Until recently, 32 Middle Persian inscriptions documenting the construction of the Derbent defens... more Until recently, 32 Middle Persian inscriptions documenting the construction of the Derbent defensive complex and dating from the very end of the 560s. AD were known. Now the corpus of the Middle Persian inscriptions of Derbent has been replenished with three more inscriptions – No. 33, 34 and 35, opened by the authors in 2016, 2021 and 2022, respectively. Inscription No. 33 is located between towers No. 18 and
No. 19 of the northern city defensive wall in the central part of the curtain. It has poor preservation. But, nevertheless, its text is restored from the preserved fragments of letters and by analogy with other inscriptions similar in content. The inscription is three-line, vertical. Reconstructible text: [Da]r[iuš ī] Ā[durbādagān] ām[ārgar]. Inscription No. 34 is located between towers No. 14 and No. 15 of the northern wall. The inscription is vertical, three-line, separate letters and parts of letters are preserved, and its text is reconstructed according to the surviving letters and analogies with other inscriptions. Its text reads: Dari[u]š ī [Ādurbādag]ān ām[ā] rgar. Inscription No. 35 is located on tower No. 36 of the north wall. The inscription is also vertical, three-line, and has satisfactory preservation and similar content. The inscriptions are composed on behalf of āmārgar – a high official, chief financier and tax inspector of the vast Adurbadagan area, which during the reign of shahanshah Khosrow I Anushirvan (531-579) included not only Adurbadagan proper, but all the Caucasian possessions of Sasanian Iran up to Derbent. The newly discovered inscriptions belong to the group 1, subgroup b of the Middle Persian inscriptions of Derbent, which represents the inscriptions of āmārgar Dariuš. Now 20 (out of 35) inscriptions compiled on his behalf are already known, and all of them are carved on the northern wall of the city, where a total of 25 inscriptions are located.
Modern Western Aramaic is one of the most critically endangered Aramaic languages, and the only e... more Modern Western Aramaic is one of the most critically endangered Aramaic languages, and the only extant member of the Western Aramaic subfamily. Its speakers are among the few who have not migrated away from their original territory, but the Syrian Civil War (2011-present) has accelerated its endangerment and resulted in the abandonment of one of the three villages in which it was previously spoken. Modern Western Aramaic thus provides us with an opportunity to document a language precisely as it succumbs to some of the primary causes of language endangerment, i.e., conflict and migration. The following text, collected in 2020, discusses this community's experience during this conflict from the perspective of one of the few remaining competent speakers. We have contextualized this text with a discussion of the language and its grammar in comparison with the most recent descriptions, all of which were made decades prior to the war, when the language was much less endangered.
Until recently, 32 Middle Persian inscriptions documenting the construction of the Derbent defens... more Until recently, 32 Middle Persian inscriptions documenting the construction of the Derbent defensive complex and dating from the very end of the 560s. AD were known. Now the corpus of the Middle Persian inscriptions of Derbent has been replenished with three more inscriptions – No. 33, 34 and 35, opened by the authors in 2016, 2021 and 2022, respectively. Inscription No. 33 is located between towers No. 18 and
No. 19 of the northern city defensive wall in the central part of the curtain. It has poor preservation. But, nevertheless, its text is restored from the preserved fragments of letters and by analogy with other inscriptions similar in content. The inscription is three-line, vertical. Reconstructible text: [Da]r[iuš ī] Ā[durbādagān] ām[ārgar]. Inscription No. 34 is located between towers No. 14 and No. 15 of the northern wall. The inscription is vertical, three-line, separate letters and parts of letters are preserved, and its text is reconstructed according to the surviving letters and analogies with other inscriptions. Its text reads: Dari[u]š ī [Ādurbādag]ān ām[ā] rgar. Inscription No. 35 is located on tower No. 36 of the north wall. The inscription is also vertical, three-line, and has satisfactory preservation and similar content. The inscriptions are composed on behalf of āmārgar – a high official, chief financier and tax inspector of the vast Adurbadagan area, which during the reign of shahanshah Khosrow I Anushirvan (531-579) included not only Adurbadagan proper, but all the Caucasian possessions of Sasanian Iran up to Derbent. The newly discovered inscriptions belong to the group 1, subgroup b of the Middle Persian inscriptions of Derbent, which represents the inscriptions of āmārgar Dariuš. Now 20 (out of 35) inscriptions compiled on his behalf are already known, and all of them are carved on the northern wall of the city, where a total of 25 inscriptions are located.
Modern Western Aramaic is one of the most critically endangered Aramaic languages, and the only e... more Modern Western Aramaic is one of the most critically endangered Aramaic languages, and the only extant member of the Western Aramaic subfamily. Its speakers are among the few who have not migrated away from their original territory, but the Syrian Civil War (2011-present) has accelerated its endangerment and resulted in the abandonment of one of the three villages in which it was previously spoken. Modern Western Aramaic thus provides us with an opportunity to document a language precisely as it succumbs to some of the primary causes of language endangerment, i.e., conflict and migration. The following text, collected in 2020, discusses this community's experience during this conflict from the perspective of one of the few remaining competent speakers. We have contextualized this text with a discussion of the language and its grammar in comparison with the most recent descriptions, all of which were made decades prior to the war, when the language was much less endangered.
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No. 19 of the northern city defensive wall in the central part of the curtain. It has poor preservation. But, nevertheless, its text is restored from the preserved fragments of letters and by analogy with other inscriptions similar in content. The inscription is three-line, vertical. Reconstructible text: [Da]r[iuš ī] Ā[durbādagān] ām[ārgar]. Inscription No. 34 is located between towers No. 14 and No. 15 of the northern wall. The inscription is vertical, three-line, separate letters and parts of letters are preserved, and its text is reconstructed according to the surviving letters and analogies with other inscriptions. Its text reads: Dari[u]š ī [Ādurbādag]ān ām[ā] rgar. Inscription No. 35 is located on tower No. 36 of the north wall. The inscription is also vertical, three-line, and has satisfactory preservation and similar content. The inscriptions are composed on behalf of āmārgar – a high official, chief financier and tax inspector of the vast Adurbadagan area, which during the reign of shahanshah Khosrow I Anushirvan (531-579) included not only Adurbadagan proper, but all the Caucasian possessions of Sasanian Iran up to Derbent. The newly discovered inscriptions belong to the group 1, subgroup b of the Middle Persian inscriptions of Derbent, which represents the inscriptions of āmārgar Dariuš. Now 20 (out of 35) inscriptions compiled on his behalf are already known, and all of them are carved on the northern wall of the city, where a total of 25 inscriptions are located.
No. 19 of the northern city defensive wall in the central part of the curtain. It has poor preservation. But, nevertheless, its text is restored from the preserved fragments of letters and by analogy with other inscriptions similar in content. The inscription is three-line, vertical. Reconstructible text: [Da]r[iuš ī] Ā[durbādagān] ām[ārgar]. Inscription No. 34 is located between towers No. 14 and No. 15 of the northern wall. The inscription is vertical, three-line, separate letters and parts of letters are preserved, and its text is reconstructed according to the surviving letters and analogies with other inscriptions. Its text reads: Dari[u]š ī [Ādurbādag]ān ām[ā] rgar. Inscription No. 35 is located on tower No. 36 of the north wall. The inscription is also vertical, three-line, and has satisfactory preservation and similar content. The inscriptions are composed on behalf of āmārgar – a high official, chief financier and tax inspector of the vast Adurbadagan area, which during the reign of shahanshah Khosrow I Anushirvan (531-579) included not only Adurbadagan proper, but all the Caucasian possessions of Sasanian Iran up to Derbent. The newly discovered inscriptions belong to the group 1, subgroup b of the Middle Persian inscriptions of Derbent, which represents the inscriptions of āmārgar Dariuš. Now 20 (out of 35) inscriptions compiled on his behalf are already known, and all of them are carved on the northern wall of the city, where a total of 25 inscriptions are located.