Abda sherd

The Abda sherd graffito is a Phoenician inscription (KAI 8 and TSSI III 10) on a two small connecting fragment of a large vase, dating to c. 900 BC.

It was published in Maurice Dunand's Fouilles de Byblos (volume II, 1926–1932, numbers 9008, plate CXLIV). It was described by Dunand as the second milestone in the history of the alphabet between the Middle Kingdom of Egypt and the reign of the King of Byblos Ahiram.

Text of the inscription
The inscription, apparently a property mark on a vase, reads:


 * [L]‘BD’ BKLBY HY[ṢR]
 * [Belonging to] Abda, son of Kelbē, the po[tter]