#inscriptions

Inscription in Elamite, in the Xerxes I inscription at Van, modern-day Türkiye, Achaemenid, 5th century BCE. The Elamite language is divided into several historical phases: Old, Middle (its “classical” period), Neo-, Achaemenid, and a possible late stage sometimes called Khūzī. The best-documented form is Achaemenid Elamite, widely used in the Achaemenid Empire for inscriptions and administration, especially in the Persepolis archives, which contain over 10,000 tablets from 509–457 BC.

Earlier stages, particularly Old and early Neo-Elamite, are poorly attested, while Neo-Elamite represents a transition between Middle and Achaemenid forms. Evidence suggests Elamite may have survived beyond the Achaemenid period, as indicated by later names, classical texts, and possible references in Jewish and Near Eastern sources.

This is the famous neck amphora that belongs to the Attic red-figured technique and the artist is said to be Kleophades Painter;

(Image from the British museum archive)

Everyone has seen this image as the representation of a rhapsodist, a professional performer that was walking from place to place and would perform epic poems or other stories by rhythmically telling them with the assistance of his walking stick, but do you know there are two inscriptions in this?

One is located beneath his feet;

The inscription says ΚΑΛΟΝΕΙ which means either καλόν εἶ "you are/may you be beautiful" (neutral) or it could be a misspelling and be καλός εἶ aka "you are/may you be beautiful" (musculine) and could be the referring to the man. (so either is referring to the man himself or his work )

Probably though the frist and it means the man is beautiful given that καλός means beautiful in appearance. Haha unless "beautiful" is the podium he is standing on or his walking stick hahaha 😆

However if you notice there is an inscription coming out of his mouth too! Hehe yup the man is talking! Talk about some ancient Greek comic art! And the words he says (a bit misspelled) are depicted here;

ΗΟΔΕΠΟΤΕΝΤYPIΝΘI

ὧδε ποτ' ἐν Τύρινθι -> and so once in Tyrinis

So the rhapsodist essentially starts his story with "And so once upon a time"

Inscriptions and drawings cover many of the rock formations at Jabal Ikmah, which is a mountain located in the al-Ula Valley of Saudi Arabia. These carvings record the everyday activities, transactions, religious practices, names, and political relationships of the ancient Lihyanites (and subsequent cultures) over the course of many centuries.

Several different languages can be identified at this site, including Aramaic, Dadanitic, Safaitic, Thamudic, Miaic, Nabataean, and Arabic; the inscriptions even demonstrate the evolution from Dadanitic to Arabic script.

The writings are often accompanied by petroglyphs depicting people, animals, and objects.

As this article explains:

In and around the al-Ula Valley loom vertical sandstone cliffs. Many of them now display depictions of human figures or animals known as petroglyphs, a term derived from the Greek words petra, meaning “rock”, and glypho, meaning “to carve”. Ancient artists would use stones or tools to scrape images onto the surface of cliffs and freestanding rocks—or, in some instances, they would carve figures or lines of text in relief, standing proud of the rock surface.

The al-Ula region is home to thousands of these petroglyphs, taking different forms and spanning centuries of time. Ibexes, camels, horses, ostriches, and many other species cavort across the rock faces, some pursued by stylized human hunters holding spears and other weapons. Other images depict large urns and include complex decorative patterns.

Jabal Ikmah is often described as an "open-air library:"

In the north of the al-Ula Valley rises the mountain known in Arabic as Jabal Ikmah. This is a particularly rich repository of images and texts that have managed to weather centuries of sun, wind, and rain with remarkably little deterioration—so rich that Ikmah has become known as an open-air library, even though its origin appears to have been as a place of worship rather than study. Some of its hundreds of inscriptions may be as much as 2,500 years old. Most offer tantalizing insights into life and culture during the period when the Lihyanite kingdom flourished in this region of northwest Arabia, roughly from the fifth to the first centuries B.C.E.

Sources & More Info:

National Geographic: Messages on the Mountains

Telegraph: Jabal Ikmah: Home to the "Open-Air Library"

Atlas Obscura: Jabal Ikmah

Al-Ula Patterns Library: Jabal Ikmah

my first attempt at gutspill! full image under the cut