Phoenician Adoration steles

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The Phoenician Adoration steles are a number of Phoenician and Punic steles depicting the adoration gesture (orans). [1]

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In Umm al-Amad, Lebanon, 23 such steles have been found. These date to between 100 and 400 BCE. Many of the steles contain inscriptions; these usually reference religious titles such as "priest", "chief", or "chief of gates". Of the males depicted, most images show the person in a long robe holding a bowl with an elongated handle in the shape of a naked girl considered to be the Ancient Egyptian Cosmetic Spoon: Young Girl Swimming. [1]

Baalyaton stele (KI 15)

Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek - Phonizischer Priester.jpg
KI15 Phoenician inscription from Umm Al Amed at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek.png
The stele at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, and a sketch of the inscription (KI 15)

The Baalyaton stele is a stele dated to 150BC found in 1900 in three parts at Umm al-Amad, Lebanon.

On the front side is a representation of a man in bas-relief, with a three-line inscription engraved below the left hand. At the top is solar disk, in Egyptian style, flanked by two uraeuses (cobras). The main portrait is full length, beardless, in a tunic down to bare feet; the open right hand stretched forward in the habitual gesture of adoration. [2]

The three line inscription is known as KI 15. The inscription has been translated as follows: “This is the memory stone of Baalyaton, son of Baalyaton hrd/b”

It was discovered by local antiquities dealers in c.1902-03, apparently on the encouragement of Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau, and acquired by Jacobsen. [3] It is currently at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen.

KI 14 or RES 307 (at the Louvre)

Stele de Baalyaton, pretre de Milkashart - 300-200 av. J.-C. - Oum el Amed (Oum el Awamid) - Louvre - AO 4047 - AO 4062 - AO 3137.jpg
KI 14 or RES 307
Stele de Baalyaton, pretre de Milkashart - 300-200 av. J.-C. - Oum el Amed (Oum el Awamid) - Louvre - AO 4047 - AO 4062 - AO 3137 - detail 1.jpg
Inscription

The same 1902-03 unofficial excavations uncovered a number of additional steles, which were acquired by the Louvre. One of these, in three fragments, later known as KI 14 or RES 307, was dedicated to Baalyaton, priest of Milkashtart. On the upper part of the arched stele appears a dedicant wearing a polo shirt raising his hand in a sign of adoration. His feet and the inscription are on another fragment of the stele. [4]

Bibliography

General

Baalyaton stele (KI 15 or RES 250)

KI 14 or RES 307 (at the Louvre)

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References

  1. 1 2 Henrike Michelau (Tübingen), Umm el-ʿAmed: Research on the Hellenistic Commemoration Stelae, ZDPV
  2. RES 250
  3. Clermont-Ganneau, La stèle phénicienne d'Oumm el'Aouâmid, Receuil d’Archéologie Orientale 5, 1903, 1-8 and 84.Paris: "Depuis, sous l’impression des recommandations de Renan et de mes observations personnelles, j’eus l’idée de diriger de ce côté l’effort de certains indigènes de la région qui font le commerce des antitiquités et avec qui j’étais en relations suivies, tâchant ainsi d’utiliser au profit de la science leur zèle intéressé. Chaque fois qu’ils me demandaient des indications, pour les guider dans leur chasse aux antiquités, je m’efforçais de les lancer sur cette piste et les pressais vivement de prendre pour objectif Oumm el-'Aouàmid. Pendant plusieurs années j’en fus pour mes frais d’éloquence. Enfin, dans ces derniers temps, un d’entre eux, plus avisé que les autres, se décida à suivre mon conseil; il n’eut pas à s’en repentir. Il fit entreprendre, par des fellâhs à sa dévotion, des fouilles discrètes sur l’emplacement désigné, et il eut la chance de mettre du premier coup la main sur le beau monument phénicien qui fait l’objet de la présente étude. Depuis, ses concurrents, stimulés par ce succès, se sont jetés avidement sur cette mine, etsont en train de l’exploiter à qui mieuxmieux il résulte d’informations que j’ai reçues récemment, que plusieurs autres monuments du même genre, quelques-uns avec inscriptions phéniciennes, sont déjà sortis des ruines d’Oumm el-'Awâmid. Attendons-nous à les voir faire très prochainement leur apparition sur le marché. Celui dont j’ai à parler aujourd’hui a été tout d’abord expédié à Paris par son heureux possesseur qui, intimidé par certaines injonctions assez surprenantes, mais sur lesquelles je ne veux pas insister, se garda soigneusement de me faire part d'une trouvaille qu’il devait cependant un peu à mes instances. Si mes renseignements sont exacts, le monument, présenté au Louvre pour l'acquisition, y fut mis au secret attendant pendant des mois et des mois une décision qui devait être négative ; au der- nier moment, on recula devant les prétentions du vendeur, qui se retourna alors d’un autre côté. Finalement, le monument fut acheté par M. Jacobsen, de Copenhague, et il a trouvé sa place définitive dans la fameuse glyptothèque de Ny Carlsberg, qui vaut plus d’un musée d’État."
  4. Clermont-Ganneau, Un prêtre de Malak-Astarté, Recueil d'archéologie orientale (RAO V), Paris, 1903, p. 150-154: Un prêtre de Malak-Astarté: "En dehors de la magnifique stèle phénicienne que j’ai publiée plus haut 4 , les fouilles clandestines entreprises dans la nécropole d’Oumm el-'Aouàmid ont amené la découverte de tout un groupe de monuments analogues, plus ou moins bien conservés, qui ont pu être, cette fois, heureusement acquis par le Louvre. Bien qu’aucun d’eux n’égale, sous le rapport de l’intérêt artistique, la stèle Jacobsen, ils présentent avec elles d’évidentes affinités archéologiques que M. Heuzey a bien fait ressortir en en plaçant les reproductions sous les yeux de l’Académie *. Sur plusieurs de ces stèles, ou débris de stèle, on retrouve, dans la même pose et le même costume, le même personnage faisant un acte d’adoration. Dans un cas (pl. II), la coiffure qu’il porte, bien que du même genre que celle que nous avons vue sur la stèle Jacobsen — une sorte de bonnet ou calotte à peu près cylindrique — est d’une coupe légèrement différente : la partie postérieure forme en arrière une pointe aiguë, un peu relevée*. M. Heuzey la compare à la tiare inférieure des Pharaons qui symbolisait la Basse-Égypte, par conséquent la partie de la contrée voisine de la Phénicie. On peut ajouter que cette pointe caractéristique se retrouve, très accentuée, dans la coiffure de personnages figurés sur des monuments notoirement phéniciens ; par exemple, sur un bas-relief de Lilybée accompagné d’une inscription phénicienne *, et, très souvent, sur les rasoirs de Carthage ornés de dessins au trait, de style égyptien."
  5. Maximillien De Lafayette (2011). Phoenicia, Ur, and Carthage: Artifacts, Inscriptions, Slabs, Sites. Lulu.com. p. 41. ISBN   978-1-257-83653-6.