Inscribed stone plaque mentioning Phoenician alphabet (Phoenician letters)



Writing in Ancient Crete ➔ Inscribed stone plaque mentioning Phoenician alphabet (Phoenician letters)

Ε423
Stone (Yellow-white shelly marble)
Incomplete on left and right side. The front inscribed surface is much damaged due to the material and mechanical cultivation.
Preserved Height: 51 cm. Width: 71-77 cm. Thickness: 14.5 cm. Height of letters: 2-5.5-6 cm.
Kounavoi (ancient Eltyna)
Skanderi site
Archaic period:
late 7th - 1st half 6th c. BC:
Gallery:
XVI
Exhibition thematic unit:
Geometric - Archaic - Classical period (10th-4th c. BC). Trade. Cultural influences
Description
Fragment of inscribed stone block from a public building of Eltyna/Eltynia, found reused in the cemetery of the ancient city. On its surface is a text which is barely legible due to its fragmentation and poor state of preservation. It is the end of a six-line inscription, incomplete on right and left, carved boustrophedon (“ox-plough turn”), from right to left and left to right in alternate lines. The inscription is clearly a legal text, perhaps part of a civic code on transactions referring to the magistrate’s duty to uphold it. There is a significant reference to “Phoenician letters”, the first mention of the Phoenician alphabet in a Cretan inscription and indeed the earliest in a Greek text. 1 ← ---] .n . ονηθέν | δικάζεν [--- 2 → --- τά] πονικήια | τάδε | ά κ . [ --- 3 ← ---] n | ά κα μη συνπρασια [--- 4 → ---] ι | ταπ[. . ] ιs | ά κα μη αμ [--- 5 ← ---] . οδε | όγ κατεκσει | [--- 6 → ---] . . ι | οι κα [ . .] αι | παρηι | τοι [--- vacat
Bibliography:
Ch. Kritzas, "Φοινίκηια γράμματα: νέα αρχαϊκή επιγραφή από την Έλτυνα", in G. Rethemiotakis - Μ. Egglezou, Το Γεωμετρικό νεκροταφείο της Έλτυνας, Heraklion 2010, Appendix, 1-24.
Author:
K. S.


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