Daskyleion steles

The Daskyleion steles are three marble steles discovered in 1958 in Dascylium, in northwest Turkey.

The Aramaic inscription is known as KAI 318.

It is dated to the fifth century BCE.

[1] The inscription seems to be sepulchral.

The text reads:[2][1] The inscription had originally been interpreted as a kind of "insurance project" set up by Elnap, presumably a merchant, for the safe passage of his caravans:[3] The revised interpretation as a sepulchral monument is based on the iconography, the place where the stelae were found, and a more natural reading of the Aramaic[1][4] (the problematic word HWMYTK in line 2 had originally been taken to be an Iranian loanword).