Ancient Amulet Discovered with Curious Palindrome Inscription

livescience.com ^ | January 1, 2015 | Owen Jarus

[BenLurkin]

An ancient, two-sided amulet uncovered in Cyprus contains a 59-letter inscription that reads the same backwards as it does forwards.

Archaeologists discovered the amulet, which is roughly 1,500 years old, at the ancient city of Nea Paphos in southwest Cyprus.

One side of the amulet has several images, including a bandaged mummy (likely representing the Egyptian god Osiris) lying on a boat and an image of Harpocrates, the god of silence, who is shown sitting on a stool while holding his right hand up to his lips. Strangely, the amulet also displays a mythical dog-headed creature called a cynocephalus, which is shown holding a paw up to its lips, as if mimicking Harpocrates' gesture.

On the other side of the amulet is an inscription, written in Greek, that reads the same backwards as it does forwards, making it a palindrome. It reads:

ΙΑΕW

ΒΑΦΡΕΝΕΜ

ΟΥΝΟΘΙΛΑΡΙ

ΚΝΙΦΙΑΕΥΕ

ΑΙΦΙΝΚΙΡΑΛ

ΙΘΟΝΥΟΜΕ

ΝΕΡΦΑΒW

ΕΑΙ

This translates to "Iahweh(a god)is the bearer of the secret name, the lion of Re secure in his shrine."

[uglybiker]

Palindromes?

[infool7]

Wow 60 posts and I’m in before the BESURETODRINKYOUROVALTINE post.

RATS LIVE ON NO EVIL STAR

SIT ON A POTATO PAN OTIS

[proxy_user]

They would use a digamma to transliterate a Semitic proper name that they were including in a Greek text. However, the endings of the words don't look much like valid nouns or verbs. How could a Greek parse and ending like -ΡΑΛ or -ΑΒW? It looks like a Semitic language to me.