An Ostracon in Greek Bearing the Names of the Gates of Idalion

42 An Ostracon in Greek Bearing the Names of the Gates of Idalion [1974] 1. 1. The Tamassian Gate 2. [G]ate of the Ark of the Ar- This fragmentary ostracon 1 from ldalion lists the 3. [mies]. The Gate of the Sack[s] gates of a city, no doubt the gates of the city of ldalion. 4. [Gate of Ki]tion. Only the name of the first is preserved intact: rcuAat mµamat, the Tamassian gate(s)---evidently the western Line 1. The Tamassian Gate. 2 The neighboring city gate of the city leading to Tamassos, some fifteen km. of Tamassos belonged to the kingdom of Kition and WNW of the city of ldalion. ldalion in the third quarter of the fourth century BCE. This The text reads as follows [see Fig. 42.1]: is clear from a series of three inscriptions from Cyprus, the most important KAI: 32 in which Pygmalion [Pumay 1. rcuAat mµamat yaton] lists his title as "king of Kition, Idalion, and 2. [rc]UAat apoov w~a[] Tamassos." No doubt the series of cities, Tamassos, 3. [ rc]UAat WUKKEt[] Idalion, and Kition, marked the main route (WNW to 4. [ ]noov vacat[ ] ESE) for the transshipment of copper ore from the mines The sequence of the repeated term rcuAat permits a of the Troodos Mountains immediately west of Tamas tentative reconstruction of the ostracon. As in the case of sos, and the export of refined copper from the great many ostraca, the sherd appears to have been broken Phoenician port of Kition (modem Lamaca). Tamassos originally to make a rough rectangle. The ostracon pre appears in cuneiform sources as Ta-me-si/u, in Homer as serves the original top and bottom of the sherd; the left TcµfoT], and (the gentilic) in Cypriot syllabic script as side clearly has a new break, cutting off an increasingly ta-ma-si-o-i. 3 large portion at the beginning of the lines. Only a small Line 2/3. The second gate ([rc]UAat) is called apoov part of the right side appears to be missing. The writing in w~a[ ]. The reading of the second word is not wholly line 4 stops before reaching the right edge, suggesting certain. The rho is capable of being read tau. Neither that the inscription was completed on line 4. reading makes sense in Greek. One is left with the possi The ostracon may be reconstructed in highly tenta bility of an Eteocypriot name or a Phoenician name. We tive form as follows: have reconstructed apoov w~a[out], which fits into the space and makes excellent sense as a Greek transcription 1. rcUAat mµamat of Phoenician n~:Jlil 7,~, Hebrew 1ari5n ha~-~eba 1i5t, lit- 2. [rc]UAat apoov w~a 3. [OUT rc]UAat WUKKEt[µ] 2. The Greek term 1tlJAfl means properly one wing of a pair of 4. [rcuAat Kt]noov vacat[] double gates. Hence the plural, nu1cat, is most frequently used of a city gate. Accordingly we have translated simply 'gate'. 3. 0. Masson, Les inscriptions chypriotes syllabiques (Paris: 1. Ostracon T. 54/308: Greek. E. Boccard, 1961): 342f., No. 352, line 3. 278 An Ostracon in Greek Bearing the Names of the Gates of Idalion 279 Figure 42.1. A drawing and partial reconstruction of the text of the ostracon. erally the 'ark of the host(s)'. The whole would then read dium was 'rwn bryt yhwh ~b'wt ysb hkrbym "Ark of the "Gate of the battle palladium." In view of the Phoenician Covenant of Yahweh of hosts who is enthroned on the shift 6 > u, we should expect cr~aou, in Phoenician pro cherubim,"7 more briefly 'aron Yahweh ~ebii'ot, "Ark of nunciation. The E before cr~a[ ou,] in line 2, and the E be Yahweh of the armies," or 'aron 'uzzekii, 8 "the Ark of thy fore craKKEt[µ] in line 3 is the expected transcription of [Yahweh's] might." The liturgical sentences recited on the Phoenician article. In Hebrew the usual transcription the ark's going forth to war and return from battle are of the article into Greek is a. 4 However, in Phoenician, preserved in Numbers 10: 35f.: our limited evidence suggests that (h)a shifted, at least in Arise, Yahweh, let thine enemies be scattered, some dialects, to e. Augustine, for example, remarks that Let thine adversaries flee before thee. the Punic term for blood is edom (nam et punice edom, Return, Yahweh, with the myriads sanguis dicatur). 5 The equation, Hebrew ha( d)-diim, Pu ('El with) the thousands of Israel. 9 nic (h)e( d)-dom is phonetically precisely what we should expect. It may be remarked that the shift from a > e is fre The use of battle palladia among the Phoenicians is quent in Phoenician and Punic in a number of phonetic alluded to also in classical sources. In Diodorus 10 we environments, including proximity to a laryngeal. 6 learn of a sacred tent (tEpa <JKY]VYJ) pitched in the midst of If this reconstruction of the text be correct, the read the Carthaginian battle camp with an altar nearby. We ing is a striking one. The name of Israel's battle palla- probably are to understand in a similar function the ox drawn shrine (va6<;) attributed to the Phoenicians by 4. Cf. E. Bri,;nno, Studien iiber hebraischen Morphologie und Philo Byblius (quoting Sanchuniathon). 11 Since sacred Vokalismus, Abhandlungen fiir die Kunde des Morgenlandes 28 areas were often found in the gate, we may suppose that (Leipzig, 1943): 203-11. 5. Aurelii Augustini opera X, 3 [Corpus Christianorum] Enarra one gate area of ldalion (once) housed a palladium; alter tiones in Psalmos CXXXVI, 18 (§7), p. 1976. A recent discussion of the natively, the gateway may have led to a shrine housing a Phoenician article e in this transcription may be found in J. Hoftijzer, battle ark. "Eine Notiz zum punischen Kinderopfer," VT 8 (1958): 288-92. Cf. also the Phoenician herb names presented in Dioscorides (1, 27; 3, 66): <put..N:cra&E and m0trna•E, presumably for * pol-has-sade (Vicia faba) 7. 1 Samuel 4: 4; cf. 0. Eissfeldt, "Silo und Jerusalem," VTSup 4 and * setil-has-sade. (Leiden, 1957): 138-47, who argues the antiquity of this liturgical title. 6. PpG § 75b. One notes that the putative article in the corrupt text 8. Psalm 132: 8. On the antiquity and function of this hymn, see of Plautus' Poenulus appears as both -a and -i (ahelicot, imusehim, and CMHE: 94-97. imacum). Little or no weight can be placed on these transcriptions, how 9. On this reconstruction of the text, see CMHE: 100. ever, in view of the state of the text. Cf. most recently, Charles Krah 10. Diodorus Siculus (ed. Loeb) XX, 65. malkov 's tour de force, "The Punic Speech of Hanno," Orientalia 39 11. Apud Eusebius, Praep. evang. 10, 12 (ed. K. Mras). For later (1970): 52-74, by far the best treatment ever of this difficult material. parallels among the Semites, see F. M. Cross, "The Priestly Tabernacle," Note that the Punic writing of the article is with 'alep, often, rather than The Biblical Archaeologist Reader, ed. G. Ernest Wright and D. N. with the (earlier) he. Freedman (New York: Doubleday, 1961): 217f. and references. .

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