Punic-Libyan bilinguals
Two important ancient inscriptions from Dougga, Tunisia / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Punic-Libyan bilingual inscriptions are two important ancient bilingual inscriptions dated to the 2nd century BC.
Punic-Libyan bilinguals | |
---|---|
Material | Limestone |
Size | 69 cm high and 207 cm wide |
Writing | Libyco-Berber and Phoenician scripts |
Created | 146 BC |
Present location | British Museum, London |
Identification | 1852,0305.1-2 |
Culture | Numidia |
The first, the Cenotaph Inscription, was transcribed in 1631 by Thomas D'Arcos[1] and later played a significant role in deciphering the Libyco-Berber script, in which the Numidian language (Old Libyan) was written.[2] The language is however still not fully understood. The inscription was part of the Libyco-Punic Mausoleum (Mausoleum of Ateban) at Dougga in Tunisia, before it was removed in the mid nineteenth century and taken to London, where it is now in the British Museum's ancient Middle Eastern collection.[3]
The second inscription, the Temple Inscription, is longer than the first, and was discovered in 1904 in the Temple of Jupiter at Dougga. It is currently at the Bardo Museum in Tunis, with casts in the archives of the Louvre and the British Museum.
The Libyan inscriptions are the first two, and the longest two, published in Jean-Baptiste Chabot's 1940 work Recueil des Inscriptions Libyques (known as RIL), as RIL 1 and RIL2. The Punic inscriptions are known as KAI 100 and KAI 101 in the Kanaanäische und Aramäische Inschriften.