Balaam inscription
E593646
The Balaam inscription is an ancient Aramaic text discovered at Deir Alla in Jordan that recounts visions of the seer Balaam, offering important evidence for Northwest Semitic language and religion in the Iron Age.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Deir Alla inscription | 3 |
| Deir Alla Inscription | 2 |
| Balaam inscription canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T6466798 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Balaam inscription Context triple: [Deir Alla dialect, attestedBy, Balaam inscription]
-
A.
Mesha Stele
The Mesha Stele is an ancient Moabite stone inscription from the 9th century BCE that records King Mesha’s victories and is one of the most important early sources for the history and language of the Levant.
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B.
Duenos inscription
The Duenos inscription is one of the earliest known examples of Old Latin writing, engraved on a small ceramic vessel and providing crucial evidence for the development of the Latin language and early Roman culture.
-
C.
Siloam Inscription
The Siloam Inscription is an ancient Hebrew text carved into the wall of Jerusalem’s Siloam Tunnel, commemorating its construction in the time of King Hezekiah.
-
D.
Lachish ewer inscription
The Lachish ewer inscription is an early Proto-Canaanite text engraved on a pottery vessel from ancient Lachish, often cited as one of the oldest known examples of alphabetic writing in the Levant.
-
E.
Khirbet al-Mudayna inscriptions
The Khirbet al-Mudayna inscriptions are a set of ancient Moabite texts discovered at the site of Khirbet al-Mudayna that provide valuable evidence for the language, culture, and history of the Moabite kingdom.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Balaam inscription Target entity description: The Balaam inscription is an ancient Aramaic text discovered at Deir Alla in Jordan that recounts visions of the seer Balaam, offering important evidence for Northwest Semitic language and religion in the Iron Age.
-
A.
Mesha Stele
The Mesha Stele is an ancient Moabite stone inscription from the 9th century BCE that records King Mesha’s victories and is one of the most important early sources for the history and language of the Levant.
-
B.
Duenos inscription
The Duenos inscription is one of the earliest known examples of Old Latin writing, engraved on a small ceramic vessel and providing crucial evidence for the development of the Latin language and early Roman culture.
-
C.
Siloam Inscription
The Siloam Inscription is an ancient Hebrew text carved into the wall of Jerusalem’s Siloam Tunnel, commemorating its construction in the time of King Hezekiah.
-
D.
Lachish ewer inscription
The Lachish ewer inscription is an early Proto-Canaanite text engraved on a pottery vessel from ancient Lachish, often cited as one of the oldest known examples of alphabetic writing in the Levant.
-
E.
Khirbet al-Mudayna inscriptions
The Khirbet al-Mudayna inscriptions are a set of ancient Moabite texts discovered at the site of Khirbet al-Mudayna that provide valuable evidence for the language, culture, and history of the Moabite kingdom.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Aramaic text
ⓘ
Northwest Semitic inscription ⓘ ancient inscription ⓘ epigraphic text ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs |
Deir Alla inscription
ⓘ
linked to:
Balaam inscription
|
| approximateDate | 8th century BCE ⓘ |
| archaeologicalContext | collapsed sanctuary wall ⓘ |
| associatedSiteType | sanctuary ⓘ |
| biblicalParallels | Book of Numbers ⓘ |
| country | Jordan ⓘ |
| culturalContext | Transjordanian Iron Age culture ⓘ |
| currentLocation |
Jordan Archaeological Museum (major fragments)
ⓘ
linked to:
Jordan Archaeological Museum
|
| date | Iron Age ⓘ |
| describes |
divine council activity
ⓘ
gods sending disasters ⓘ |
| discoveredAt | Deir Alla ⓘ |
| discoveryMethod | archaeological excavation ⓘ |
| foundIn | a ruined sanctuary at Deir Alla ⓘ |
| genre |
prophetic narrative
ⓘ
vision report ⓘ |
| inscriptionType |
narrative inscription
ⓘ
religious inscription ⓘ |
| language | Aramaic ⓘ |
| length | multi-column inscription ⓘ |
| material | plastered wall fragments ⓘ |
| medium | ink ⓘ |
| mentions |
Balaam son of Beor
ⓘ
linked to:
Balaam
multiple deities ⓘ |
| paleographicDating | late 9th to early 8th century BCE ⓘ |
| region | Jordan Valley ⓘ |
| relatedBiblicalFigure | Balaam ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
Hebrew Bible
ⓘ
linked to:
Tanakh
|
| religiousContent | visions of the seer Balaam ⓘ |
| religiousTheme |
divine revelation through dreams and visions
ⓘ
interaction between gods and a human seer ⓘ |
| religiousTradition | Northwest Semitic religion ⓘ |
| scholarlyField |
Northwest Semitic epigraphy
ⓘ
biblical studies ⓘ history of Israelite and Transjordanian religion ⓘ |
| script | ink on plaster ⓘ |
| significance |
earliest long Aramaic inscription
ⓘ
evidence for Northwest Semitic language in the Iron Age ⓘ evidence for Northwest Semitic religion in the Iron Age ⓘ |
| structure | several columns of text ⓘ |
| usedFor |
reconstructing early Aramaic dialects
ⓘ
studying the figure of Balaam outside the Bible ⓘ |
| writingDirection | right-to-left ⓘ |
| writingSystem |
Northwest Semitic alphabet
ⓘ
linked to:
Northwest Semitic alphabetic script
|
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Balaam inscription Description of subject: The Balaam inscription is an ancient Aramaic text discovered at Deir Alla in Jordan that recounts visions of the seer Balaam, offering important evidence for Northwest Semitic language and religion in the Iron Age.
Referenced by (6)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Balaam inscription
linked to: Balaam inscription
linked to: Balaam inscription
linked to: Balaam inscription
linked to: Balaam inscription