Hatran inscriptions

Hatran inscriptions are a corpus of Aramaic inscriptions discovered primarily at the ancient city of Hatra in northern Iraq. The texts date mainly from the 1st–3rd centuries CE and are written in the Hatran Aramaic dialect using the distinctive Hatran script. The inscriptions constitute one of the most important sources for the language, religion, and political organization of the semi-independent kingdom of Hatra during the Parthian and early Sasanian periods.

More than 450 inscriptions and graffiti are known, mostly carved on stone monuments within the sacred precincts of Hatra, as well as at nearby sites such as Assur and elsewhere in northern Mesopotamia.

Together with the inscriptions of Palmyra, Nabataea, and Edessa, the Hatran texts form one of the main corpora of Aramaic epigraphy from the Roman and Parthian Near East.

The inscriptions are typically short and formulaic, and include building inscriptions, statue dedications, religious dedications, funerary texts and legal regulations concerning temples and property. Many of the inscriptions are preserved in the Mosul Museum and the Iraq Museum.

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