190 herbert niehr
far as the inscriptions from tayma (4th century B.c.),310 from further sites
in northern and southern arabia,311 and in the nabataean and palmyrene
dialects.312 one should not overlook the fact that already in Ugarit
during the late Bronze age stelae enabled the dead to participate in
funerary meals.313
a bearded man carrying a bowl and a pine cone in his hands is depicted
on the left side of the stele. Before him stands a table on which a meal is
laid out in a request for food offerings.
in samʾal more images of funerary banquets are found on a gravestone,314
on orthostats,315 and on a gold pendant (?).316 the stele from Ördekburnu
also shows a scene featuring a meal above the funerary inscription.317
stelae with scenes depicting a dining table begin to occur in northern
syria and southern anatolia during the 1st millennium B.c. these scenes
are used for deceased members of the upper class as well as the royal
house, but not, as far as we know, for dead kings.318
the necropoleis of hamath were uncovered during excavations in a
valley west and south of the citadel mound, as well as along its slopes. the
more than 1,600 burials are characterized by the coexistence of inhuma-
tions and cremation remains.
Bodies were buried in the necropoleis from the 12th century B.c.
onward until the assyrians destroyed the city in 720 B.c. Because of the
two burial customs’ coexistence, inhumation and cremation, an ethnic
differentiation between luwian and aramaean burials cannot be made.
after cremation the bones of the deceased were recovered and buried in
pottery urns. the grave goods were placed pastly inside and partly outside
of the urns. they consisted of arrowheads, bracelets and necklaces, knives,
sickles, needles, pottery vessels, bullae, seals, jewelry, and amulets.
During construction work in 1889, inhabitants of neirab unearthed a
large basalt sarcophagus from a tumulus on the town’s southern edge.
two years later they found two sepulchral stelae with aramaic inscriptions
310 cf. Kühn 2005: 136–141 and see the contribution of h. niehr on northern arabia
in this volume.
311 cf. Kühn 2005: 141–164.
312 cf. Kühn 2005: 164–184.
313 cf. niehr 2012a.
314 cf. von luschan 1911: 325–328, pl. liV; Bonatz 2000a: 38–40 and pl. xVii c46;
Wartke 2005: 72 fig. 69.
315 cf. von luschan 1902: 214 fig. 105; id. 1911: 242f fig. 149, 328–330.
316 cf. Wartke 2005: 82 fig. 85. this interpretation, however, is not quite clear.
317 cf. von luschan 1911: 329f; Bonatz 2000: 40f and pl. xix c52.
318 cf. Bonatz 2000a; id. 2000b; id. 2001b.