Carthaginian tombstones are Punic language-inscribed tombstones excavated from the city of Carthage over the last 200 years. The first such discoveries were published by Jean Emile Humbert in 1817, Hendrik Arent Hamaker in 1828 and Christian Tuxen Falbe in 1833. [1] [2]
The steles were first published together in the Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum ; the first focused collection was published by Jean Ferron in 1976. Ferron identified four types of funerary steles: [3]
The oldest funerary stelae belong to Type III and date back to the 5th century BCE, becoming widespread at the end of the 4th century BCE. Bas-reliefs and statues appeared later. [3]
Charles-Jean-Melchior de Vogüé was a French archaeologist, diplomat, and member of the Académie française in seat 18.
The Punic religion, Carthaginian religion, or Western Phoenician religion in the western Mediterranean was a direct continuation of the Phoenician variety of the polytheistic ancient Canaanite religion. However, significant local differences developed over the centuries following the foundation of Carthage and other Punic communities elsewhere in North Africa, southern Spain, Sardinia, western Sicily, and Malta from the ninth century BC onward. After the conquest of these regions by the Roman Republic in the third and second centuries BC, Punic religious practices continued, surviving until the fourth century AD in some cases. As with most cultures of the ancient Mediterranean, Punic religion suffused their society and there was no stark distinction between religious and secular spheres. Sources on Punic religion are poor. There are no surviving literary sources and Punic religion is primarily reconstructed from inscriptions and archaeological evidence. An important sacred space in Punic religion appears to have been the large open air sanctuaries known as tophets in modern scholarship, in which urns containing the cremated bones of infants and animals were buried. There is a long-running scholarly debate about whether child sacrifice occurred at these locations, as suggested by Greco-Roman and biblical sources.
Alfred Louis Delattre, also known as Révérend Père Delattre, was a French archaeologist, born at Déville-lès-Rouen. Delattre made substantial discoveries in the ruins of ancient Carthage including an ancient Necropolis.
Carthage National Museum is a national museum in Byrsa, Tunisia. Along with the Bardo National Museum, it is one of the two main local archaeological museums in the region. The edifice sits atop Byrsa Hill, in the heart of the city of Carthage. Founded in 1875, it houses many archaeological items from the Punic era and other periods.
M'hamed Hassine Fantar is a professor of Ancient History of Archeology and History of Religion at Tunis University.
The Punic-Libyan bilingual inscriptions are two important ancient bilingual inscriptions dated to the 2nd century BC.
The Libyco-Punic Mausoleum of Dougga is an ancient mausoleum located in Dougga, Tunisia. It is one of three examples of the royal architecture of Numidia, which is in a good state of preservation and dates to the second century BC. It was restored by the government of French Tunisia between 1908 and 1910.
Naïdé Ferchiou was a Tunisian archaeologist whose work dealt mainly with Roman North Africa. She excavated at several important sites, including Abthugni.
The Carpentras Stele is a stele found at Carpentras in southern France in 1704 that contains the first published inscription written in the Phoenician alphabet, and the first ever identified as Aramaic. It remains in Carpentras, at the Bibliothèque Inguimbertine, in a "dark corner" on the first floor. Older Aramaic texts were found since the 9th century BC, but this one is the first Aramaic text to be published in Europe. It is known as KAI 269, CIS II 141 and TAD C20.5.
The Maktar and Mididi inscriptions are a number of Punic language inscriptions, found in the 1890s at Maktar and Mididi, Tunisia. A number of the most notable inscriptions have been collected in Kanaanäische und Aramäische Inschriften, and are known as are known as KAI 145-158.
The Bourgade inscriptions are approximately 40 Punic language inscriptions, found in the 1840s and early 1850s in Husainid Tunisia, which had just been opened up to French influence following the 1846 meeting between Ahmad I ibn Mustafa and Antoine, Duke of Montpensier.
The Punic Tabella Defixionis is a Punic language curse tablet, inscribed on a lead scroll, found in Carthage by Paul Gauckler in 1899. It is currently held at the Carthage National Museum. It is known as KAI 89.
The Cirta steles are almost 1,000 Punic funerary and votive steles found in Cirta in a cemetery located on a hill immediately south of the Salah Bey Viaduct.
The Phoenician Adoration steles are a number of Phoenician and Punic steles depicting the adoration gesture (orans).
Jean-Baptiste Evariste Charles Pricot de Sainte-Marie, born 1 October 1843 in Paris and died on 10 February 1899 in Madrid, was a French diplomat, archaeologist and epigrapher. He was the son of Jean-Baptiste Evariste Marie Pricot de Sainte-Marie.
The Pricot de Sainte-Marie steles are more than 2,000 Punic funerary steles found in Carthage near the ancient forum by French diplomat Jean-Baptiste Evariste Charles Pricot de Sainte-Marie in the 1870s. The find was dramatic both in the scale—the largest single discovery of Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions—and also due to the finds almost being lost in the sinking of the French ironclad Magenta at Toulon.
The Ain Nechma inscriptions, also known as the Guelma inscriptions are a number of Punic language inscriptions, first found in 1837 in the necropolis of Ain Nechma, in the Guelma Province of Algeria.
The Mitsri genealogy inscription, known as KAI 78 or CIS I 3778, is a votive stele from Carthage in the Punic language.
The Persephone Punic stele is a marble bas-relief stele of the Greek deity Persephone above a short punic inscription.
The Carthage tophet, is an ancient sacred area dedicated to the Phoenician deities Tanit and Baal, located in the Carthaginian district of Salammbô, Tunisia, near the Punic ports. This tophet, a "hybrid of sanctuary and necropolis", contains a large number of children's tombs which, according to some interpretations, were sacrificed or buried here after their untimely death. The area is part of the Carthage archaeological site, a UNESCO World Heritage site.