320 andré lemaire
(kulamuwa),10 Official aramaic (Bar-rakkab inscriptions, including a seal
and inscriptions on three silver ingots),11 and samʾalian,12 a local aramaic
dialect (kulamuwa,13 Ördekburnu,14 panamuwa i,15 panamuwa ii,16
kuttamuwa17).18 phoenician was apparently used officially about the
middle of the 9th century B.C., when samʾal was under the political influ-
ence of the kingdom of Que (Cilicia).19 however it seems that the main
language used locally was an archaic dialect of aramaic, which appears
on monumental inscriptions from the end of 9th until the end of 8th
century B.C. during the reign of king Bar-rakkab (ca. 733–713/711 B.C.),
under the strong political influence of assyria, the language of the royal
inscriptions became Official aramaic, already before the integration
of this kingdom into the Neo-assyrian empire under shalmaneser V or
sargon ii, ca. 720 B.C.
all the deities mentioned in the royal inscriptions are semitic dei-
ties: el, arq-rešep, Baʿal hammon, Baʿal harran, Baʿal Ṣemed, hadad,
rakkabʾel (see also Ördekburnu), rešep, and Šamaš. One can speak of an
official pantheon of yādiya/samʾal, with hadad as the first god, as shown
by his statue and its inscription (kai 214) as well as the kuttamuwa
inscription. each dynasty seems to have had its own protective god, for
instance, rakkabʾel from king hayyan up to king Bar-rakkab.20 from this
list of gods, aramaean culture seems clearly dominant in the kingdom
of samʾal, at least from the second half of the 9th century B.C. however,
the samʾalian inscriptions of Ördekburnu and kuttamuwa also reveal the
importance of the goddess kubaba.
the cult of ancestors played an important role in samʾal, with special
sacrifices taking place near the stele representing the deceased. actually,
the stele was thought to incorporate his npš (kuttamuwa). the deceased,
as well as the gods, could receive sacrifices and the dead king was more
10 kai 24; tropper 1993: 27–46.
11 kai 216–221; tropper 1993: 132–152.
12 dion 1974; tropper 1993: 287–297; Noorlander 2012.
13 kai 25; tropper 1993: 50–53.
14 lemaire – sass 2012; iid. 2013; lemaire 2013b.
15 kai 214; tropper 1993: 54–97.
16 kai 215; tropper 1993: 98–131.
17 pardee 2009a; mazzini 2009: 505–507; younger 2009a; masson 2010; kottsieper
2011; del Olmo lete 2011; lemaire 2012; id. 2013a.
18 two other small aramaic inscriptions, without provenance, on a shield and a seal,
could also originate from samʾal. see lemaire 2001a: 187.
19 lemaire 2001a: 189.
20 tropper 1993: 20–26.