Amadasi_CSF 47_academia.pdf

Journal of the American Oriental Society, 2018

With the long awaited editio princeps of a portion of the Roman-era neo-Punic texts from Henchir Maktar (Tunisia), this large and fairly homogeneous corpus of primarily dedicatory and funerary inscriptions is finally being made available to the scholarly world in a modern publication with serviceable photographs. Although many of these texts have in the meantime been studied extensively, most recently by Jongeling (2008), this edition is—due to what many have in the past considered the cacographic state of these epigraphs—a most welcome and indispensable addition to the toolkit of philologists, epigraphists, historians, and theologians. The volume under review is the first of an intended total of three. It largely contains texts found during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The envisaged second volume is to present the hitherto unpublished " plusieurs douzaines " of texts found in 1969 reused as a foundation for the city's Roman triumphal arch. The third will contain the inscriptions from monuments now lost, based on old photographs and casts. While many of the texts here have been previously published in a preliminary fashion (starting with Chabot 1918; now HNPI), this volume must be formally considered their long-awaited editio princeps. This, as described in the opening chapter (" L'historique de la découverte des inscriptions "), was originally to have been undertaken by J.-B. Chabot; later this task was given to J. Février, and later still to M. Sznycer and M. Fantar. After the death of the former in 2011, it was finally F. Bron who completed the edition for publication. 1 The volume contains some ninty-eight texts arranged by genre: votive texts, largely relating to sacrifices at the Tophet (1–69); epitaphs (69–88); two inscriptions from the " Temple of Apollo " (89–90); fragmentary texts (91–97); and finally a text from Mididi (Hr Medid) (98). The last chapter is a compendious iconographic study of the steles by the late C. Picard. The volume concludes with concordances, glossaries, and quite legible black-and-white photographs. The discussion of the inscriptions includes material data such as the dimensions of each stone, its decoration, letter height, and the dimensions of the champ épigraphique. The texts themselves are presented in transcription and translation along with a summary commentary. The majority of the texts can be found in

Egitto e Vicino Oriente XXXIV, 2011

1984

Publication View. 35519820. Names in Neo-Punic inscriptions (1984). ... Abstract. This study examines the names in neo-punic inscriptions. It tries to combine the studies from Benz and others, to give the reader a rather complete view of the Phoenician and Punic inscriptions. ... ...

2011

This study traces the continuity of Punic cultural elements during Roman rule in three chosen areas in the central Mediterranean – the Maltese islands, Pantelleria and western Sicily – by taking a look at different socio-political and cultural aspects that are generally analysed in such comparative studies, namely administration, economy, language and religion. The notably Punic nature of the archaeological record of the Maltese islands after the establishment of Roman authority over the archipelago in 218 B.C. and well into the 2nd century B.C. was what inspired this study in the first place. Since Punic cultural continuity has been frequently referred to in Maltese archaeological literature without actually going in depth, this dissertation focuses mainly on the Maltese islands. However, instead of looking at the Maltese islands on their own and in abstract fashion, this study makes comparisons with the neighbouring islands of Sicily (with a strict emphasis on the western region of the island, where Punic activity was located) and Pantelleria, which more or less passed through similar political and cultural changes. Moreover, this study places the Punic culture in context and maps the contemporary Greek and/or Roman custom, in order to make claims about any interaction of the Punic culture with the new political and cultural regime. Volume I comprises the main text of the thesis. Volume II includes all the maps, figures and photographs, as well as three appendices. Appendix I provides a chronological chart of selected principal dates that make up the historical framework of the Mid- and Late Republic and Early Empire, and which are referred to or mentioned in the main text; Appendix II lists selected sources from classical texts (with their respective translations) that are referred to in the main text; and Appendix III provides key epigraphic texts retrieved in the places under study: essentially Punic and Neo-Punic inscriptions of Roman date, as well as two bilingual inscriptions (both in Punic and Greek) and two Greek inscriptions (bearing Punic names), also dating to Roman age.

The alleged inscriptions in the south-east hypogeum of Taċ-Ċagħqi (within the premises of St Nicholas College in Rabat, Malta) were discussed in depth by Mons. Benedetto Rocco in 1972. Rocco interpreted the glyphs as Neo-Punic, with a long 'Inscription' supposedly consisting of a prayer to appease the deceased through the offering of a gift, and an alleged minor 'Inscription' addressing the dead to ‘rise’. These readings were discussed against the notion of possible libation rites that may have been a custom within the hypogeum, as suggested by the tomb furniture in situ. Rocco based his readings of the script and types of letters on his previous study of further alleged Punic and Neo-Punic inscriptions within cave sites in Palermo and Favignana (Sicily), in combination with semantic analysis of Biblical Hebrew. Nevertheless, the supposed Taċ-Ċagħqi inscriptions come across as ambiguous sets of glyphs that are illegible, and actually cannot be deemed Punic or Neo-Punic script.

The arid pre-desert lands along the fringe of the Sahara have proven to be an especially fertile source of epigraphic remains from Roman Late Antiquity. In particular, the former Roman region of Tripolitania has yielded a small corpus of roughly sixty Punic inscriptions, dating from the first century of the common era to the fifth century. This corpus differs from other inscriptions in that language not only for its comparatively late time span, but also by virtue of the script in which it was composed. In the final stage before it disappeared completely from history, the Punic of Tripolitania was written in a modified form of the Latin script, which was apparently adapted to the phonology of Late Punic much as the Latin script was later adapted to represent other languages, including related languages like Maltese. In this paper, I will argue that the orthography of the Latino-Punic inscriptions represents the first unified and consistent system to render any Semitic language alphabetically, with full indication of vowels, rather than by syllabary or abjad. That is to say, I will argue that the orthography of the Latino-Punic inscriptions was unique in its time because it reflects the phonemes of Late Punic as it was spoken in Tripolitania at the time, solely for the benefit of Tripolitanian Punic speakers, rather than an attempt to render the sounds of Late Punic according to the orthography of other languages for the benefit of their speakers, such as Origen and Jerome’s roughly contemporary efforts to transcribe a closely related Semitic language (Hebrew) into the Greek and Latin scripts, respectively, for the express benefit of speakers of these two languages.

2003

On 19th November 2001, while two of us (DB, NJC) were preparing a drawn record of the Punic tomb that is situated on Bajda Ridge, Xemxija, a small ceramic bowl (100211) was uncovered from below a few centimetres of soil that covered the inner part of the threshold to the rock-cut chamber (Fig. 1). An official from the Museums Department was informed of the discovery on the same day and a site inspection was carried out. It was realised that more artefacts could lie undisturbed within the chamber and a decision was taken to excavate the deposit. Authorisation for the Department of Classics and Archaeology, University of Malta, to undertake the excavation was received from the Director, Museums Department, and the excavation was completed on the 22nd November. The tomb is located on the ridge, near a path that diverges eastwards from the track that links Pwales valley to the Mistra valley. It is cut in the Upper Coralline limestone that outcrops in the area on a North-South axis and c...

American Journal of Philology, 1996