The Pococke Kition inscriptions were a group of 31 Phoenician and 2 non-Phoenician inscriptions found in Cyprus and published by Richard Pococke in 1745. In describing Kition (modern Larnaca), Pococke wrote: "the walls seem to have been very strong, and in the foundations there have been found many stones, with inscriptions on them, in an unintelligible character, which I suppose, is the antient[sic] Phoenician..."[1]
The Phoenician inscriptions are known as KAI 33 (CIS I 11), KAI 35 (CIS I 46) and CIS I 57-85. They represent some of the most important finds in Phoenician and Semitic language studies, as they were used by Jean-Jacques Barthélemy in his decipherment of the Phoenician language.
Only one of the inscriptions still survives, in the Ashmolean Museum - all the rest were destroyed in construction work in 1749.[2][3]
Surviving inscription – KAI 35
The surviving inscription on display at the Ashmolean Museum, AN1974.325
The sole surviving inscription is a marble funeral stone, numbered "2" in Pococke's sketch, measuring 12 x 3 x 3 inches; the inscription is in memory of a deceased wife. The inscription was brought to England by a Dr. Porter of Thaxted, and presented to Oxford University by Charles Gray MP in 1751.[4][5] It was published many times, first by Pococke, and then by John Swinton, Richard Chandler, Jean-Jacques Barthélemy, Wilhelm Gesenius,[5] and Johan David Åkerblad.[2]
Today it resides at the Ashmolean Museum, with accession number AN1974.325.[6]
Concordance
Pococke
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
CIS
11
46
57
64
73
82
74
60
NP
81
79
68
80
78
67
76
70
66
NP
59
71
62
58
65
77
69
83
85
61
72
75
84
63
CIS
11
46
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
NP
NP
Pococke
1
2
3
23
20
8
29
22
33
4
24
18
15
12
26
17
21
30
5
7
31
16
25
14
11
13
10
6
27
32
28
9
19
Gallery
A page from Barthélemy's publication of his decipherment of Phoenician: "Inscriptions Phéniciennes, trouvées en Chypre par M Richard Pococke". No. 1 is Pococke's No. 2 (KAI 35), and No. 3 is Pococke's No. 4. The other two are Hebrew transliterations of the same inscriptions.
↑ CIS I, p.39, "Lapides interea ad aquaeductus molem struendam adhibuit vir turca insulae Cypro praefectus Beschir, circa annum 1749; ut monumenta ipsa reperiendi spes omnis linquenda sit, nisi aquaeductus ipse destruatur."
1 2 Macray, William Dunn (1868). Annals of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, A. D. 1598-A. D. 1867: With a Preliminary Notice of the Earlier Library Founded in the Fourteenth Century. Rivingtons. p.162. Charles Gray, M.P. for Colchester, presented… an inscription, in the Phoenician language, upon a white marble stone, which was brought, with many others, from Citium, in the island of Cyprus, by Dr. Porter, a physician of Thaxted in Essex. The stone measures twelve inches in length, by three in breadth, and three in depth. It has been frequently engraved: first by Pocock (Travels in the East, vol. ii. pl.xxxiii. 2); next by Swinton (Inscriptiones Citieae, 1750, and Philos. Trans. 1764); afterwards by Chandler, Barthélemy, &c; and, lastly, by Gesenius (for whom former copies were collated with the original, and corrected, by Mr. Reay) in his Scripturae Linguæque Phaenicia, Monumenta, published in 1837, where the inscription is described at pp. 126-133, part i., and engraved at pl. xi. part iii. It appears to be an epitaph by a husband in memory of his wife.
Phoenician is an extinct Canaanite Semitic language originally spoken in the region surrounding the cities of Tyre and Sidon. Extensive Tyro-Sidonian trade and commercial dominance led to Phoenician becoming a lingua franca of the maritime Mediterranean during the Iron Age. The Phoenician alphabet spread to Greece during this period, where it became the source of all modern European scripts.
Jean-Jacques Barthélemy was a French scholar who became the first person to decipher an extinct language. He deciphered the Palmyrene alphabet in 1754 and the Phoenician alphabet in 1758.
In epigraphy, a multilingual inscription is an inscription that includes the same text in two or more languages. A bilingual is an inscription that includes the same text in two languages. Multilingual inscriptions are important for the decipherment of ancient writing systems, and for the study of ancient languages with small or repetitive corpora.
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The Punic-Libyan bilingual inscriptions are two important ancient bilingual inscriptions dated to the 2nd century BC.
Kanaanäische und Aramäische Inschriften, or KAI, is the standard source for the original text of Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions not contained in the Hebrew Bible.
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The Kellia inscription is a Phoenician inscription found in the church of St Anthony in Kellia, Cyprus by Ludwig Ross in 1844. It is a funerary inscription of a noblewoman, the daughter of a Shophet. It is 1 foot wide and 2 and 3/4 feet high.
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Scripturae Linguaeque Phoeniciae, also known as Phoeniciae Monumenta was an important study of the Phoenician language by German scholar Wilhelm Gesenius. It was written in three volumes, combined in later editions. It was described by Reinhard Lehmann as "a historical milestone of Phoenician epigraphy".
Phoenician votive inscriptions or Punic votive inscriptions are votive inscriptions in the Phoenician and Punic religion, dedicated to a certain god or gods, mostly on stelae. The inscriptions have a standard formula, including the name of the god, the statement of the vow, the name of the vower and a closing statement. Most of the inscriptions were found in Carthage, and dedicated to Tinnit, Baʿal Ḥammon or both.
Pumayyaton and Pnytarion's inscriptions are two separated inscriptions, Phoenician and Greek, engraved on the same marble base which was found in Gdhi or Gai locality near Dromolaxia. About 3 hundred years after the first inscription, the Phoenician, was engraved, the base was turned upside down and the second inscription, in Greek, was engraved; the inscriptions have no connection and are not a bilingual inscription. Eventually, it was used as a press. It is now exhibited in Larnaca District Archaeological Museum.
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