Phoenician arrowheads

The Phoenician arrowheads or Phoenician javelin heads are a well-known group of almost 70 Phoenician inscribed bronze arrowheads from the 11th century BC onwards.^[1]

Phoenician arrowheads from the National Museum of Beirut: from Beqaa Valley, bronze, 12th–11th Century BC (left); and from Lebanon, bronze, 12th–11th Century BC (right)

The first known inscription was the Ruweiseh arrowhead; it is the only one found in situ. The other arrowheads are of unknown origin, having first appeared on the antiquities markets.^[2]

The inscriptions are thought to be personal names.^[3]

They are known as KAI 20–22.

Because of their early date, the arrowheads are important in the modern understanding of the history of the Phoenician language; in particular, the 1953 discovery of the three al-Khader arrowheads is said to have "initiated a new stage in the study of alphabetic origins".^[4] It has become conventional to refer to the written script as "Proto-Canaanite" until the mid-11th century BC, the point at which "Phoenician" is first attested on the arrowheads.^[5] Frank Moore Cross and Józef Milik wrote in 1954 that "[t]he el-Khadr javelin-heads provide the missing link between the latest of the Proto-Canaanite epigraphs, and the earliest of the Phoenician inscriptions".^[6][7][8][9]

Ruweiseh arrowhead

Tell Rouaiss and Jebel Rouaïsset on a 1943 map of Nabatieh and Nabatieh Fawka

The Ruweiseh arrowhead was the first discovered in modern times, and still the only one found in archaeological context. It was found at Roueisseh, near Nabatieh Fawka ("Upper Nabatieh), by Pierre Giugues during an archaeological survey of necropolises in the area.^[10] Two arrowheads were discovered in the same tomb, but the second had no inscription. The tomb had been reused into the Hellenistic period, such that the contents of the tombs were overturned, making any stratigraphic study impossible.^[11][10]

The arrowhead was dated based on its paleographic style, with scholars concluding that it was probably produced during the 10th century BCE

The inscription states: "arrow of Addo, son of Akki".

It is currently in the Louvre.^[12]

Al-Khader arrowheads

The next set of arrowheads (described as javelin heads) were published in 1954; three inscribed arrowheads were purchased separately on the antiquities market in 1953–54, by Gerald Lankester Harding, Frank Moore Cross and Józef Milik.^[13] They were later ascertained to have been part of a hoard of 26 javelin and arrowheads (mostly uninscribed) found by a fellah from al-Khader, just west of Bethlehem.^[13]

Given their age, these three artifacts are considered perhaps the most significant in the known corpus. They used vertical and left-to-right letters, representing a transitional stage between early Iron Age Phoenician scripts and the prior proto-Canaanite inscriptions. Cross and Milik wrote in 1954: "As there is no evidence for the occupation of the site earlier than the Roman period, the cache may have been lost or buried with its owner, during or after a battle."^[13]

The name mentioned in the three inscriptions is almost exactly the same, ˁbdlb(ˀ)t. Surprisingly, this same name appears on the Ruweiseh arrowhead. Cross and Milik wrote that “if it is not pure coincidence, this may be an indication that a hereditary and/or mercenary archer class existed."^[14]

List

Name	Inscription	Original location	Current location and ID	Reference
Ruweiseh / KAI 20	bt'd' bn cky	Ruweiseh (Kfar Jarra?)	Louvre, AO 18849	Guiges/Roncevalle, 1926; Dussaud, 1927
Al Khadr I / KAI 21	hs cbdlb't	al-Khader	Rockefeller Museum IDAM 54,1	Milik & Cross 1954 Albright, 1954; Dussaud, 1954.
Al Khadr II	h? cbdlbt		Harvard Semitic Museum 982.1.1
Al Khadr III			Amman, Archaeological Museum. J 5137
Al Khadr IV	hf cbdl't		Israel Museum p-526288[15]	Cross 1980
Al Khadr V	cbdlb’t bncnt		Jerusalem, private collection.
KAI 22	hf zkrbfcl] bn bncn[t]	Unprovenanced	Beirut National Museum	Milik 1956; Yeivin, 1958
	hs grbl fdny		Beirut National Museum Nr. 5137.	Milik, 1961
	hs czrbcl bn 'dnbcl		Beirut National Museum Nr. 677.
	hf rp’ bn yhš		Beirut National Museum	Martin, 1962.
	hs yt’ bn zm'		Paris, private collection	Sauvegarde 1980 – Lipinski, Gubel 1986.
	hf zkrM mlk / 'mr		Beirut National Museum	Starcky, 1982; Mazza, 1987; Lemaire , 1989, 542.
	hf cbdny •s "zbcl		Lebanon, private collection	Bordreuil 1982, p. 189
	... 'ky ...		Beirut National Museum
	hf ymn 's cbdy		Beirut National Museum
	Unpublished		Private collection.
	Unpublished		Private collection.
	Unpublished		Private collection.
	hf 'dc bn bel'		British Museum WA 13 67 53.	Mitchell, 1985.
	hf mhrn bn ytl		Jerusalem, private collection	Lemaire, 1989
	Unpublished		Israel Museum. 86.59.87.	Sass, 1988, 98.
	Unpublished		Israel Museum 86.59.88
	hfpdy bn qry		Beirut, private collection.	Sader, 1990.
	hf 'dn S'/r		Church of Saint Anne, Jerusalem	Tarragon 1991

References

Citations

1. Golub 2021, pp. 16–17: "The corpus of inscribed Phoenician bronze arrowheads has grown continuously since 1926, when the first one was discovered in Ruweiseh in southern Lebanon. In 1982, the corpus included 20 arrowheads (Bordreuil 1982: 187–192; Starcky 1982: 179–186; Abousamra 2014: 47) and by 1999 the corpus had grown to 51 (Deutsch and Heltzer 1999: 13–19). By 2020, the number had reached 68: 67 pieces were counted by Abousamra (2014: 47–48) and one was recently published by Mitchell (2020: 44–52)."
2. Golub 2021, pp. 16–18: "Apart from the first arrowhead from Ruweiseh, which was found in situ, all the others came from the antiquities market and their provenance is therefore doubtful. Four arrowheads published by Elayi (2005: 35) were said to have been found in Lebanon, that of ’d‘ bn b‘l’ was said to come from “Barouk,” possibly Baruk in Lebanon (Mitchell 2020: 45), and the arrowheads of ‘bdlb’t and ‘bdlb’t bn‘nt were said to have been discovered in el-Khaḍr, near Bethlehem (Deutsch and Heltzer 1999: 13, II–IV, 14, XI). Some arrowheads were purchased in Lebanon, some in London, and one in Damascus, those said to be from el-Khaḍr were purchased in Jerusalem and Amman, and the provenance of many others is unknown (Deutsch and Heltzer 1999: 13–19). However, the Phoenician script and a few references in the inscriptions to gentilics, such as the Sidonian, the Tyrian, and king of Amurru (Deutsch and Heltzer 1999: 14, VI, 16, XXVI, XXIX), suggest that these inscribed bronze arrowheads originated in Lebanon, the site of ancient Phoenicia."
3. Golub 2021, pp. 16–40.
4. Cross, Frank Moore (1980). "Newly Found Inscriptions in Old Canaanite and Early Phoenician Scripts". Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. 238 (238 (Spring, 1980)). The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The American Schools of Oriental Research: 1–20. doi:10.2307/1356511. JSTOR 1356511. S2CID 222445150. The discovery in 1953 of three arrowheads from 'El-Khadr inscribed with three identical inscriptions of the late 12th century B.C. initiated a new stage in the study of alphabetic origins (Cross and Milik 1954: 5–15; Cross and Milik 1956: 15–23). The brief texts of the arrowheads provided secure readings of alphabetic signs at precisely the period of transition from the older pictographic (ProtoCanaanite or Old Canaanite) script to the Early Linear (Phoenician) alphabet.
5. Markoe, Glenn E., Phoenicians. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-22613-5 (2000) (hardback) p. 111.
6. Milik & Cross 1954, p. 11.
7. Cross, Frank Moore (1991). Senner, Wayne M. (ed.). The Invention and Development of the Alphabet. Bison books. U of Nebraska Press. pp. 77–90 [81]. ISBN 978-0-8032-9167-6. Retrieved 30 June 2020. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
8. Frank Moore Cross and J. T. Milik, “A Typological Study of the El-Khadr Javelin and Arrowheads,” ADAJ 3 (1956): 15–23: "Thus the little inscriptions on the javelin-heads are the earliest exemplars of conventionalized alphabetic script. At the same time, they establish beyond cavil that the 'Phoenician' alphabet evolved from a Proto-Canaanite precursor."
9. Senner, W.M. (1991). The Origins of Writing. Bison books. University of Nebraska Press. p. 81. ISBN 978-0-8032-9167-6. The precise relationship between the Old Canaanite alphabet and the Early Linear Phoenician script remained uncertain until 1953, when a group of inscribed arrowheads was found near Bethlehem at 'El-Khadr. These inscriptions, from the end of the twelfth century (ca. 1100) B.C., proved to be missing links in the history of the alphabet… The ' El – Khadr arrowheads come precisely from the time when the Old Canaanite pictographs were evolving into the Early Linear Phoenician alphabet. We were fortunate that each contained virtually the same short inscription…
10. Guigues, Pierre Paul-Émile (18 October 2021). "Pointe de flèche en bronze à inscription phénicienne". Mélanges de l'Université Saint-Joseph (in French). 11 (1): 323–328. doi:10.3406/mefao.1926.990. Retrieved 23 July 2022. Au lieu dit Roueisseh, près de Nabatiyet el-fôqa, à gauche de la route Saïda-Gedeideh Marg'ayoun, qui traverse l'immense atelier préhistorique de Qal'at-es-saqîf, j'ai, au cours d'une mission d'exploration et de sondages archéologiques (1), procédé à une reconnaissance préliminaire de la nécropole sise à cet endroit.
11. Ronzevalle, Sébastien (18 October 2021). "Note sur le texte phénicien de la flèche publiée par M. P.-E. Guigues". Mélanges de l'Université Saint-Joseph (in French). 11 (1): 329–358. doi:10.3406/mefao.1926.991. S2CID 239267596. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
12. "pointe de flèche". Musée du Louvre. 2 November 2020. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
13. Milik & Cross 1954, p. 5.
14. Milik & Cross 1954, p. 7-8.
15. “Arrow of Abdlabit,” inscription on an arrowhead

Bibliography

• Golub, Mitka R. (2021). "Personal Names on Iron Age I Bronze Arrowheads: Characteristics and Implications". Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
• Wolfgang Röllig, Onomastic and Palaeographic considerations on Early Phoenician Arrow-Heads.” In Actes du IIIe Congrès international des études phéniciennes et punique, Tunis, 11–16 novembre 1991, Vol. II (1995), S. 348–355
• Milik, J. T.; Cross, Frank M. (1954). "Inscribed Javelin-Heads from the Period of the Judges: A Recent Discovery in Palestine". Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (134). American Schools of Oriental Research: 5–15. doi:10.2307/1355623. JSTOR 1355623. S2CID 163381421. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
• Milik, J. T. (1956). "An Unpublished Arrow-Head with Phoenician Inscription of the 11th-10th Century B. C.". Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. 143 (143). University of Chicago Press: 3–6. doi:10.2307/1355921. ISSN 0003-097X. JSTOR 1355921. S2CID 164095410.
• Bordreuil, Pierre (1982). "Épigraphes phéniciennes sur bronze, sur pierre et sur céramique". MOM Éditions (in French). 12 (1): 187–192. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
• Tarragon, Jean-Michel de (1991). "La Pointe de Flèche Inscrite des Pères Blancs de Jérusalem". Revue Biblique (1946–). 98 (2). Peeters Publishers: 244–251. ISSN 0035-0907. JSTOR 44089048. Retrieved 22 July 2022.

Further reading

• Deutsch, R.; Barkay, G.; Heltzer, M. (1999). West Semitic Epigraphic News of the 1st Millennium. Archaeological Center Publications. ISBN 978-965-90240-4-9. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
• Mitchell, T.C. (2020). "Another Inscribed Arrowhead in the British Museum". In Block, D.I.; Deuel, D.C.; Collins, C.J.; Lawrence, P.J.N. (eds.). Write That They May Read: Studies in Literacy and Textualization in the Ancient Near East and in the Hebrew Scriptures:Essays in Honour of Professor Alan R. Millard. Pickwick Publications. ISBN 978-1-7252-5210-3.
• Sass, Benjamin (1989). "Inscribed Babylonian arrowheads of the turn of the second millennium and their Phoenician counterparts". Ugarit-Forschungen. 21: 349–356. Retrieved 22 July 2022.