An Oath for Vengeance? A vendetta with the testimony of the goddess Allāt in an Ancient North Arabian inscription from Jordan

Abstract

Abstract This paper deals with a new Ancient North Arabian (ANA)-Safaitic inscription from the north-eastern basaltic region of Jordan. Its author registers a revenge-taking action for a man called S1 TR. In contrast to the usual type of Safaitic inscriptions that deal with revenge, we encounter here a case of revenge in which the Arabian goddess Allāt is called for s2 hdt ‘testimony’. The onomastic and lexical components, with special focus on the lexeme s2 hdt and its semantic field, are investigated and analyzed in light of the Semitic lexicon.