Benjamin Sass and Joachim Marzahn have recently made a significant contribution to our knowledge of Aramaic epigraphy with the following book:
Aramaic and Figural Stamp Impressions of the Sixth Century B.C. from Babylon (Ausgrabungen in Babylon 10/WVDOG 127; Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2010).
Readers acquainted with (Avigad and) Sass’ Corpus of West Semitic Stamped Seals will not be surprised to find in this new book a meticulous and thorough publication of hundred of bricks. On the 300 inscribed bricks discovered in Babylon by the German excavations of 1899-1917, they have identified 133 different stamps: 64 are Aramaic, 23 are Aramaic and figural, 44 figural and 2 cuneiform. The book contains excellent photographs and drawings, and it provides all the analyses and charts one could wish, including anthroponomy and historical notes (61 impressions are associated with a royal cuneiform impression). Perhaps the most important contribution of this work is the progress it enable us to make with regard to Aramaic palaeography of the 6th century B.C.E. (see chapter 6 and especially the palaeographical charts p. 154-156). Until then, there was virtually a gap in our knowledge of lapidary Aramaic script: “only one stone inscription in the monumental Aramaic ductus, the unprovenanced Caquot inscription, has so far been attributed palaeographically to (…) the two centuries between the early seventh and early fifth” (p. 151).
