Kuttamuwa stele
The Kuttamuwa stele is an basalt funerary stele with an Aramaic inscription referring to Kuttamuwa, an 8th-century BCE royal official. It was found in Sam'al, in southeastern Turkey, in 2008, by the Neubauer Expedition of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago.
Description
The stele measures tall and wide. It was a stele for Kuttamuwa, an 8th-century BCE royal official from Sam'al who ordered an inscribed stele, that was to be erected upon his death.Inscription
The inscription requested that his mourners commemorate his life and his afterlife with feasts "for my soul that is in this stele." It is one of the earliest references in a Near East culture to a soul as a separate entity from the body.The translation of the stele:
Text
| Pardee Transcription | |
| ʾnk. ktmw. ʿbd pnmw. . qnt. l. nṣb. b ḥyy. wšmt. wth. bsyr/d. ʿlmy. wḥggt. s yr/d. zn. šwr. lhdd. qr/dpd/rl. wybl. lng d/r. ṣwd/rn. wybl. lšmš. wybl. lhdd. krmn wybl. lkbbw. wybl. lnbšy. zy. bnṣb. zn. wʿt. mn. mn. bny. ʾw. mn bny ʾš. wyhy. lh. nsyr/d. znn. wlw yqḥ. mn ḥyl. krm. znn. šʾ. ywmn. lywmn. wyh rg. bnbšy wyšwy ly. šq |