Eshmun obelisk

{{Short description|Obelisk with Phoenician inscription}}

File:Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum CIS I 44.jpg

File:Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum CIS I 44 inscription only (cropped).jpg

The Eshmun obelisk is an obelisk with a two-line Phoenician inscription found in Kition, Cyprus by Claude Delaval Cobham in 1881. It is known as CIS I 44, KI 21, NE 420,2 and NSI 15.{{cite journal | last=Schroeder | first=Paul | title=Phönicische Miscellen | journal=Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft | publisher=Harrassowitz Verlag | volume=34 | issue=4 | year=1880 | issn=0341-0137 | jstor=43361416 | pages=675–684 | url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/43361416 | access-date=2023-08-27}}[https://archive.org/details/CorpusInscriptionumSemiticarumI1/page/n81/mode/1up CIS I 44]{{cite book | title=Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology | publisher=The Society | issue=v. 1-3 | year=1879 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DpI6AQAAMAAJ&pg=RA3-PA71 | access-date=2023-08-27 | page=71}} It was used as a Baetylus, or devotional object.[https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_1881-1211-1 BM 125096]

Cobham was the District Commissioner of Larnaka, but also acted as an informal agent for the British Museum. The stele with was discovered during the construction of the highroad in the Tourabi Tekke area.{{cite journal | last=Fourrier | first=Sabine | last2=Kiely | first2=Thomas | title=Excavations at Kition-Bamboula 1879. Finds in the British Museum | journal=Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes | volume=42 | issue=1 | date=2012 | issn=0761-8271 | doi=10.3406/cchyp.2012.1027 | pages=274 | language=fr|url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/cchyp_0761-8271_2012_num_42_1_1027}}