Lycian Zemure 'Limyra' and the Aramaic inscription from Limyra: a new reading

Abstract

The Aramaic inscription from Limyra constitutes a precious exception among the inscriptions from Lycia. It is the only Aramaic inscription from Limyra, the only funerary Aramaic inscription from Lycia, and one of the few Aramaic inscriptions from Asia Minor. This inscription, which together with a Greek inscription constitutes a peculiar bilingual, has been partially damaged and, since its first publications by Fellows (1840) and Kalinka (1901), scholars have proposed different readings. With the exception of Kalinka and Hanson, no other scholar examined the inscription personally. It is my purpose to provide a new reading of it, based on a direct analysis of the inscription, by assuming that the sequence that precedes the break, which I reconstruct as zym[wr..., could be the Lycian place name of Limyra, Zẽmure-, in Aramaic. This paper will also reconstruct the Greek inscription on the basis of the new Aramaic reading. Lastly, I will explain the peculiar characteristics of its syntax in the light of a possible epichoric influence.