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Three years ago, the French-Kuwaiti Archaeological Mission in Failaka discovered a sherd with three bitumen letters written on it in pottery bags from the 2014 season at al‑Qusur monastery. It is, therefore, the first Syriac inscription discovered in Kuwait, and one of the rare testimonies of this writing in the Arab-Persian Gulf. Apart from this example in Kuwait, Syriac writings south of Iraq are known only on the island of Kharg (Iran) and perhaps now – for some months – in Bahrain (Insoll 2019). Paleographic comparison of the al‑Qusur inscription makes it possible to date it between the late 7th and early 9th centuries which is consistent with the general dating of the site according to its pottery, glass and stucco remains. But unlike other Mesopotamian epigraphic parallels, the al‑Qusur inscription belongs to a very rare category of inscription among the Semitic corpus: inscriptions on jars. The writing is close to that of the Syriac ostraca as well as the magic bowls found in Mesopotamia (Harrak 2010; Moriggi 2014).Fig.&#160;1: Al‑Qusur’s Syriac written sherd discovered in the destruction layer of the monastery refectory.Syriac in the Persian-Arabian Gulf areaSyriac was the Aramaic language of the city of Edessa in Northern Mesopotamia, and it became one of the means of evangelization throughout the territories to the east of the Roman Empire (Briquel&#160;Chatonnet&#160;&#38; Debié&#160;2017). It quickly became the liturgical language of most Eastern Christian communities as far as India and China, and especially in Mesopotamia and probably also around the Arab-Persian Gulf. Its script is part of the Western Semitic alphabets and has been used to write various Aramaic dialects. In Babylonia, a local version of Syriac –&#160;known as “Manichean”&#160;– existed since at least the&#160;6th&#160;century on magic bowls, i.e.&#160;ritual bowls containing magical formulas aimed at healing or obtaining protection for their owners (Moriggi&#160;2014). The letters are not always linked to each other, as in traditional Syriac writing; there, the influence of the Palmyrene Aramaic Script can be detected. The al‑Qusur inscription does not belong to this local category of writing, which is found only on the continent. However, another Syriac script, similar to the so-called estrangela script, close to that of Edessa, can also be distinguished. The language that one reads through these Aramaic documents reveals some local peculiarities as well. Finally, this custom of recording magical inscriptions is also known in other epigraphic documents such as the Jewish Aramaic (Shaked&#160;et&#160;al.&#160;2013) or Aramaic Mandean (Pognon&#160;1899) bowls. Fig.&#160;2: Map of sites with Syriac inscriptions published in Southern Mesopotamia and the Arab-Persian Gulf. On the other hand, most of the other ancientSyriac testimonies in Mesopotamia are ostraca and they have been foundmainly in three regions: around al‑Hira, near Najaf; in the ancient capital of theSasanian Empire, Seleucia-Ctesiphon; and then especially in Takrit, an ancientstronghold of the Miaphysite community in Iraq at the end of the Sasanian eraand the beginning of the Islamic period. There, one can read extracts from the ḥudra –&#160;the book of East Syrianliturgy&#160;– or extracts from the Scriptures. In addition, there are other ostracawhich are extremely important documents for understanding the daily life ofChristians during the first centuries of the Islamic caliphates. They are significantpieces of evidence which prove that the Syriac script could be used for economicmatters (Harrak&#160;2009). Finally, the other closest inscriptions werewritten on harder materials, such as plaster and stone, but they date from alater period and are of a more common nature among the Syriac epigraphiccorpus.Fig.&#160;3: Torpedo-like jar written in Arabic discovered at Takrit (FA.01.02; ©Harrak&#160;2010: 609). An inscription on jarAt al‑Qusur, this first Syriac inscription is easy to read but its significance is harder to determine. There are three letters of a longer inscription written on the shoulder of a jar. Because of the size of the letters (about 2&#160;cm high), it is clear that a short text was written on it, so it is not an ostracon like most other testimonies of Syriac inscriptions on ceramics. Ostraca are sherds of broken pottery reused as a writing medium. On the contrary, the text of the Failaka’s inscription works with the use of the pottery as a vessel. This category of inscriptions can be called “inscription on jar” or “inscription on pottery”. Ostraca are quite numerous among Syriac inscriptions. Instead, when we take into account all the Semitic inscriptions in this region in Antiquity and Late Antiquity, there are very few examples of “inscriptions on jars” compared to the many Greek tituli picti or dipinti on amphorae around the Mediterranean (Pieri&#160;2005). Here, the meanings of the inscriptions were very diverse: measures of content, identification of content, origin, and very often abbreviated theological formulas or Christian symbols. In Edessan or Palmyrene inscriptions on pottery, it is the names of the owners that are typically written (e.g.&#160;Drijvers&#160;&#38; Healey&#160;1999: 202‑203), engraved before or after firing; and this is not different in Palestinian Christian documents of Late Antiquity. Our al‑Qusur inscription can also be compared to the Arabic and Middle Persian inscriptions written on the belly of torpedo-like jars found in Middle Iraq (Harrak&#160;2010: 609‑610), but their readings are still under discussion.Fig. 4: Syriac inscription on the sherd from the Raqqa Museum (Briquel Chatonnet 2015: 145). In fact, in Syriac, only one true parallel isrelevant: it is a small sherd preserved until&#160;2015 in the Raqqa Museum.The reading is very clear: dyrʾ dtlʾ, “the monastery of Tella” (Briquel&#160;Chatonnet&#160;2015:144‑145). It is dated to around the 6th&#160;century. One would thenbe tempted to understand that the inscription indicates the object’sprovenance, even if the Syriac particle d‑ that marks the origin is notwritten. Other parallels in Palestinian Christian inscriptions on jars thusshow that toponyms, as well as product names, can be written on the belly orshoulders of the jars.The three letters of al‑Qusur inscription represent asignificant discovery both for the knowledge of Syriac geographical diffusionin Late Antiquity and for the use of its writing in a context other than theliturgy. They at least confirm the use of Syriac script in the southern part ofMesopotamia, and hypothetically in the Arab-Persian Gulf. Indeed, severalhypotheses exist. If the pottery came from Failaka Island or from the nearbymainland, it means that Syriac writing was used locally. If, on the contrary,the pottery is produced in Mesopotamia like most of the ceramics found at al‑Qusur,then it is difficult to draw clear conclusions about the language spoken at al‑Qusur:the inscription must be understood at least by the seller, the buyer and thecarrier. The ongoing study of the type of jar on which this inscription waswritten will help to answer some of these questions: therefore, a more detailedchapter will provide an in-depth study of the al‑Qusur inscription in itscontext (Brelaudforthcoming). So, it is at the very leastpossible that Syriac script was understood by the inhabitants of ancient al‑Qusur.Indeed, from ancient literature, we know of famous Christian writers from thearea called in Syriac Bet Qaṭraye, which corresponds to the westerncoast of the Arab-Persian Gulf (Kozah&#160;et&#160;al.&#160;2014). However, unusually the Syriac script on theinscription does not seem to convey the Christian faith but was most likelyused as a vernacular script.Fig.&#160;5: Drawing of al‑Qusur inscription (H. David-Cuny, 2017). A reading of the inscriptionUnfortunately, the use of the jar is difficult to understand because the inscription is too incomplete. Nevertheless, let us suggest an assumption. The reading of the first two letters is easy, but the last letter is truncated. It is likely that the three letters are ܦ ܣܒ; i.e. “p&#160;sb”. Consequently, there are many possibilities in the interpretation of these letters, including names of persons or places, common nouns or numbers. The hypotheses are numerous and we could assume among other possibilities something like  ܚܠܦ ܣܒܐ &#160; “for Saba”, unless it is about other proper names very much in use in the Church of the East like Sabrišoʿ; or ܐܠܦ ܣܒܛ̈ܐ “thousand sbaṭe”, i.e. the Syriac name for a salted meat. The hope now is that other comparable documents will emerge from the sands of Failaka to further our understanding of the languages in use in this part of the Arab-Persian Gulf. Already, the three letters of al-Qusur sherd bring our attention to the use of Syriac writing outside the religious domain.BibliographyBrelaud&#160;S.,«&#160;Estrangela on a simple jar: the First Syriac Inscriptionin Kuwait&#160;», in Bonnéric J. (ed.), Al‑Qusur, a Christian Settlementfrom Early Islam off Kuwait Bay, vol.&#160;1. Excavation from the French‑KuwaitiArchaeological Mission in Failaka (2011‑2018), Kuwait&#160;City, forthcoming. Kozah&#160;M., Abu‑Husayn&#160;A.,Shaheen&#160;Al‑Murikhi&#160;S.&#160;&#38; Al‑Thani&#160;H. (eds.), The Syriac Writers of Qatar in the Seventh Century,Piscataway, 2014.Briquel&#160;Chatonnet&#160;F. &#38; Debié&#160;M., Le monde syriaque,Paris, 2017.Drijvers&#160;H.&#160;J.&#160;W. &#38; Healey&#160;J.&#160;F., The OldSyriac Inscriptions of Edessa and Osrhoene: Texts, Translations and Commentary,Leiden, 1999.Harrak&#160;A.,«&#160;Was Classical Syriaca Business Language? &#160;», The Volume of the Fourth Syriac Language Conference, Dehok, 2009,pp.&#160;87‑93.Harrak&#160;A., Recueil desinscriptions syriaques, t.2. Syriac and Garshuni inscriptions of Iraq, Paris, 2010.Moriggi&#160;M.,A Corpus of Syriac Incantation Bowls. Syriac Magical Texts from Late‑AntiqueMesopotamia, Leiden, 2014.Shaked&#160;S., Ford&#160;J. N., Bhayro&#160;S., Morgenstern&#160;M. &#38; Vilozny&#160;N.,Jewish Babylonian Aramaic Bowls. Volume one, Aramaic Bowl Spells, Leiden, 2013.Pognon&#160;H., Inscriptions mandäites des coupes deKhouabir, Paris, 1899.Pieri&#160;D., Le commerce du vin à l’époque Byzantine IVe-VIIe&#160;siècles). Le témoignage des amphores en Gaule, Beirut, 2005.Pour citer ce billetSimon Brelaud, « The First Syriac Inscription on Jar in the Arab-Persian Gulf  », Le carnet de la MAFKF. Recherches archéologiques franco-koweïtiennes de l’île de Faïlaka (Koweït),  20 mars 2020. [En ligne] https://mafkf.hypotheses.org/1958