Arabs at Hatra and the Vicinity: Marginalia on New Aramaic Texts

The deacon and the dove: on some early Christian (?) grave stelae from al‐Maqsha and Shakhura (Bahrain)

“…Like Bahrain, Hatra was unquestionably a multicultural centre. Arabian, Assyro‐Babylonian, Greek and Iranian deities were worshipped (Vattioni 1981: 12–14; Abbadi 1983: xxii–xxiii, 57–67; Beyer 1998: 144–153); Iranian, Semitic and Greek personal names were used (Abbadi 1983); and Aramaic was the principal written language (Vattioni 1981; Segal 1986; Beyer 1998). However the inhabitants of this city in the Iraqi Jazirah identified themselves in this dynamic mix of diverse cultural influences, it is clear that they dressed and looked like Parthians, the ethno‐class dominante , to use Pierre Briant's apt phrase, between the Hindu Kush and the Euphrates.…”

“…Moreover, when Vologases (Walgaš) III (148–192) began to lose his grip on northern Mesopotamia as a result of the incursions of Antoninus Pius, and an independent kingdom was established at Hatra (sometime between 151 and 176/7, cf. Segal 1986: 63), the Parthian style — in clothing, hairstyle and beard — was maintained.…”

“…For Homès‐Fredericq, ‘Les rois, les princesses ou les haut dignitaires sont toujours représentés en prière: le bras droit replié vers le haut, la paume de la main dirigée vers la divinité, les doigts allongés’ (1963: 13). Others consider it ‘a gesture of ritual greeting’ (Segal 1986: 66). Henning suggested that the raised right hand on the Elymaean reliefs at Tang‐i Sarvak was a gesture of ‘supplication’ (1977: 158).…”