From: Philippe Verdy (verdy_p@wanadoo.fr)
Date: Tue Sep 25 2007 - 21:07:30 CDT
Mark E. Shoulson wrote:
> >> Dear Ms. Anderson:
> >> Attached some script details of some lead plates.
> >> We have no idea what they could be but it was suggested that it
> >>
> > might have
> >
> >> been an archaic form of Samaritan.
> >> Could you refer us to an expert who could perhaps identify it.
> >>
>
> Well, it's definitely an old Semitic. Though it looks a little more
> Aramaic than Samaritan/Hebrew. It looks rather like what you see on
> some old coins, but I'm not expert enough to pin down the exact period.
>
> Let me see if I can make out some words, I'll write if I can.
The presence of the 7-branch candelar and the cup is a string indication
that it has some Samaritan or Hebrew origin, but it does not necessarily
means that it is written in those languages.
For me the bottom part of the stone (below the horizontal line of dots) is
not the same script as the part above. There may even be as much as 4
scripts on this stone, possibly showing the same text translated.
So, for me it looks like an ancestral form of Georgian or Armenian (in the
middle), or a mix of several scripts (like a Rosette stone). The top part
(around the candelar) is probably more archaic than the bottom part which
shows more regular glyph forms, and looks like some evolved cuneiform or
proto-semitic script.
Not everyting is text, there are decorations on the sides and bottom (a
olive tree branch?), the top (stars, suns?)... The right side is severely
altered (I think it contained a tree branch too)
It's hard to see the letter forms due to the important glares and lack of
contrast... Is it made of stone or leather?
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Tue Sep 25 2007 - 21:09:36 CDT