Carthage tower model

The Carthage tower model is a limestone model of a tower with a Punic inscription, found in Carthage by Nathan Davis in 1856–58 in Husainid Tunisia.^[1][2]

In the Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum

As published by Davis

It has a diameter of 13.3 cm and a height of 41.1 cm. It is in the British Museum, with ID number 125324.^[3]

Of all the inscriptions found by Davis, it was one of just three that was not a traditional Carthaginian tombstone - the other two being number 71 (the Son of Baalshillek marble base) and number 90 (the Carthage Tariff), which contained a bevelled architectural ornamentation.^[4]

Donald Harden wrote that it may represent a lighthouse or a watch tower, and may provide evidence for a type of multistory building in Carthaginian architecture. The model appears to show three stories, and may have originally been more; the bottom arch is considered to be a door, the middle story contains three shallow round arched windows, and part of a top story with five deeper and narrower windows with their tops missing.^[5] CIS wrote that: “The cippus is round, rising in the form of a tower, in the lower part of which is an arched gate, and above it three windows are shaped in the same manner as a vault. The top of the tower is finned.“^[6]

The inscription states:

To the lady Tanit face of Baal and to the lord to Baal Hammon which vowed Bodmelqart son of 'Abdmelqart son of Himilkot for he heard his voice, and blessed him.

Bibliography

• "TABULA TITULORUM VOTIVORUM; TANITIDI ET BAALI HAMMONI DICATORUM (180-3251.)". Corpus inscriptionum semiticarum (in Latin). Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. 1890.

References

1. Lipiński, E. (2004). Itineraria Phoenicia. Orientalia Lovaniensia analecta (in Spanish). Uitgeverij Peeters en Departement Oosterse Studies. p. 152. ISBN 978-90-429-1344-8. Retrieved 2024-08-23.
2. Davis N 1863 / Inscriptions in the Phoenican Character (pl.26, 73)
3. "stela (?)". The British Museum. 2004-06-26. Retrieved 2024-08-23.
4. Nathan Davis, 1863, Inscriptions in the Phœnician character, now deposited in the British Museum, discovered on the site of Carthage, during researches made by Nathan Davis, esq; at the expense of Her Majesty's government, in the years 1856, 1857, and 1858, page 3
5. Harden (1962), The Phoenicians, p.132-133, 302
6. CIS I 181: “Cippus est rotundus, in turris formam exsurgens, cujus in parte inferiore porta fornicata et supra fenestræ tres eundem in modum concameratæ figurantur. Turris summa pinnata est.“