Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Mr. Golénischeff has just published in the Transactions of the Russian Imperial Society of Oriental Archæology (vol. xiii) a new Vannic inscription of considerable interest and importance. As my memoir on the Vannic Inscriptions is not likely to be continued after the publication of the rich materials collected by Drs. Belck and Lehmann during their exploration of Armenia and Kurdistan, I will deal with this inscription separately, and provisionally number it LXXXVI in continuation of my former notation. The stone on which the inscription is engraved was found in the church of St. Gregory, four versts east of the monastery of Eshmiadzin, and is 2·70 metres high, 63 cent, broad, and 36 cent, thick. It will be seen that it is a record of Ruśas, the son of Argistis, whose existence, first asserted by Dr. Belck, but doubted by myself (J.R.A.S., Oct., 1894, pp. 705, 706), is thus certified.
page 648 note 1 The derivative ali-śi in li, i, 4, is “growth” or “tree.” An inscription from Sharia, in the district of Armavir, published by Dr. Basmadjan, reads: (1) Argistis (2) Menûakhi[ni]s (3) ini BIT (4) zadum śui (5) arkhuiam, “Argistis, son of Menuas, has built this house for the possession of (his) descendants,” where arkhuiani is plainly connected with arkhis.
page 649 note 1 In li, i, 7, however, GIS-U is “plant,” and U-ni in the following line seems to be the same. I should now propose the following translation of this difficult passage:—ini ali-śi ikuka-ne-di-ni aue manu-li mei asei turtani khaidiani terikhe S'ari-duri-ni tini S'ari-duri-ni GIS-U du-lei, “this tree in this same place he gives to the water, the whole of it, as nourishment (?) and fruit (?) for the temple, even the plant of S'ariduris which is called the planting of S'ariduris.” Unfortunately, however, the reading aue is not certain.
page 651 note 1 Gunu-se (xliii, 15) must be; “weapons,” “a portion of the captives and of the weapons.”
page 654 note 1 Botta: Le Monument de Ninive, ii, pl. 141.