From: Raymond Mercier (rm459@cam.ac.uk)
Date: Thu Jan 21 2010 - 09:59:09 CST
Aviah Morag writes:
>>It got markedly easier once I flipped it upside-down and backwards.
Duh ! Of course it is simply upside down (not backwards). It must have been a single photograph incorporated in the video clip.
When I then go back to Rosenthal Table of Scripts it seems pretty clear that we have "Monumental Palmyrene". I will have a go at transcribing it (since I am not a semiticist by profession, I will not lose face if I am wrong):
מקיחובדזבידא
לאלשיאליקדה
mqyḥwbrzbyd‘
l‘lšy‘lyqdh
>>The middle words on the top line are the name of Rabbi Yosef Ben Zbeyda (יוסף בן זבידא), who lived >>in area north of Israel (probably in present-day Syria) in the neighborhood of 300 CE.
zbida is clear, bur I don't see "yosef ben".
However the phrase "bar zbida" seems to be common enough in Palmyrene texts.
Raymond Mercier
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