ARAMAIC WATCH: A University of Queensland museum has just acquired a Palmyrene stele bearing an as-yet undeciphered Aramaic inscription:

Artefact a prized addition to UQ antiquities museum
Published: 13 May 2009

The R.D. Milns Antiquities Museum at UQ has just welcomed an ancient carved funerary column or 'stele' to their collection, which originally stood at Palmyra in present-day Syria.

Museum Director Dr Sonia Puttock said the museum's $18,000 big purchase for the year was "very significant".

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The museum previously purchased a fragment of a similar stele around 20 years ago, but the latest purchase is of a whole male bust that is from the late second to third century AD.

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"The stele is of a man wearing a toga, but it is very much in the local style, so it is likely a native man aspiring to a Roman lifestyle. He has also got a funerary garland in his hand, similar to Egyptian mummy paintings."

The limestone stele, which is associated with a male funeral, also contains an Aramaic inscription that hasn't yet been translated, however Dr Puttock says that will happen soon.

"One of our previous trainee workers, a woman from Northern Italy who received a scholarship from her university, Udine, to come and work at the museum for nine months, will be translating it. She is also doing some research on it for us," Dr Puttock said.

The stele, originally from what is now central Syria, was purchased from well-known London dealer Charles Ede.

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Do antiquities laws really allow the sale and transport of inscribed stelae from Syria (to London?) to Australia? I'm surprised. Although if it's on the antiquites market, I would rather it end up in a museum than in private hands.