Mr Michael Macdonald

Position

Research Associate

Research Associate of the Khalili Research Centre.

Faculty / College address

Oriental Institute / Wolfson College

Email:

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Research Interests:

• The languages, scripts and inscriptions of ancient Syria, Jordan and Arabia, particularly Ancient North Arabian (Taymanitic, Dadanitic, Hasaitic, Thamudic, Hismaic and Safaitic), Nabataean, and pre-Islamic Arabic.
• Literacy in the ancient and late antique Near East.
• The prehistory of the Arabic language.
• The Rock-art of Syria and Arabia.
• The history of the nomads of Syria and Arabia from the first millennium B.C. to the rise of Islam.

Current Projects:

• The Ancient Arabia: Languages and Cultures project [http://krc.orient.ox.ac.uk/aalc/]
• The Safaitic Database Online [http://krcfm.orient.ox.ac.uk/fmi/iwp/cgi?-db=AALC_BDRS&-loadframes]
• Setting up The Online Database of the Inscriptions of Ancient North Arabia [ODIANA] to provide an online, fully searchable corpus of all Ancient North Arabian inscriptions (some 60,000) and pre-Islamic Arabic inscriptions.
• The inscriptions of the oasis of Tayma (Saudi Arabia) and a Catalogue of the inscriptions of the Tayma Museum, as a member of the Saudi German Archaeological Mission to Tayma [http://www.dainst.org/en/project/tayma?ft=all].
• Old Arabic within its linguistic environment. A study of what is known of the Arabic language before the Rise of Islam (mid 7th century AD), from texts which have survived independently of the early Arab grammarians (i.e. "epigraphic Old Arabic").
• Heading a team creating linguistic maps of pre-Islamic Arabia as part of the Corpus Coranicum [http://koran.bbaw.de/] project's investigation into the linguistic background of the Qur'an.

Recent Publications:

Books

• Literacy and Identity in Pre-Islamic Arabia. (Variorum Collected Studies, 906.) Farnham: Ashgate, 2009. (http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9780754659655)
• The development of Arabic as a written language. Papers from the Special Session of the Seminar for Arabian Studies held on 24 July, 2009. Edited by M.C.A. Macdonald. (Supplement to the Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies volume, 40). Oxford: Archaeopress, 2010.
• A.F.L. Beeston at the Arabian Seminar, and other papers. Edited by M.C.A. Macdonald & C.S. Phillips, Oxford: Archaeopress. 2005.

Articles

• The ‘Abiel’ Coins of Eastern Arabia: A study of the Aramaic Legends. In  M. Huth & P. van Alfen (eds), Coinage of the Caravan Kingdoms. (Numismatic Studies, 25). New York: American Numismatic Society, 2010 [2011], pp. 403–547 + Plates on a CDROM.
• Ancient Arabia and the written word. In M.C.A. Macdonald (ed.), The development of Arabic as a written language. Papers from the Special Session of the Seminar for Arabian Studies held on 24 July, 2009. (Supplement to the Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies volume, 40). Oxford: Archaeopress, 2010, pp. 5-28.
• The Old Arabic graffito at Jabal Usays: a new reading of line 1. In the same volume, pp. 141–143.
• ARNA Nab 17 and the transition from the Nabataean to the Arabic script, in W. Arnold, M. Jursa, W.W. Müller, & S. Prochazka (eds), Philologisches und Historisches zwischen Anatolien und Sokotra. Analecta Semitica In Memoriam Alexander Sima. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2009, pp. 207–240.
• Arabs, Arabias, and Arabic before Late Antiquity. Topoi 16, 2009: 277–332.
• with M. al-Najem, A new Nabataean inscription from Taymāʾ. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 20, 2009: 208–217.
• Wheels in a land of camels: Another look at the chariot in Arabia. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 20, 2009: 156–184
• The decline of the ‘epigraphic habit’ in late antique Arabia: some questions. In J. Schiettecatte and C.J. Robin (eds), L'Arabie à la veille de l'Islam. Bilan clinique. (Orient et Méditerranée, 3). Paris: De Boccard, 2009. pp. 17–27.
• Transformation and continuity at al-Namārah. Camps, settlements, forts, and tombs. In K. Bartl & A. Moaz (eds), Residences, Castles, Settlements. Transformation Processes from Late Antiquity to Early Islam in Bilad al-Sham. Proceedings of the International Conference held at Damascus, 5–9 November 2006. (Orient-Archäologie, 24). Rahden/Westf.: Leidorf, 2009. pp. 317–332.
• The Phoenix of Phoinikēia. Alphabetic reincarnation in Arabia. In J. Baines, J. Bennet and S. Houston (eds), The Disappearance of Writing Systems: Perspectives on Literacy and Communication. London: Equinox, 2008, pp. 207–229
• Old Arabic (Epigraphic). In K. Versteeg (ed.), Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics, vol. III. Leiden: Brill, 2008. pp. 464-477.
• Death between the desert and the sown. Cave-tombs and inscriptions near Dayr al-Kahf in Jordan. Damaszener Mitteilungen 15, 2006 [2008]: 273–301
• Of rock-art, “desert kites” and mesâyid, in A.V. Sedov & I.M. Smulyanskaya (eds), Arabia Vitalis: Arabskii Vostok, islam, drevnyaya Araviya: Sbornik Naychnykh statei, posvyashchennyi 60-letiyu V.V. Naumkina. Moscow: Rossiikaya Akademiya Nauk. 2005. pp.332-345.
• Ancient North Arabian, in R.D. Woodard (ed.), The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of the World's Ancient Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2004. pp.488-533.
• Languages, Scripts, and the Uses of Writing among the Nabataeans, in G. Markoe (ed.), Petra Rediscovered: Lost City of the Nabataeans. New York: Abrams / Cincinnati, OH: Cincinnati Art Museum. 2003. pp.36-56, 264-266 (endnotes), 274-282 (references).
• W.J. Bankes and the identification of the Nabataean Script. With N.N Lewis, and appendices by S. Clackson, R.G. Hoyland, & M. Sartre. Syria 80. 2003 [2006].41–110.
• Thamudic, with G. M. H. King, in Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edn. Volume X. Leiden, Brill. 1999. pp.436-438.
• Les inscriptions safaïtiques de Syrie, 140 ans après leur découverte, with M. Mu'azzin, L. Nehmé Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Inscriptions & Belles-Lettres, 1996, pp.435-492.
• Hunting, Fighting and Raiding. The Horse in Pre-Islamic Arabia, in D. G. Alexander (ed.), Furusiya. The horse in the art of the Near East, Vol.1. Riyadh. 1996. pp.72-83.
• North Arabia in the First Millennium BCE, in J.M. Sasson (ed.), Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, Vol.II. New York, Scribners. 1995. pp. 1355-1369, and p. 1351.
• Safaitic, in Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edn. Vol.VIII. Leiden, Brill. 1995. pp.760-762.

In the press:

• On the uses of writing in ancient Arabia and the role of palaeography in studying them, in Semitica et Classica.
• Towards a re-assessment of the Ancient North Arabian alphabets used in the oasis of al-‘Ulâ, in Semitica et Classica.
• Goddesses, dancing girls or cheerleaders? Perceptions of the divine and the female form in the rock art of pre-Islamic North Arabia. In Ch. J. Robin et I. Sachet (eds), Dieux et déesses d'Arabie : images et représentations. (Orient et Méditerranée). Paris : CNRS.
• with A.J. Drewes, T.F.G. Higham, C. Bronk Ramsey. Some absolute dates for the development of the Ancient South Arabian minuscule script. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy.
• Inscriptions, rock drawings and wusum from the Ayl to Ras an-Naqab Archaeological Survey. In B. MacDonald (ed.), The Ayl to Ras an-Naqab Archaeological Survey — Three Seasons of Work in Southern Jordan.
• The Ancient North and South Arabian inscriptions. In A.I. Al-Ghabban et al. The Darb al-Bakra Survey, in North-West Saudi Arabia.

Further Info:

• Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London
• Membre associé étranger de l'UMR 8167 "Orient et Méditerranée" du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris.
• Corresponding Fellow of l'Istituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente, Roma.
• Honorary Secretary of the British Foundation for the Study of Arabia
• Member of the Steering Committee of the Seminar for Arabian Studies
• Member of the Standing Committee for British Research in Syria (of the Council for British Research in the Levant)
• On the Editorial Board of the journal Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy.