Final Report Summary - ASACOSINS (Ancient South Arabian confession of sin texts) The project intended to study a group of unpublished texts related to the rite of confession of sins in ancient South Arabia. Such confessions were usually given by an individual declaring a sin to a divinity. In some cases, women made such declarations and in some other instances the subject of the text is a king, which declared a sin on behalf of all his subjects. It is generally assumed that this rite was performed publicly in front of all the community. About 30 texts concerning this practice are known from the Jawf area (Northern Yemen) since the beginning of South Arabian studies and have increased in the last decades following clandestine diggings in the area. The languages of these texts are Minaic and Haramitic (both used in the northern part of Yemen in pre-Islamic times and belonging to the South Semitic linguistic branch). The new texts come from the Minaean site of Baraqish (ancient Yathill) that was excavated since the beginning of the Nineties by the Italian Archaeological Mission in the Republic of Yemen (under the direction of prof. Alessandro de Maigret). The new documentation comprises 16 new texts coming from the two temples of Nakrah and Athtar dhu-Qabd, which assured a considerable enlargement of data connected with this rite. The activity has been concentrated on two main objectives, namely in an overview of the already published texts and in the study (reading and interpretation) of the new texts from Baraqish. In the first case, the main focus has been an overall study of literature on the subject as well as analytical reappraisal of already published texts. This phase comprised also the realisation of lexical and onomastic indexes that has been an essential tool for the interpretation and integrations for the newly found texts. On the other side, the new documentation has been studied mainly thanks to the available photographs (which were put at disposal by the Italian Archaeological Mission or were taken by the researcher himself during his participation to the archaeological campaigns in the past). Contrary to what have been envisaged in the project timetable, the possibility of taking more satisfactory photos, as well as measures, or verifying the reading on the stones, have been abandoned because of the difficult political conditions in Yemen, which led to a complete suspension of all foreign scientific missions. The new texts are written on a rough type of limestone (approximately 30 x 20 cm), rectangular in shape, with a particular style of carving, which is less accurate than that of official inscriptions. The inscribed surface is intentionally left unsmoothed even if sometimes a plain band frames the text. For these reasons, paleographic analysis is very difficult and unreliable for chronology, but the archaeological context in which they have been found suggests a dating from the 5th to the 1st century BC. The sin is generally connected with the religious sphere (transgression of purity rules, e.g. contact with body fluids, which was not followed by a proper purity reestablishment, especially before approaching a sacral area; not having performed a rite in the way and at the time in which it was expected) and the society in the broader sense (disregard of a particular activity to be carried out in connection with agricultural work or feasts; violation of property rights and administrative laws). Social infractions seems now more important thanks to our data: this reinforces the feeling that we are dealing with texts with a strong legal connotation and not only related to a religious or a personal matter. In one text, unique case so far, the confession is given not only to a divinity but probably also to a human (siglum Y.90.B.ext.6) which confirms that the main scope of this ritual was to re-establish an equilibrium between the repentant and his / her community. The problem of the connection between confession and divinity is one of the main points that have been clarified thanks to the documentation from Baraqish. Up to now some divinities have been considered more connected with this practice, which allowed us to deduce that there was a type of specialisation of some gods that were, more than others, the addressees of confessions. However, the enlargement of the documentation has shown an increasing number of divinities involved in this ritual. In the case of Baraqish, Nakrah was the god that has been considered particularly involved in this ritual. Confessions to this divinity were also addressed in the nearby site of Darb as-Sabi, where Nakrah was also known for his healing virtues. Confessions made at Baraqish, and whose texts were discovered in the temple of Nakrah or in its surroundings, are not always addressed to the god Nakrah. This suggests the possibility of confessing to different divinities from that to whom the temple was dedicated. The new texts from Baraqish have shown a more complex situation, where several divinities are in fact concerned (e.g. Athtar dhu-Yahriq, Athtar dhu-Qabd and Wadd). One text (siglum Y.03.B.A.1) has, moreover, revealed an attestation of a previously unknown divinity (M'n, thus homograph with the name of the Minaean kingdom) as well as a divinity known from some Aramaic texts (Shahr). This sustains the hypothesis that there were no specific divinities to which confessions were particularly addressed. This view was a consequence of the limits of our documentation, which still comes from a limited number of sites. We have in fact confessions made to the same divinity in different sites, and now also to several divinities at a same site. The ritual was performed as an obligation towards the community, this being the public and legal side of the phenomenon, but the divinity and the sanctuary to which the confession is addressed is most likely a personal choice of the repentant. Future investigation is needed to enlarge the prospective of this research looking at connections and similarities (e.g. lexical and textual patterns) with other domains of ancient Near East, in particular Hebrew (e.g. Leviticus), Ugaritic and Asia Minor documentations.
