Sources
- ↑ "Mediterranea: la conferenza sull'alfabeto fenicio con la prof.ssa Amadasi". Il Caffe (in Italian). 2016-02-04. Archived from the original on 2016-02-05. Retrieved 2022-03-12.
Maria Giulia Amadasi Guzzo is a leading scholar in Semitic epigraphy. She is Professor of Semitic Epigraphy at the Department of Sciences of Antiquity of the Sapienza University of Rome, and the director of the "Museum of the Near East" of the University La Sapienza. She is a corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute.
Amadasi participated as an epigrapher in the archaeological missions of the University of Rome in Mozia, Monte Sirai, Tas Silg (Malta); of the Missions, most recently, of the Universities of Naples and Florence and Bologna in Tell Barri and Tell Afis (Syria). Amadasi also carried out epigraphic missions with the University of Rome and CNR) in Cyprus and Tripolitania in Libya.
Amadasi published the Phoenician inscriptions of the sanctuary of Astarte in Malta and the Phoenician archives of the city of Idalion in Cyprus. She is the author of an extensive bibliography on the history of writing, grammar and Semitic epigraphy. [1]
The Pyrgi Tablets are three golden plates inscribed with a bilingual Phoenician–Etruscan dedicatory text. They are the oldest historical source documents from pre-Roman Italy and are rare examples of texts in these languages. They were discovered in 1964 during a series of excavations at the site of ancient Pyrgi, on the Tyrrhenian coast of Italy in Latium (Lazio). The text records the foundation of a temple and its dedication to the Phoenician goddess Astarte, who is identified with the Etruscan supreme goddess Uni in the Etruscan text. The temple's construction is attributed to Tiberius Velianas, ruler of the nearby city of Caere.
The Punic language, also called Phoenicio-Punic or Carthaginian, is an extinct variety of the Phoenician language, a Canaanite language of the Northwest Semitic branch of the Semitic languages. An offshoot of the Phoenician language of coastal West Asia, it was principally spoken on the Mediterranean coast of Northwest Africa, and the Iberian peninsula and several Mediterranean islands such as Malta, Sicily and Sardinia by the Punic people, or western Phoenicians, throughout classical antiquity, from the 8th century BC to the 6th century AD.
The sarcophagus ofEshmunazar II is a 6th-century BC sarcophagus unearthed in 1855 in the "Phoenician Necropolis", a hypogeum complex southeast of the city of Sidon in modern-day Lebanon. The sarcophagus was discovered by Alphonse Durighello, a treasure hunter engaged by Antoine-Aimé Péretié, the chancellor of the French consulate in Beirut. The sarcophagus was sold to Honoré de Luynes, a wealthy French nobleman and scholar, and was subsequently removed to the Louvre after the resolution of a legal dispute over its ownwership. The sarcophagus has two sets of Phoenician inscriptions, one on its lid and another on its trough, under the sarcophagus head. The inscription was of great significance upon its discovery as it was the first Phoenician language inscription to be discovered in Phoenicia proper, the most detailed Phoenician text ever found anywhere up to that point, and is today the second longest extant Phoenician inscription after the Karatepe biligual inscription.
Giorgio Levi Della Vida was an Italian Jewish linguist whose expertise lay in Hebrew, Arabic, and other Semitic languages, as well as on the history and culture of the Near East.
Federico Halbherr was an Italian archaeologist and epigrapher, known for his excavations of Crete. A contemporary, good friend, and trusted advisor of Arthur Evans, he began excavating at Phaistos before Evans began excavating at Knossos. Some of his explorations were funded by the Archaeological Institute of America.
Margherita Guarducci, also spelled Guarduci, was an Italian archaeologist, classical scholar, and epigrapher. She was a major figure in several crucial moments of the 20th-century academic community. A student of Federico Halbherr, she edited his works after his death. She was the first woman to lead archaeological excavations at the Vatican, succeeding Ludwig Kaas, and completed the excavations on Saint Peter's tomb, identifying finds as relics of Saint Peter. She has also engaged in discussions on the authenticity of the Praeneste fibula, arguing that its inscription is a forgery.
Tas-Silġ is a rounded hilltop on the south-east coast of the island of Malta, overlooking Marsaxlokk Bay, and close to the town of Żejtun. Tas-Silġ is a major multi-period sanctuary site with archaeological remains covering four thousand years, from the neolithic to the ninth century AD. The site includes a megalithic temple complex dating from the early third millennium BC, to a Phoenician and Punic sanctuary dedicated to the goddess Astarte. During the Roman era, the site became an international religious complex dedicated to the goddess Juno, helped by its location along major maritime trading routes, with the site being mentioned by first-century BC orator Cicero.
Eshmunazar II was the Phoenician King of Sidon. He was the grandson of king Eshmunazar I, and a vassal king of the Achaemenid Empire. He reigned after his father Tabnit I on the throne of Sidon. He died at the premature age of 14, and was succeeded by his cousin Bodashtart. The king is known from his sarcophagus, decorated with two inscriptions in the Phoenician script. It is housed in the Louvre Museum.
Bodashtart was a Phoenician ruler, who reigned as King of Sidon, the grandson of King Eshmunazar I, and a vassal of the Achaemenid Empire. He succeeded his cousin Eshmunazar II to the throne of Sidon, and scholars believe that he was succeeded by his son and proclaimed heir Yatonmilk.
The Cippi of Melqart are a pair of Phoenician marble cippi that were unearthed in Malta under undocumented circumstances and dated to the 2nd century BC. These are votive offerings to the god Melqart, and are inscribed in two languages, Ancient Greek and Phoenician, and in the two corresponding scripts, the Greek and the Phoenician alphabet. They were discovered in the late 17th century, and the identification of their inscription in a letter dated 1694 made them the first Phoenician writing to be identified and published in modern times. Because they present essentially the same text, the cippi provided the key to the modern understanding of the Phoenician language. In 1758, the French scholar Jean-Jacques Barthélémy relied on their inscription, which used 17 of the 22 letters of the Phoenician alphabet, to decipher the unknown language.
Tell Afis is an archaeological site in the Idlib region of northern Syria, and lies about fifty kilometres southeast of Aleppo. The site is thought to be that of ancient Hazrek capital of Luhuti.
Monte Sirai is an archaeological site near Carbonia, in the province of South Sardinia, Sardinia, Italy. It is a settlement built at the top of a hill by the Phoenicians of Sulci. The history of studies in Monte Sirai has a very precise date: the fall of 1962, when a local boy casually found a female figure carved on a stele of the tophet. Following further inspections, in August 1963, the local Soprintendenza and the Institute of Near Eastern Studies of the Sapienza University of Rome started excavations, leading to a fairly comprehensive study of the entire town.
Anna Maria Bisi (1938–1988), known as A. M. Bisi, was an Italian archaeologist and academic, specialising in the Phoenicians and Punics.
Yatonmilk was a Phoenician King of Sidon and a vassal to the Achaemenid king of kings Darius I.
The Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions, also known as Northwest Semitic inscriptions, are the primary extra-Biblical source for understanding of the society and history of the ancient Phoenicians, Hebrews and Arameans. Semitic inscriptions may occur on stone slabs, pottery ostraca, ornaments, and range from simple names to full texts. The older inscriptions form a Canaanite–Aramaic dialect continuum, exemplified by writings which scholars have struggled to fit into either category, such as the Stele of Zakkur and the Deir Alla Inscription.
Giovanni Garbini was an Italian Orientalist and Semitist. His biblical studies revealed historical omissions and helped scholars to interpret the biblical narrative in the larger context of the history of the ancient Near East. He worked as a university lecturer in the Istituto Universitario Orientale in Naples, at the Scuola Normale in Pisa and finally in Sapienza in Rome until his retirement. He was a member of the Lincean Academy since 1990, and a member of the Leone Caetani foundation for Islamic studies.
The Pauli Gerrei trilingual inscription is a trilingual Greek-Latin-Phoenician inscription on the base of a bronze column found in San Nicolò Gerrei in Sardinia in 1861. The stele was discovered by a notary named Michele Cappai, on the right side of the Strada statale 387 del Gerrei that descends towards Ballao.
Eshmunazar I was a priest of Astarte and the Phoenician King of Sidon. He was the founder of his namesake dynasty, and a vassal king of the Achaemenid Empire. Eshmunazar participated in the Neo-Babylonian campaigns against Egypt under the command of either Nebuchadnezzar II or Nabonidus. The Sidonian king is mentioned in the funerary inscriptions engraved on the royal sarcophagi of his son Tabnit and his grandson Eshmunazar II. The monarch's name is also attested in the dedicatory temple inscriptions of his other grandson, King Bodashtart.
The Tripolitania Punic inscriptions are a number of Punic language inscriptions found in the region of Tripolitania – specifically its three classical cities of Leptis Magna, Sabratha and Oea (Tripoli), with the vast majority being found in Leptis Magna. The inscriptions have been found in various periods over the last two centuries, and were catalogued by Giorgio Levi Della Vida. A subset of the inscriptions feature in all the major corpuses of Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions, notably as KAI 119-132.
The Tharros Punic inscriptions are a group of Punic inscriptions found at the archeological site of Tharros in Sardinia.
