Lilybaeum stele
{{Short description|Phoenician gravestone from Sicily}}
File:Carthago exhibition - Stela with Cultic Scene & Votive Inscription (49340901392).jpg
The Lilybaeum stele is a notable Phoenician gravestone stele found in Sicily and first published in 1882. Whitaker, Joseph, 1921, [https://archive.org/details/motyaphoenicianc00whitrich/page/274/mode/2up Motya, a Phoenician colony in Sicily], p.274
The stele was published in the Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum, having been supplied to Renan by Count Francesco Hernandez di Carrera.[https://archive.org/details/CorpusInscriptionumSemiticarumI1/page/n196/mode/1up Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum], I, 138 It measures 0.37 x 0.22 m and is made from white calcareous stone.{{Citation needed|date=April 2023}}
It was found in Marsala (Roman Lilybaeum), in an area known as il Timpone di S. Antonio.{{Citation needed|date=April 2023}} It is currently in the Antonino Salinas Regional Archeological Museum in Palermo.
Inscription
The inscriptions is known as KAI 63 and CIS I 138. It is a standard Punic votive inscription, dedicated to Baal Hammon by Hanno, son of Adonbaal:{{Cite book |last=Slouschz |first=Nahoum |title=Thesaurus of Phoenician Inscriptions |publisher=Dvir |year=1942 |pages=133 |language=Hebrew |author-link=Nahum Slouschz}}
| {{Sc|lʾdn lbʿl ḥmn ʾš ndr ḥnʾ bn}}
|To the lord - to Baal Hammon, (the stele) which vowed Hanno |
| {{Sc|ʾdnbʿl bn grʿštrt bn ʾdnbʿl}}
|son of Adonbaal son of Gerastart son of Adonbaal |
| {{Sc|k šmʿ qlʾ ybrkʾ}}
|for he heard his voice, may he bless him! |
Design
File:Orthostat Temple, Hazor, 15th-13th C. BC (cropped).jpg
The stele shows some important Phoenician religious symbols. These symbols include symbols of Tanit (Sign of Tanit) and Baal Hammon (a crescent and a disc), Caduceus, an incense burner and a Priest spreads his right hand up (a position related with the cult of Tanit), as well as a depiction of a line of stelae on a stage, similar to a stelae line found in Hazor.{{Cite journal |last=Yadin |first=Yigael |author-link=Yigael Yadin |date=1967 |title=Symbols of Deities at Zinjirli, Carthage and Hazor |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23734250 |journal=Yediot Bahaqirat Eretz-Israel Weatiqoteha |language=he |volume=31 |issue=1/4 |pages=62–63 |jstor=23734250 |issn=2312-0061}} On one of the stelae in Hazor, a crescent with a disc and two hand spread ur towards them are engraved.{{Cite journal |last=Yadin |first=Yigael |author-link=Yigael Yadin |date=1967 |title=Symbols of Deities at Zinjirli, Carthage and Hazor |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23734250 |journal=Yediot Bahaqirat Eretz-Israel Weatiqoteha |language=he |volume=31 |issue=1/4 |pages=60 |jstor=23734250 |issn=2312-0061}}
Its significance was described by Georges Perrot and Charles Chipiez in 1885:
...the chief interest of the monument lies in the bas-relief on its upper part. In the middle of the field stands one of those candelabra of which we have already given examples taken from Carthaginian steles; to the left is the sacred cone, here represented with head and arms as on the coins of certain Asiatic towns; near the cone stands a caduceus, on the right there is a man adoring. He is dressed in a robe falling to the feet and gathered in a band about the waist; a pointed cap is on his head. The whole thing is without value as a work of art, but it gives a good idea of the Phoenician costume, a costume which resembles that still worn in the Levant by those Greek, Syrian, and Armenian merchants who have not yet adopted the