Carthaginian tombstones

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The first published sketch of artefacts from Carthage. This was published in Jean Emile Humbert's Notice sur quatre cippes sepulcraux et deux fragments, decouverts en 1817, sur le sol de l'ancienne Carthage. The first published sketch of tombstones from Carthage (Jean Emile Humbert).jpg
The first published sketch of artefacts from Carthage. This was published in Jean Emile Humbert's Notice sur quatre cippes sépulcraux et deux fragments, découverts en 1817, sur le sol de l'ancienne Carthage.

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]

Contents

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]

Bibliography

Primary sources

Secondary sources

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References

  1. Tang, Birgit (2005). Delos, Carthage, Ampurias: The Housing of Three Mediterranean Trading Centres. L'ERMA di BRETSCHNEIDER. pp. 69–. ISBN   978-88-8265-305-7.
  2. 1 2 Gurney, Hudson (1844). "Letter from Hudson GURNEY, Esq. V.P., to Sir Henry Ellis, K.H., F.R.S., Secretary, accompanying Casts of Eight Punic Inscriptions found on the site of Carthage (June 2, 1842)". Archaeologia: Or, Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity. The Society: 111.
  3. 1 2 Debergh Jacques. Ferron (Jean), Mort-Dieu de Carthage, ou les stèles funéraires de Carthage. In: Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire, tome 56, fasc. 3, 1978. Langues et littératures modernes — Moderne taal- en letterkunde. pp. 712-715: "Typologiquement, Jean Ferron distingue les statues (type Ι Α, Β ou C selon qu'il s'agit d'une «quasi ronde-bosse», d'un «demi-relief» ou d'un «genre d'hermès»), les bas-reliefs (type II 1, où la figure humaine ressort en arc de cercle, et II 2, où elle saillit en un relief aplati), les monuments à niche (type III 1, à niche rectangulaire ou trapézoïdale, et III 2, à niche avec sommet triangulaire) et les pierres gravées (type IV, rarissime en fait). La chronologie de ces monuments reste, vu les conditions des découvertes, fort approximative. A Carthage, les premières stèles funéraires, qui relèvent du type III, remontent au Ve S., à la fin du siècle sans doute (cf. p. 259), à la première moitié au plus tôt (cf. p. 248) ; leur usage se généralise à la fin du IVe S. Bas-reliefs et statues apparaissent par la suite, aux me-ne s. surtout. Après la destruction de Carthage, et une interruption d'une vingtaine d'années, la production reprend jusqu'à la fin du 1er S. av. n.è."
  4. KAI 85: "Diese Inschrift zeigt wie die folgenden Nummern den Typ der Weih-inschriften, der durch viele Tausende von Exemplaren vertreten ist und infolge der Formelhaftigkeit des Textes nur noch für Namenforschungen Material liefert."