Tamassos bilinguals

The Tamassos bilinguals are a pair of bilingual Cypriot-Phoenician inscriptions on stone pedestals found in 1885 in Tamassos, Cyprus. It has been dated to 363 BC.

It was discovered by Max Ohnefalsch-Richter, in excavations funded by Charles Watkins, Cyprus Director of the Imperial Ottoman Bank, and in conjunction with Colonel Falkland Warren, Chief Secretary of Cyprus. A subsequent legal battle broke out between Watkins and Warren regarding ownership of the excavated antiquities.

It is currently in the British Museum, with identification numbers BM 125321 and BM 125322. The Phoenician inscriptions are known as RES 1212 (KAI 41) and RES 1213.[1][2]

They were displayed at the 1886 Colonial and Indian Exhibition,[3] and were acquired by the British Museum from Warren via antiquities dealer Rollin & Feuardent in 1892.

Inscription number 1
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Inscription number 1

Inscription number 1 is an imported marble pedestal with a six line Phoenician inscription and a five line Cypriot inscription. The inscription is a statue dedication:

This statue has been given and erected Menahem, son of Benhodesh son of Menahem from Arqa, to his god, Reshef Eleitas, in the month of Etanim [In the] 30th regnal year of Milkyaton king of Kition and Idalion, because He heard his voice. May he be blessed!

The Cypriot text was first translated by M. D. Pierides.[3]

Inscription number 2
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Inscription number 2

Inscription number 2 is on a limestone pedestal, with a worn inscription. The inscription is a statue dedication to Reshef-Elenites (Apollo Alasiotes) by 'Abd-sasom on the 16th day of the 17th year of Milkyaton or Melekyaton, king of Kition and Idalion.

Bibliography
  • Given, M. (2001) The fight for the past: Watkins vs Warren (1885–6) and the control of excavation. In: Tatton-Brown, V. (ed.) Cyprus in the 19th Century AD : Fact, Fancy and Fiction : Papers of the 22nd British Museum Classical Colloquium, December 1998. Oxbow Books: Oxford, pp. 244-249. ISBN 9781842170335
  • J. Euting and W. Deecke, Zwei bilingue Inschriften aus Tamassos, Sitzungsberichte der Königlich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, 1887, p. 115 — 123
  • A bilingual inscription (Phoenician and Kypriote). Recently discovered near the ancient town of Tamassos, Cyprus, during excavations carried out by Colonel Falk. Warren R A., Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology for December 1886 and January 1887.
  • Berger Philippe. La seconde inscription bilingue de Tamassus. In: Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 31ᵉ année, N. 2, 1887. pp. 187-201. DOI: 10.3406/crai.1887.69318

See also

Notes
  1. BM 125321
  2. BM 125322
  3. Letter from Professor Wright, 15 December, 1886; in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology: "Among the objects from Cyprus exhibited during the past summer at the Colonial Exhibition were two bilingual inscriptions, Phoenician and Cypriote, the property of Colonel F. Warren, R.A., who discovered them during his excavations at Frangissa... The longer and better preserved of these has been translated and published by the well known archaeologist M. D. Pierides, though without the Phoenician text... The smaller of Colonel Warren's two bilinguals is not nearly so well preserved, especially as regards the upper or Phoenician portion. I have sent a squeeze of it to Professor Euting, who will no doubt succeed in deciphering it with Dr. Deecke's help."
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