Michael C A Macdonald
Biographic Data
| ID | 3682698 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michael C A Macdonald |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michael C A |
| FAMILY NAME | Macdonald |
| SIGNATURE | MACDONALD M C A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Oxford |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 52 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1990 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
The Roman annexation of the Nabataean kingdom
This article presents a new Safaitic inscription dated to the year Gaius Claudius Severus was appointed as governor of the former Nabataean kingdom, called mlkt rbʾl “the kingdom of Rabbʾel.” As such, the text is an important witness to the shadowy events surrounding the Roman annexation of Nabataea in ad 106. Beyond its historical value, the inscription contains a number of hapax legomena, thus expanding our knowledge of the Safaitic lexicon, an…
Ancient and modern inscriptions in the basalt desert
The Badia Epigraphic Survey (BES) Project was launched in 2015 by Ali Al‐Manaser and Michael C. A. Macdonald and, with two gaps, has been conducting annual surveys in the ḥarra of north‐eastern Jordan ever since. The 2023 survey, like that of 2018, set out to rediscover the cairns at the border between the ḥarra and the ḥamād at which, in the late 1950s, Professor Fred V. Winnett and Gerald Lankester Harding (WH) discovered over 4000 inscriptions…
Pre-Islamic Arabia
Tribes and space in the Syro-Arabian ḥarrah as revealed by the Safaitic inscriptions (ca. 1 st century bc to ca. 4 th century ad )
Some 2,000 years ago, the nomadic pastoralists who inhabited the basalt and limestone deserts of what is now southern Syria, northeastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia, became literate and covered the rocks with tens of thousands of graffiti. These tell us about their interaction with the landscape, their social structures, relationships with each other and with the settled kingdoms and Roman provinces to the west, and above all their personal…
Recording Graffiti in the Black Desert
Between the last century BC and the fourth century AD the nomads of the basalt deserts of southern Syria, Jordan, and northern Saudi Arabia learnt to read and write for the only time in their history before the present day. They covered the desert rocks with tens of thousands of graffiti, which tell us much about their way of life, their society, their relations with each other, with the Romans, Nabataeans, and others, and their personal feelings…
An Aramaic−Hasaitic bilingual inscription from a monumental tomb at Mleiha, Sharjah, UAE
Excavations of a monumental tomb in Area F at Mleiha have revealed a lime‐plaster funerary stele with an Aramaic and Hasaitic inscription. The excavation of the tomb was not completed but a preliminary report on the tomb and a discussion of the text is presented. The inscription states that the tomb was built by the deceased's son and mentions the date and his name, family lineage and function in the service of the King of ʿUmān
Epigraphic Diversity in the Cemetery at Khirbet Es-Samrāʾ, Jordan
Khirbet es-Samrāʾ lies some 50 km north of Amman in Jordan. It was excavated by a French team under J.-B. Humbert and A. Desreumaux between 1981 and 1992 and a large volume on the epigraphy was published in 1998. Excavations in the cemetery area by the Hamburg University Khirbet es-Samrāʾ Ancient Cemetery Project, under Abdalla Nabulsi, began in 1995 and are still continuing. During these excavations, five inscribed tombstones were discovered as …
Some absolute dates for the development of the Ancient South Arabian minuscule script
In memoriam Jacques Ryckmans and Bram Drewes In the last 40 years, several thousand palm-leaf stalks and sticks inscribed in the Ancient South Arabian minuscule script have been discovered in Yemen. The fact that they are on an organic support makes these documents the first Ancient South Arabian inscriptions that can be subjected to AMS dating. Between 2003 and 2006, thirty-six of these palm-leaf stalks and sticks from the collection in the Oost…
Wheels in a land of camels
A rock drawing in north‐west Arabia shows a rider, a chariot and a foot soldier in battle. It is exceptional not only for its subject (at present unique) but for its use of a mixture of the artistic conventions employed in Arabian rock art and those used in Neo‐Assyrian and Egyptian art. The three different parts of the composition have ‘captions’ in the Thamudic B script identifying the artists and the subjects, including the first occurrence of…
A new Nabataean inscription from Taymā’
A new six‐line Nabataean inscription was recently discovered during building work in the centre of the oasis city of , north‐west Saudi Arabia. It is the epitaph of a ruler, or chief citizen, of the city and is dated by the era of the Roman Province of Arabia to AD 203. All but one of the names in the text are Jewish, and this is by far the earliest record of Jews in the oasis. The Nabataean script of the epitaph is also of great interest since i…
Arabs, Arabias and Arabic before Late Antiquity
Reflections on the linguistic map of pre‐Islamic Arabia
At a workshop on ‘Civilisations de l’Arabie préislamique' in Aix‐en‐Provence in February 1996, I was asked by the organizers to give a survey of the state of our knowledge of the languages and scripts of pre‐Islamic Arabia and to propose a coherent set of definitions and terms for them, in an attempt to clarify the numerous misapprehensions and the somewhat chaotic nomenclature in the field. I purposely concentrated on the languages and scripts o…
Les inscriptions safaïtiques de Syrie, cent quarante ans après leur découverte
A l'occasion de l'informatisation des donnees safaitiques de Syrie dans le cadre du programme Safaitic Epigraphic Survey Programm, les AA ont tente de retrouver les sites a inscriptions decouverts en 1858, au cours d'une prospection en 1995. Ils ont repertorie une centaine de nouveaux sites. Ils en presentent quelques unes qui demontrent leur interet pour la connaissance archeologique, linguistique et historique de la region
Nomads and the Hawran in the late hellenistic and roman periods
Macdonald M.C.A. Nomads and the Hawran in the late hellenistic and roman periods : a reassessment of the epigraphic evidence. In: Syria. Tome 70 fascicule 3-4, 1993. pp. 303-403
The Seasons and Transhumance in the Safaitic Inscriptions
According to Musil, the bedouin of North Arabia know five seasons, distinguished by different types of rain or its absence. The rains within each season are also thought to be governed by particular stars. The following table sets out these five seasons with the associated rains and stars
North Arabian epigraphic notes — I
This is the first in an occasional series of articles which will run parallel to my series “North Arabian inscriptions and drawings”, which also appears in this journal (1)
Epigraphic Gleanings from the Archive of the Palestine Exploration Fund
(1991). Epigraphic Gleanings from the Archive of the Palestine Exploration Fund. Palestine Exploration Quarterly: Vol. 123, No. 2, pp. 109-116
Camel hunting or camel raiding
Recently, several depictions of camels pursued by horsemen with spears have been interpreted as hunting scenes. References to ethnographic descriptions of bedouin life in the 19th and early 20th centuries suggest these may in fact be scenes of raiding rather than hunting
Reflections on the linguistic map of pre‐Islamic Arabia
At a workshop on ‘Civilisations de l’Arabie préislamique' in Aix‐en‐Provence in February 1996, I was asked by the organizers to give a survey of the state of our knowledge of the languages and scripts of pre‐Islamic Arabia and to propose a coherent set of definitions and terms for them, in an attempt to clarify the numerous misapprehensions and the somewhat chaotic nomenclature in the field. I purposely concentrated on the languages and scripts o…
An Aramaic−Hasaitic bilingual inscription from a monumental tomb at Mleiha, Sharjah, UAE
Excavations of a monumental tomb in Area F at Mleiha have revealed a lime‐plaster funerary stele with an Aramaic and Hasaitic inscription. The excavation of the tomb was not completed but a preliminary report on the tomb and a discussion of the text is presented. The inscription states that the tomb was built by the deceased's son and mentions the date and his name, family lineage and function in the service of the King of ʿUmān
Wheels in a land of camels
A rock drawing in north‐west Arabia shows a rider, a chariot and a foot soldier in battle. It is exceptional not only for its subject (at present unique) but for its use of a mixture of the artistic conventions employed in Arabian rock art and those used in Neo‐Assyrian and Egyptian art. The three different parts of the composition have ‘captions’ in the Thamudic B script identifying the artists and the subjects, including the first occurrence of…
Arabs, Arabias and Arabic before Late Antiquity
Recording Graffiti in the Black Desert
Between the last century BC and the fourth century AD the nomads of the basalt deserts of southern Syria, Jordan, and northern Saudi Arabia learnt to read and write for the only time in their history before the present day. They covered the desert rocks with tens of thousands of graffiti, which tell us much about their way of life, their society, their relations with each other, with the Romans, Nabataeans, and others, and their personal feelings…
Some absolute dates for the development of the Ancient South Arabian minuscule script
In memoriam Jacques Ryckmans and Bram Drewes In the last 40 years, several thousand palm-leaf stalks and sticks inscribed in the Ancient South Arabian minuscule script have been discovered in Yemen. The fact that they are on an organic support makes these documents the first Ancient South Arabian inscriptions that can be subjected to AMS dating. Between 2003 and 2006, thirty-six of these palm-leaf stalks and sticks from the collection in the Oost…
A new Nabataean inscription from Taymā’
A new six‐line Nabataean inscription was recently discovered during building work in the centre of the oasis city of , north‐west Saudi Arabia. It is the epitaph of a ruler, or chief citizen, of the city and is dated by the era of the Roman Province of Arabia to AD 203. All but one of the names in the text are Jewish, and this is by far the earliest record of Jews in the oasis. The Nabataean script of the epitaph is also of great interest since i…
Les inscriptions safaïtiques de Syrie, cent quarante ans après leur découverte
A l'occasion de l'informatisation des donnees safaitiques de Syrie dans le cadre du programme Safaitic Epigraphic Survey Programm, les AA ont tente de retrouver les sites a inscriptions decouverts en 1858, au cours d'une prospection en 1995. Ils ont repertorie une centaine de nouveaux sites. Ils en presentent quelques unes qui demontrent leur interet pour la connaissance archeologique, linguistique et historique de la region
The Seasons and Transhumance in the Safaitic Inscriptions
According to Musil, the bedouin of North Arabia know five seasons, distinguished by different types of rain or its absence. The rains within each season are also thought to be governed by particular stars. The following table sets out these five seasons with the associated rains and stars
North Arabian epigraphic notes — I
This is the first in an occasional series of articles which will run parallel to my series “North Arabian inscriptions and drawings”, which also appears in this journal (1)
Camel hunting or camel raiding
Recently, several depictions of camels pursued by horsemen with spears have been interpreted as hunting scenes. References to ethnographic descriptions of bedouin life in the 19th and early 20th centuries suggest these may in fact be scenes of raiding rather than hunting
Ancient and modern inscriptions in the basalt desert
The Badia Epigraphic Survey (BES) Project was launched in 2015 by Ali Al‐Manaser and Michael C. A. Macdonald and, with two gaps, has been conducting annual surveys in the ḥarra of north‐eastern Jordan ever since. The 2023 survey, like that of 2018, set out to rediscover the cairns at the border between the ḥarra and the ḥamād at which, in the late 1950s, Professor Fred V. Winnett and Gerald Lankester Harding (WH) discovered over 4000 inscriptions…
Epigraphic Diversity in the Cemetery at Khirbet Es-Samrāʾ, Jordan
Khirbet es-Samrāʾ lies some 50 km north of Amman in Jordan. It was excavated by a French team under J.-B. Humbert and A. Desreumaux between 1981 and 1992 and a large volume on the epigraphy was published in 1998. Excavations in the cemetery area by the Hamburg University Khirbet es-Samrāʾ Ancient Cemetery Project, under Abdalla Nabulsi, began in 1995 and are still continuing. During these excavations, five inscribed tombstones were discovered as …
Camel hunting or camel raiding
Recently, several depictions of camels pursued by horsemen with spears have been interpreted as hunting scenes. References to ethnographic descriptions of bedouin life in the 19th and early 20th centuries suggest these may in fact be scenes of raiding rather than hunting
Epigraphic Gleanings from the Archive of the Palestine Exploration Fund
(1991). Epigraphic Gleanings from the Archive of the Palestine Exploration Fund. Palestine Exploration Quarterly: Vol. 123, No. 2, pp. 109-116
The Seasons and Transhumance in the Safaitic Inscriptions
According to Musil, the bedouin of North Arabia know five seasons, distinguished by different types of rain or its absence. The rains within each season are also thought to be governed by particular stars. The following table sets out these five seasons with the associated rains and stars
North Arabian epigraphic notes — I
This is the first in an occasional series of articles which will run parallel to my series “North Arabian inscriptions and drawings”, which also appears in this journal (1)
Nomads and the Hawran in the late hellenistic and roman periods
Macdonald M.C.A. Nomads and the Hawran in the late hellenistic and roman periods : a reassessment of the epigraphic evidence. In: Syria. Tome 70 fascicule 3-4, 1993. pp. 303-403
Les inscriptions safaïtiques de Syrie, cent quarante ans après leur découverte
A l'occasion de l'informatisation des donnees safaitiques de Syrie dans le cadre du programme Safaitic Epigraphic Survey Programm, les AA ont tente de retrouver les sites a inscriptions decouverts en 1858, au cours d'une prospection en 1995. Ils ont repertorie une centaine de nouveaux sites. Ils en presentent quelques unes qui demontrent leur interet pour la connaissance archeologique, linguistique et historique de la region
Reflections on the linguistic map of pre‐Islamic Arabia
At a workshop on ‘Civilisations de l’Arabie préislamique' in Aix‐en‐Provence in February 1996, I was asked by the organizers to give a survey of the state of our knowledge of the languages and scripts of pre‐Islamic Arabia and to propose a coherent set of definitions and terms for them, in an attempt to clarify the numerous misapprehensions and the somewhat chaotic nomenclature in the field. I purposely concentrated on the languages and scripts o…
Wheels in a land of camels
A rock drawing in north‐west Arabia shows a rider, a chariot and a foot soldier in battle. It is exceptional not only for its subject (at present unique) but for its use of a mixture of the artistic conventions employed in Arabian rock art and those used in Neo‐Assyrian and Egyptian art. The three different parts of the composition have ‘captions’ in the Thamudic B script identifying the artists and the subjects, including the first occurrence of…
A new Nabataean inscription from Taymā’
A new six‐line Nabataean inscription was recently discovered during building work in the centre of the oasis city of , north‐west Saudi Arabia. It is the epitaph of a ruler, or chief citizen, of the city and is dated by the era of the Roman Province of Arabia to AD 203. All but one of the names in the text are Jewish, and this is by far the earliest record of Jews in the oasis. The Nabataean script of the epitaph is also of great interest since i…
Arabs, Arabias and Arabic before Late Antiquity
Some absolute dates for the development of the Ancient South Arabian minuscule script
In memoriam Jacques Ryckmans and Bram Drewes In the last 40 years, several thousand palm-leaf stalks and sticks inscribed in the Ancient South Arabian minuscule script have been discovered in Yemen. The fact that they are on an organic support makes these documents the first Ancient South Arabian inscriptions that can be subjected to AMS dating. Between 2003 and 2006, thirty-six of these palm-leaf stalks and sticks from the collection in the Oost…
Epigraphic Diversity in the Cemetery at Khirbet Es-Samrāʾ, Jordan
Khirbet es-Samrāʾ lies some 50 km north of Amman in Jordan. It was excavated by a French team under J.-B. Humbert and A. Desreumaux between 1981 and 1992 and a large volume on the epigraphy was published in 1998. Excavations in the cemetery area by the Hamburg University Khirbet es-Samrāʾ Ancient Cemetery Project, under Abdalla Nabulsi, began in 1995 and are still continuing. During these excavations, five inscribed tombstones were discovered as …
An Aramaic−Hasaitic bilingual inscription from a monumental tomb at Mleiha, Sharjah, UAE
Excavations of a monumental tomb in Area F at Mleiha have revealed a lime‐plaster funerary stele with an Aramaic and Hasaitic inscription. The excavation of the tomb was not completed but a preliminary report on the tomb and a discussion of the text is presented. The inscription states that the tomb was built by the deceased's son and mentions the date and his name, family lineage and function in the service of the King of ʿUmān
Recording Graffiti in the Black Desert
Between the last century BC and the fourth century AD the nomads of the basalt deserts of southern Syria, Jordan, and northern Saudi Arabia learnt to read and write for the only time in their history before the present day. They covered the desert rocks with tens of thousands of graffiti, which tell us much about their way of life, their society, their relations with each other, with the Romans, Nabataeans, and others, and their personal feelings…
Tribes and space in the Syro-Arabian ḥarrah as revealed by the Safaitic inscriptions (ca. 1 st century bc to ca. 4 th century ad )
Some 2,000 years ago, the nomadic pastoralists who inhabited the basalt and limestone deserts of what is now southern Syria, northeastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia, became literate and covered the rocks with tens of thousands of graffiti. These tell us about their interaction with the landscape, their social structures, relationships with each other and with the settled kingdoms and Roman provinces to the west, and above all their personal…
The Roman annexation of the Nabataean kingdom
This article presents a new Safaitic inscription dated to the year Gaius Claudius Severus was appointed as governor of the former Nabataean kingdom, called mlkt rbʾl “the kingdom of Rabbʾel.” As such, the text is an important witness to the shadowy events surrounding the Roman annexation of Nabataea in ad 106. Beyond its historical value, the inscription contains a number of hapax legomena, thus expanding our knowledge of the Safaitic lexicon, an…
Ancient and modern inscriptions in the basalt desert
The Badia Epigraphic Survey (BES) Project was launched in 2015 by Ali Al‐Manaser and Michael C. A. Macdonald and, with two gaps, has been conducting annual surveys in the ḥarra of north‐eastern Jordan ever since. The 2023 survey, like that of 2018, set out to rediscover the cairns at the border between the ḥarra and the ḥamād at which, in the late 1950s, Professor Fred V. Winnett and Gerald Lankester Harding (WH) discovered over 4000 inscriptions…
Pre-Islamic Arabia
History (18 works) · Archaeology and Historical Studies (17 works) · Ancient history (16 works) · History (13 works) · Archaeology (12 works) · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology (9 works) · Geography (9 works) · Art (6 works) · Geology (5 works) · Ancient Near East History (4 works)