garment as his funeral shroud, and they raised him, 3 that is his ba, to the mn {= precinct ?} of the temple of the god Osirapis, in the month of Koyakh, in the 22nd year of Ptolemy the King. And Zayd'il has entrusted his lmn {= mummy?} and his sarcophagus to Osirapis and to the gods [who are] with him in his sanctuary.


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