Arslan Tash ivory inscription is a small ivory plaque with an Aramaic language inscription found in 1928 in

Arslan Tash Arslan Tash ( tr, Arslan Taş "Lion Stone"), ancient Hadātu, is an archaeological site in Aleppo Governorate in northern Syria, around east of Carchemish and the Euphrates and nearby the town of Kobanî. History The city was the center of an Ar ...

in northern Syria (ancient Hadātu) by a team of French archaeologists led by

François Thureau-Dangin François Thureau-Dangin (3 January 1872 in Paris – 24 January 1944 in Paris) was a French archaeologist, assyriologist and epigrapher. He played a major role in deciphering of the Sumerian and Akkadian languages. He studied under Julius ...

.Arslan-Tash. v. 1
p.135: "Trois fragments d'une lamelle d'ivoire portant une ligne de texte en carac- tères araméens. Ces fragments ont été trouvés aux environs immédiats des cadres décrits plus haut p. 89 et suiv." It has been dated to the early 800s BCE, on the basis of the name "Hazael" in the inscription,Millard, A. R. �
Alphabetic Inscriptions on Ivories from Nimrud
�� ''Iraq'', vol. 24, no. 1, 1962, pp. 41–51: The ivory strip from Arslan Tash is of particular value as it enables a date to be given to the bedstead of which it was a part and to associated ivories. On it is a dedication, in Aramaic, "to our lord Hazael." Hazael king of Damascus c. 843-796 B.C. is the only known historical figure to whom such reference might apply. If, then, it is correct to attribute this ivory to the late ninth century B.C., it may be that it formed an item of the tribute taken from Damascus by Adad-nirari III c. 804 B.C. which included ivory furniture." who has been speculated to be the Biblical

Hazael Hazael (; he, חֲזָאֵל, translit=Ḥazaʾēl, or , romanized as: ; oar, 𐡇𐡆𐡀𐡋, translit= , from the triliteral Semitic root ''h-z-y'', "to see"; his full name meaning, " El/God has seen"; akk, 𒄩𒍝𒀪𒀭, Ḫa-za-’- il ...

of Aram-Damascus. The inscription is known as KAI 232. The plaque, along with many other ivory items, was found on the site of a palace from the 8th century BC belonging to the city's Neo-Assyrian governor. Three parts of the plaque have been found; two parts fit together, the third one does not. The two joined parts together are 2 cm high and 7.9 cm long, while the third part is 1.9 cm high and 3.2 cm long. The entire inscription on the plate is usually reconstructed as follows:

This ... son of Amma, engraved for our lord Hazael in the year ...

Currently, the plaque is in the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

collection under the inventory number AO 11489.

Bibliography

* Clyde E. Fant, Mitchell G. Reddish, "Lost Treasures of the Bible", Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids / Cambridge 2008, pp. 106–109.

References

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External links

- Arslan Tash plaque (AO 11489) on the official Louvre website
Near East and Middle East antiquities of the Louvre Aramaic inscriptions Archaeological discoveries in Syria France–Syria relations KAI inscriptions