# Latin inscriptions from Bāyir (Jordan)

Pierre-Louis Gatier, Hani Hayajneh

► To cite this version:

Pierre-Louis Gatier, Hani Hayajneh. Latin inscriptions from Bāyir (Jordan). Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy, 2024, 35 (1), pp.211-217. 10.1111/aae.12245. halshs-04725738

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ORIGINAL ARTICLE

ARABIAN
ARCHAEOLOGY
AND EPIGRAPHY

WILEY

# Latin inscriptions from Bāyir (Jordan)

Pierre-Louis Gatier<fnref n="1" /> | Hani Hayajneh<fnref n="2" />

**Correspondence**

Hani Hayajneh, Faculty of Archaeology &
Anthropology, Yarmouk University, Irbid
Governorate, Irbid 2163, Jordan.

Email: hani@yu.edu.jo

**Abstract**

For centuries, the remote site of Bāyir, far to the east in southeast Jordan, in an arid environment, was frequented by nomads watering their herds, thanks to its huge wells. Four Latin graffiti from Bāyir area are published or revised and republished here. They provide new evidence of the visits paid to the place by troops from the Roman army.

**KEYWORDS**

graffiti, Jordan, Latin inscriptions, Provincia Arabia, Roman army, Roman imperial period

## 1 | INTRODUCTION

Numerous inscriptions were discovered in the area of Bāyir (Jordan) during the surveys conducted in the 1990s by the Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology of Yarmouk University and the Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente of Rome (ISMEO). Bāyir, located in the steppe at the head of Wādī Bāyir leading to Wādī Sīrhān, got its name from its wells (bāyir). A collection of 104 inscribed stone blocks and pebbles from the site of Bāyir and the surrounding area is kept in the stores of the present Department of Epigraphy of the Faculty of Archaeology and Anthropology, Yarmouk University. Most of them bear semitic graffiti (Ancient North Arabian [ANA], Nabataean or Arabic inscriptions) or wusum and signs. Some have been published by the late Fawwaz Al-Khraysheh and by Hani Hayajneh. The others are currently being studied. Greek and Latin texts are much rarer, evidencing the presence of the Roman army in this part of Provincia Arabia. Two limestone blocks with Latin graffiti and two with Greek ones have been published by Jacqueline Gysens Calzini (= Calzini Gysens) in 1993. Another Greek inscription was recently published. The two published Latin texts are revised here, and two unpublished Latin inscriptions are added to this small group.

## 2 | ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND EPIGRAPHIC RESEARCH AT BĀYIR

The site of Bāyir lies to the east of the present road which, from the northeast to the southwest, joins al-Azraq to Maʻān, halfway between these two cities, about 120 km

from each (Figure 1). As the crow flies, some 100 km separate Bāyir from the large market town of Ṭafīla to the west, and from Wādī Sirhān to the east, the long corridor that connects the Jawf oasis to al-Azraq. The site is located on the limestone eastern edge of the Jordanian plateau crossed by dry valleys that run towards Wādī Sirhān, including that of the northeast-facing Wādī Bāyir and Wādī al-Si'r. Bāyir, in an area of arid ridges, is known to the scholarly world through the brief stays of a few travellers and through surveys conducted by several archaeological teams. The site is still in need of excavations.

Before 1918, some European travellers, including Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, Douglas Carruthers, Alois Musil and Gertrude Bell, stopped at Bāyir and noticed the wells and the ruins of a “castle.”<fnref n="1" /> These wells are very important for watering the animals of nomad herders circulating in the region. During the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire in 1917, all four wells at the site were dynamited by the Turks, but the reactivation of two of them allowed the Arab insurgents and the famous T. E. Lawrence “of Arabia” to use Bāyir as a base for military operations.

During the British Mandate, a first archaeological survey was led by Henry Field in 1927 and 1928, devoted to prehistoric flints. In 1932, Nelson Glueck and George and Agnes Horsfield were the first to take an interest in examining the numerous pottery sherds of Bāyir. Between 1928 and 1932, the remains of the castle were destroyed, and a fort was built for the Arab Legion with their stones on a nearby hill. The 1981 survey led by

<footnote n="1">¹UMR Hisoma, CNRS-Université Lumière
Lyon 2, Lyon, France</footnote>

<footnote n="2">²Faculty of Archaeology & Anthropology,
Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan</footnote>

<footnote n="1">¹On the history of research at Bāyir, see Calzini Gysens and Al-Khraysheh (1995, p. 356), Gysens Calzini and Ruffo (1995, pp. 30–31), Gatier (2018, pp. 271–276).</footnote>
<figure><img src="image_2.png" /><figcaption>FIGURE 1 Map of Bāyir in its environment (©J. Aliquot, Th. Fournet).</figcaption></figure>

Scott Rolston and Gary Rollefson resulted in the
collection of pottery sherds and in the first study of
ANA graffiti by Vincent Clark.<fnref n="2" /> In the same year,

Geoffrey King's team surveying Byzantine and Islamic
sites collected ceramic sherds at Bāyir. The main
archaeological question is that of the date and function
of the so-called "castle" badly destroyed in 1932,
considered to be Nabataean, or Roman or Ghassanid/
Jafnid, or Umayyad, or built over several periods, and

<footnote n="2">²Clark (1987) published six Ancient North Arabian graffiti.</footnote>
regarded as a “khan,” or an aristocratic residence, or a small fortress.<fnref n="3" />

### 3 | BĀYIR EPIGRAPHY: AN OVERVIEW

After two short visits conducted in 1988 and 1989 (Bāyir I) by Fawaz Al-Khraysheh and Jacqueline Gysens Calzini, epigraphists at Yarmouk University and ISMEO, respectively, a first extensive survey took place in June 1990 (Bāyir II) east to Wādī Bāyir in the plain of Wādī Ukhayḍir al-Saṭīḥ. In June 1993, the third season of survey (Bāyir III) covered an area situated northeast of Qaṣr Bāyir, in a range from 4 to 12 km, in the plain between Wādī Bāyir and its tributary, Wādī al-Si'r. Altogether, 64 ANA/Hismaic texts were recorded: three Nabataean graffiti, a bilingual Nabataean-Safaitic inscription, five short Greek or Latin graffiti, a longer Greek graffito (15 lines) and several short texts of the Islamic period among which some in Kufic Arabic.<fnref n="4" /> No rock art has been found so far, but several modern tribal signs (*wusum*) cover the ancient inscriptions suggesting the regularity of the itineraries used by nomads.

A collection of 104 inscribed stone blocks and pebbles from the surveys in the region of Bāyir is kept at the storerooms of the Faculty of Archaeology and Anthropology Yarmouk University, Irbid. Studies about semitic inscriptions from this collection have been published by Al-Khraysheh on a bilingual ANA-Nabataean inscription and by Hayajneh, Ababneh and Al-Khraysheh on another bilingual inscription written in ANA characters and in Canaanite script, which provides the first attestation of the three Transjordanian Iron Age gods of Ammon, Moab and Edom in one and the same text.<fnref n="5" /> Hayajneh recently analysed two other of the ANA inscriptions stored at Yarmouk University.<fnref n="6" />

Epigraphic research conducted by Al-Khraysheh and Gysens Calzini in 1990 led to the discovery of a site named “site 6,” “a small hilltop on a secondary track, 12 km northeast from Bāyir’s Desert Patrol Post.”<fnref n="7" /> At this place, many graffiti were found. According to the classification of the 1990s, they were described as “a hundred Thamudic graffiti and some in the so-called ‘South Safaitic’ script.”<fnref n="8" /> Among the inscriptions of site 6, there were one Greek and two Latin graffiti.<fnref n="9" /> The exact number of Greek graffiti

discovered and collected during the different surveys between 1988 and 1993 is not clear, and occasionally, there seems to be some confusion between Latin and Greek texts. Nevertheless, the only Greek graffito discovered on site 6 in 1990 has been published by J. Gysens Calzini.<fnref n="10" /> In addition, a short Greek text found in 1989 at site 1, 1 km west of site 6, has also been published by the same epigraphist.<fnref n="11" /> It only contains the Latin *praenomen* Λοῦκιος, Lucius, which can be used as simple name (*nomen* unicum). Lastly, the long Greek text discovered in 1993 and kept in the stores of the Department of Antiquities has been published by Gatier.<fnref n="12" />

We study here the four Latin graffiti that form part of the Yarmouk University collection. Two of them are unpublished and could have been erroneously classified as Greek. In contrast, there do not appear to be any Greek texts in this collection. Despite the fact that we have no information about the provenance of the two unpublished Latin graffiti, we can reasonably assume that the four stone blocks were all discovered on site 6 and in 1990.

### 4 | LATIN TEXTS

#### 4.1 | Bāyir Latin graffito 1

A broken limestone block, three pieces of which (Figure 2) were previously seen joining together by J. Gysens Calzini “from site 6 (Bāyir II 1990), inv. BII/70.” Only the two largest pieces are kept in the Yarmouk University collection (Figure 3). Dimensions: H. 27 × W. 37 × D. 4 cm. H. of the letters: 2–4 cm.

**Bibliography:** Gysens Calzini, 1993, pp. 109–111 no. 4, with drawing but without photo (AE 1993, p. 499 no. 1648 [M. Sartre]). Two fragments reviewed at Yarmouk University in October 2021.

L(ucio) Attillio [-? -]

IV K(alendas) Ian(uarias) ÆPIX[-? -]

Sabinus

4 ÁVIN[- - -].

L. 1: L XTT/IIIIQ, Gyzens Calzini; LXTTILIIO for *L. Attillio, AE*.

L. 2: IVLIA/N I IX, Gyzens Calzini; *Iulian(o), AE*. The third letter looks either like a I, a L or, more securely, a K with a clearly visible diagonal line at top right; the three letters L in the first line are quite different from this letter; at the end ÆPIX[-? -] or ÆRIX[-? -].

<footnote n="3">³Gatier (2018), Hayajneh and Gatier (2024).</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴Calzini Gysens and Al-Khraysheh (1995, p. 360).</footnote>

<footnote n="5">⁵Al-Khraysheh (1994), Hayajneh et al. (2015), Hayajneh (2009).</footnote>

<footnote n="6">⁶Hayajneh (2021).</footnote>

<footnote n="7">⁷Gysens Calzini (1993, p. 106), “site 6, coordinates 87/99° 33’; on wādī Ukheidir, sheet 3351 series K 737.” The Desert Patrol post is the former Arab Legion fort. The published sketch plan of the sites by Ruffo is imprecise, Gysens Calzini and Ruffo (1995, p. 32), Calzini Gysens and Al-Khraysheh (1995, p. 357).</footnote>

<footnote n="8">⁸Gysens Calzini (1993, p. 106).</footnote>

<footnote n="9">⁹Gysens Calzini (1993, p. 106), “four Greek and Latin graffiti.” This scholar publishes, p. 107–111, the three graffiti—two Latin and one Greek—from site 6 with a fourth from site 1. Calzini Gysens and Al-Khraysheh (1995, p. 360) about the 1990 survey, mention “four Greek and one Latin inscribed dedications (...)</footnote>

<footnote>collected and prepared for publication,” and further on, about the results of the 1993 survey, “five short Greek graffiti and a considerable, long Greek text.”</footnote>

<footnote n="10">¹⁰Gysens Calzini (1993, p. 107 no. 3).</footnote>

<footnote n="11">¹¹Gysens Calzini (1993, p. 107 no. 1).</footnote>

<footnote n="12">¹²Gatier (2018).</footnote>
<figure><img src="image_3.png" /><figcaption>FIGURE 2 Latin graffito 1 (Gysens Calzini, 1993, p. 111).</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_4.png" /><figcaption>FIGURE 3 Latin graffito 1 (©Archives IGLS, J. Aliquot).</figcaption></figure>

L 4: All the letters of this missing fragment, which has been copied by Gyzens Calzini (Figure 3), are uncertain; *A* *uix*[it], *AE*, but a funerary formula is impossible here.

Translation:

"For Lucius Attillius ..., fourth day before the Kalends of Ianuary ..., Sabinus (honours him) ..."

Commentary: Following the *praenomen* L(ucius), the name Attillius—for the more usual Atilius—is the *gentilicium* of a Roman citizen. His missing *cognomen* might have been written at the end of the first line or at the beginning of the

second or even simply omitted. In the honour of this Lucius Attillius ..., a man called Sabinus—either *cognomen* of a Roman citizen or simple name (*nomen unicum*)—made the dedication. While Greek and Latin graffiti most often contain names in the nominative Latin form, this graffito is original in honouring an individual whose name is in the dative Latin form. It may be an officer celebrated by one or several soldiers.

Sabinus, a Latin anthroponym, is an extremely common name throughout the near East and particularly in the province of Arabia, perhaps because of its assonance with semitic names such as Zebinas.<fnref n="13" /> Here, the mention of the *praenomen*, which disappears from inscriptions during the third century AD, suggests that this graffito dates from the second century AD. We note that the *praenomen* Lucius is written in the Greek graffito found on site 1, 1 km from site 6, but it is not certain that it refers to the same person.<fnref n="14" /> In Provincia Arabia where a Graeco-Macedonian calendar was commonly used, the choice of the Roman calendar is typical of the army.

## 4.2 | Bāyir Latin graffito 2

A squared limestone block, complete everywhere except on the right. "From site 6 (Bāyir II 1990), inv. BII/71," according to J. Gysens Calzini. Dimensions: H. 18.5 × W. 20.5 × D. 5 cm. H. of the letters: 2 cm.

Bibliography: Gysens Calzini (1993, pp. 107–108 no. 2), with photo (AE 1993, p. 499 no. 1647 [M. Sartre]). Reviewed at Yarmouk University in October 2021 (Figure 4).

### Anthi-uş.

L. 1: *Anthio*, Gysens Calzini; *Anthio*, *AE*; Gysens Calzini had only seen and read the first line and identified a rare Greek name, Anthios, Latin Anthius. At the end of the first line, the letter o is not legible. There is a second line, with two faintly engraved letters in the middle.

## 4.3 | Bāyir Latin graffito 3

A slab-shaped limestone block with two inscribed lines at its summit. The right and top sides of the block seem to have been hand-carved. On the right, a chip of the surface has erased the end of the two lines. Dimensions: H. 35 × W. 22 × D. 7 cm. H. of the letters: 0.5–1 cm.

Unpublished. Examined at Yarmouk University in October 2021 (Figures 5 and 6).

### T urma) Antiochi II[ - M]-aximuş.

<footnote n="13">¹³Sartre (1985, pp. 233–234). Yon (2018).</footnote>

<footnote n="14">¹⁴Gysens Calzini (1993, p. 107 no. 1).</footnote>
<figure><img src="image_5.png" /><figcaption>FIGURE 4 Latin graffito 2 (©Archives IGLS, J. Aliquot).</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_6.png" /><figcaption>FIGURE 5 Latin graffito 3 (©Archives IGLS, J. Aliquot).</figcaption></figure>

L. 1: The abbreviation *t* for *t(urma)* is common, for example, *IGLS* 17/1, 485, at Palmyra. A *turma* is a cavalry squadron of around thirty men designated by the name of its commander (*decurio*) and belonging to the

<figure><img src="image_7.png" /><figcaption>FIGURE 6 Latin graffito 3 (©Archives IGLS, J. Aliquot).</figcaption></figure>

*auxilia* (auxiliary units), either *alae* (cavalry wings) or *cohortes equitatae* (partmounted cohorts).

Translation:

“Turma of Antiochus: Maximus.”

Commentary: Maximus the cavalryman engraved the name of his unit and then his name. The Latin anthroponym Maximus is the most frequent in the onomastics of the Roman Hawrān and probably in Provincia Arabia.<fnref n="15" />

## 4.4 | Bāyir Latin graffito 4

Limestone block. Dimensions: H. 14 × W. 32 × D. 4 cm. H. of the letters: 4–5.5 cm.

Unpublished. Examined at Yarmouk University in October 2021 (Figure 7).

Maximus.

Commentary: Numerous lines and bars are blended with the graffito on the inscribed surface of the stone. The graffito is written in cursive script, which is particularly noticeable in the case of the long V and the diagonal S.

## 5 | CONCLUSION

The presence of Greek and Latin graffiti at Bāyir can be explained, as in other places, by the abundance of older graffiti in other languages. The newcomers have simply added their names or a brief honorific formula to the many others that preceded them. Since the Latin graffiti of the steppe and desert are always produced by soldiers of the Roman army,<fnref n="16" /> we can assume that at Bāyir, as elsewhere, the four Latin texts bear witness to the presence of soldiers, probably horsemen from an auxiliary unit. The situation with Greek is more complex,

<footnote n="15">¹⁵Sartre (1985, pp. 214–215).</footnote>

<footnote n="16">¹⁶For exemple, in Namāra, Sartre (2016).</footnote>
<figure><img src="image_8.png" /><figcaption>FIGURE 7 Latin graffito 4 (©Archives IGLS, J. Aliquot).</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_9.png" /><figcaption>FIGURE 8 Greek long military graffito (©Archives IGLS, P.-L. Gatier).</figcaption></figure>

and many of the Greek graffiti of the desert were not drawn by soldiers.<fnref n="17" /> However, the long Greek text from Bāyir published in 2018 is another military document and concerns the soldiers—horsemen and meharists—of two auxiliary regiments (Figure 8). Similarly, the short Greek graffito naming Lucius, although impossible to date, probably refers to a soldier.

The mention of the very common name Maximus in two Latin graffiti does not lead to the conclusion that the four graffiti were written at the same time by soldiers from the same troop. However, it is likely that the four

Latin graffiti were carved during the second century AD. The long Greek military text was inscribed much later, around the middle of the fourth century AD. However, without further archaeological research on site 6 and on the meagre remains of the “castle,” it is impossible to know whether the presence of the soldiers, to which the two chronologically distant series of documents bear witness, was continuous and linked to the existence of a fort or whether it was the result of occasional patrols. In any case, the Bāyir Latin graffiti are another evidence of the Roman army’s surveillance of nomadic activities on the fringes of Provincia Arabia.

A recent aerial survey identified three temporary Roman military camps east of Bāyir.<fnref n="18" /> These camps have been hypothetically attributed to the period of the Roman conquest of the Nabataean kingdom at the beginning of the second century AD. The authors of the report claim that Bāyir was used in this time as a base for a military operation in the direction of Dumat, to which these camps would bear witness. While waiting for more precise dating of the temporary camps, we can assume that the Latin graffiti of Bāyir do not contradict this hypothesis, but neither do they impose it.

### Sigla

AE: *L'année épigraphique*. Presses universitaires de France.

BE: *Bulletin épigraphique*. In *Revue des études grecques*.

IGLS: *Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie* (1929–).

The main references and corpora of Greek and Latin inscriptions are cited according to the usual list of abbreviations, GrEpiAbbr. https://aiegl.org/grepiabbr.html

### ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors thank the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, Yarmouk University and Lyon University and their directors and presidents. The project of the corpus of Greek and Latin Inscriptions in Jordan (“Inscriptions de la Jordanie”) has been conducted since the 1970s. Nowadays, it is managed by Prof. Pierre-Louis Gatier (CNRS, Lyon) and Prof. Nabil Bader (Yarmouk University) as a part of the IGLS project (“Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie” [“Syrie” taken here in its ancient meaning of “Near East”]), which is directed by Prof. Madalina Dana, Director of Hisoma, a research institute of the French National Center for Scientific Research (Histoire et Sources des Mondes Antiques, UMR 5189, CNRS, Maison de l'Orient, Lyon University). Our thoughts are particularly with the late Fawaz Al-Khraysheh, former

<footnote n="17">¹⁷The meaning of the two words/names in the second Greek graffito of J. Gysens Calzini (CEIPOC, and EZΦΕΔ) remains unclear, Gysens Calzini (1993, p. 107 no. 3). Could one think of ἐξ ῥεδ[εράτων]?</footnote>

<footnote n="18">¹⁸Fradley et al. (2023).</footnote>
Director of the Department of Antiquities, who, as a professor at Yarmouk University in Irbid, had organised the epigraphic surveys at Bāyir and surroundings. The authors thank Julien Aliquot, member of the IGLS team, for his help, information and pictures, and Dan Dana, for his help and information in dealing with military inscriptions.

## DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

The data that support the findings of this study are available in Yamrmouk University. These data were derived from the following resources available in the public domain https://yu.academia.edu/HaniHayajneh. Data are available on request from the authors.

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**How to cite this article:** Gatier, P.-L., & Hayajneh, H. (2023). Latin inscriptions from Bāyir (Jordan). *Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy*, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1111/aae.12245