Stele of Ördek-Burnu explained

Created:	850 BC
Discovered Date:	before 2014
Location:	Istanbul, Turkey

An undeciphered alphabetic stele found in Ördek-Burnu, 20 km south of Sam'al (8 miles south of Zinjirli) in what is now northern Syria, dates to the 9th century BCE. The language of the inscription is difficult to interpret. It contains Semitic words but is not grammatically Semitic, and may be a mixture of Luwian and a Semitic language.^[1] It is kept in Istanbul.

Bibliography

• Mark Lidzbarski: VI. Die Stele von Ördek-burnu. Ephemeris für Semitische Epigraphik III. Giessen 1915, pp. 192–206, pls. 13–15.
• André Lemaire and Benjamin Sass: The Mortuary Stele with Sam’alian Inscription from Ördekburnu near Zincirli, in: BASOR 369, 2013, pp. 57–136.

Notes and References

1. Holger Gzella, Language and Script, in: Herbert Niehr (2014), The Aramaeans in Ancient Syria, p. 75, but. cf. Lemaire and Sass 2013.