Cippi of Melqart

The Cippi of Melqart is the collective name for two white marble cippi that were unearthed at Tas-Silġ,^[1] Marsaxlokk,^[2] Malta by the Knights Hospitaller in the late 17th century. One is currently in the Louvre, the other rests in the National Museum of Archaeology in Valetta.^[3]

Of Phoenician origin, the candelabra-shaped cippi dated to the 2nd century BCE served as monuments and incense-burning pillars^[2] dedicated as ex voto gifts by the brothers Abdosir and 'Osirshamar, to the Tyrian divinity Melqart, syncretized as Heracles.^[3]

The cippi provided the key to the deciphering that led to modern understanding of the Phoenician language, since the inscriptions on each base were written in both Greek and Phoenician.^[3]

The inscription on the cippus of the Louvre reads:

• (in Phoenician) To our lord Melqart, Lord of Tyre, dedicated by / your servant Abd' Osir and his brother 'Osirshamar / both sons of 'Osirshamar, for he heard / their voice, may he bless them;
• (in Greek) Dionysos and Serapion^{[disambiguation needed ]} the / sons of Serapion, Tyrenes / to Heracles the founder. ^[3]

The French scholar Jean-Jacques Barthélémy identified Phoenician letters with this inscription, which used 18 of the 22 letters of the Phoenician alphabet.^[3]

In 1782, the cippus of the Louvre was presented to Louis XVI by Emmanuel de Rohan-Polduc, Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller.^[3] It was first deposited at the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres and then moved to the Bibliothèque Mazarine in 1792, where it remained for 4 years. It was moved to the Louvre in 1864.^[3]

References

1. ^ "The Maltese Language". My-Malta.com. http://www.my-malta.com/interesting/MalteseLanguage.html. Retrieved February 16, 2011. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Charles Fiott. "Malta-The George Cross Island". Conventual Franciscans of Rabat. http://www.english-studies.org/sitemenu/7malta/Malta-The_George_Cross_Island/page17/page12/page12.html. Retrieved February 16, 2011. 
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} "Cippus from Malta". Louvre.com. 2009. http://www.louvre.fr/llv/oeuvres/detail_notice.jsp?CONTENT%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198673225322&CURRENT_LLV_NOTICE%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198673225322&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=9852723696500787&bmLocale=en. Retrieved February 16, 2011.