DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45582#0008
Umm idj-Djimal (Thantia?)
151 2
been inserted in the larger map. A large collection of photographs was taken, and
measurements were secured for the publication, and presentation in detail, of over thirty
buildings. Including the 29 inscriptions in Greek and Latin, and the 3 inscriptions in
Nabataean that had been copied and published by former explorers, the Princeton
Expedition gathered 5 Latin, 276 Greek, 31 Nabataean, 1 pre-Islamic Arabic and 13
Safaitic inscriptions, which appear in Div. Ill, a, 3 and Div. IV, Sects, a and c,
respectively.
Umm idj-Djimal was probably the great city of the desert described by the Arabs
to some of the earliest travellers in the Hauran. It was first reached in 1857 by
Cyril Graham1 who published a brief description of the ruins in the following year.
In 1861—62 W. H. Waddington3 copied several inscriptions here, and, over a decade
later, in 1875—76, Charles M. Doughty3 passed through the ruined city. At about
the same time Selah Merrill 4, then American Consul at Jerusalem, visited the site, and,
the year after, in 1877, William M. Thomson 5 reached it. It was not until thirteen
years later, in 1890, that Heinrich Frauberger6 came to Umm idj-Djimal; he was
followed in 1893 by G. Robinson Lees7 who has recently published anew the account
of his journey in Southern Bashan. The first plans to be published of buildings in
the ancient city were those of one church and of one of the city gates made by G. Schu-
macher 8 in 1894, and published with descriptive notes the following year. In 1901
Rene Dussaud 9 and Frederic Macler made a hasty excursion to the place, and copied
several inscriptions; the Princeton Expedition followed in 1905, and Miss Bell completed
the list of visitors in the same year.
It will be noted at the head of this chapter, that Thantia, with an interrogation
mark, appears as the ancient name of Umm idj-Djimal. My reasons for this tentative
identification are given in an appendix10 11, devoted to a description of the section of
Trajan’s great road between Bostra and Philadelphia, which I prepared for Div. Ill,
Sect, a., Part 2. They need not be repeated here further than to say that the identi-
fication is based upon a new interpretation of the reading of the number of miles given
from point to point in Roman numerals on the Tabula Peutingeriana, which are not
easily reconciled with the actual figures which appear upon the milestones that are still
in place on Trajan’s road; further evidence being deduced from the order in which
the name Thainatha, i.e. Thantia of Peutinger’s map, appears in the Notitia Digni-
tatum. A suggestion is perhaps to be found in an inscription discovered at Umm idj-
Djimal by the Expedition of 1909, which mentions the βασιλεύς Θανου^νών; it is the
Greek half of a Nabataean-Greek bilingual n. Considering the two variants of the form
of the name which appear on the ancient map and in the Notitia, it is not surprising
that both should differ slightly from the Nabataean original and its Greek transliteration.
1 Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, ’58 (xx—vm) pp. 226—263.
2 Wadd. inscs. 2057.2-2068, and de Vogue, La Syrie Centrale, Inscriptions Semitiques, Paris, 1868-77, pp. 120-123.
3 Travels in Arabia Deserta, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1883, Vol. 1, p. xi.
4 Q.S. ’76, pp. 51-55, Rast of Jordan, New-York, Scribner, 1883, (new ed.) p. 86.
5 The Land and the Book (3 vols.), London, Nelson, 1881—1886, p. 5°9·
6 Globus, ’93 (LXlll) pp. 10-13 and 167-172.
1 Geog. Journ. ’95, pp. 1—26, Life and Adventures beyond Jordan, New-York, Appletons, I9°9o PP· 263—267.
8 M.N.D.P.-V. ’95 (1) pp. 33-35· Z.D.P.-V. ’97 (xx) PP· 65-227.
9 M.S.M. pp. (608; 682), 438.
10 III, A, 2, p. XIV.
11 Published by Dr. Littmann in Florilegium Melchior de Vogue, p. 76· HI, A, 3 insc. 2381.
151 2
been inserted in the larger map. A large collection of photographs was taken, and
measurements were secured for the publication, and presentation in detail, of over thirty
buildings. Including the 29 inscriptions in Greek and Latin, and the 3 inscriptions in
Nabataean that had been copied and published by former explorers, the Princeton
Expedition gathered 5 Latin, 276 Greek, 31 Nabataean, 1 pre-Islamic Arabic and 13
Safaitic inscriptions, which appear in Div. Ill, a, 3 and Div. IV, Sects, a and c,
respectively.
Umm idj-Djimal was probably the great city of the desert described by the Arabs
to some of the earliest travellers in the Hauran. It was first reached in 1857 by
Cyril Graham1 who published a brief description of the ruins in the following year.
In 1861—62 W. H. Waddington3 copied several inscriptions here, and, over a decade
later, in 1875—76, Charles M. Doughty3 passed through the ruined city. At about
the same time Selah Merrill 4, then American Consul at Jerusalem, visited the site, and,
the year after, in 1877, William M. Thomson 5 reached it. It was not until thirteen
years later, in 1890, that Heinrich Frauberger6 came to Umm idj-Djimal; he was
followed in 1893 by G. Robinson Lees7 who has recently published anew the account
of his journey in Southern Bashan. The first plans to be published of buildings in
the ancient city were those of one church and of one of the city gates made by G. Schu-
macher 8 in 1894, and published with descriptive notes the following year. In 1901
Rene Dussaud 9 and Frederic Macler made a hasty excursion to the place, and copied
several inscriptions; the Princeton Expedition followed in 1905, and Miss Bell completed
the list of visitors in the same year.
It will be noted at the head of this chapter, that Thantia, with an interrogation
mark, appears as the ancient name of Umm idj-Djimal. My reasons for this tentative
identification are given in an appendix10 11, devoted to a description of the section of
Trajan’s great road between Bostra and Philadelphia, which I prepared for Div. Ill,
Sect, a., Part 2. They need not be repeated here further than to say that the identi-
fication is based upon a new interpretation of the reading of the number of miles given
from point to point in Roman numerals on the Tabula Peutingeriana, which are not
easily reconciled with the actual figures which appear upon the milestones that are still
in place on Trajan’s road; further evidence being deduced from the order in which
the name Thainatha, i.e. Thantia of Peutinger’s map, appears in the Notitia Digni-
tatum. A suggestion is perhaps to be found in an inscription discovered at Umm idj-
Djimal by the Expedition of 1909, which mentions the βασιλεύς Θανου^νών; it is the
Greek half of a Nabataean-Greek bilingual n. Considering the two variants of the form
of the name which appear on the ancient map and in the Notitia, it is not surprising
that both should differ slightly from the Nabataean original and its Greek transliteration.
1 Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, ’58 (xx—vm) pp. 226—263.
2 Wadd. inscs. 2057.2-2068, and de Vogue, La Syrie Centrale, Inscriptions Semitiques, Paris, 1868-77, pp. 120-123.
3 Travels in Arabia Deserta, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1883, Vol. 1, p. xi.
4 Q.S. ’76, pp. 51-55, Rast of Jordan, New-York, Scribner, 1883, (new ed.) p. 86.
5 The Land and the Book (3 vols.), London, Nelson, 1881—1886, p. 5°9·
6 Globus, ’93 (LXlll) pp. 10-13 and 167-172.
1 Geog. Journ. ’95, pp. 1—26, Life and Adventures beyond Jordan, New-York, Appletons, I9°9o PP· 263—267.
8 M.N.D.P.-V. ’95 (1) pp. 33-35· Z.D.P.-V. ’97 (xx) PP· 65-227.
9 M.S.M. pp. (608; 682), 438.
10 III, A, 2, p. XIV.
11 Published by Dr. Littmann in Florilegium Melchior de Vogue, p. 76· HI, A, 3 insc. 2381.