~ The Cippi of Malta

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The cippi of Malta are to Phoenician script what the Rosetta Stone is to Egyptian hieroglyphics, the key to finally decoding the world’s first written script.

The cippi (plural of cippus) of Malta are a pair of ornamental pillars with engravings dedicated to the god Melqart, the most important Phoenician god. Around the 4th century B.C. the Greeks started to identify Melqart with their own legendary hero, Hercules. This inscription confirms the god Melqart and Heracles as being one, and shows how successfully the Phoenicians exported their gods and culture. The bi-lingual dedication on the Cippi of Melqart can be seen as a marriage of the older Phoenician culture and the more recent Greeks beliefs, reflected in such temple objects.

The cippi were discovered within the multi-period sanctuary site of Tas-Silg near Marsaxlokk in 1694, during the period of the Knights of Malta. Tas-Silg is a very important Maltese archaeological site because it features a continuous, uninterrupted use spanning all eras from the Neolithic to the fourth century AD, serving as a religious sanctuary containing layer upon layer of Stone Age, Bronze Age, Punic and Paleo-Christian temples. The candelabra have been dated to around 200BC, the late Phoenician/early Roman phase of the Tas-Silg site, then a temple to the goddess Juno (Astarte to the Phoenicians).
often shortened to half the size of a full pillar. The flat top can be used to burn incense and other offerings. Cippi are often inscribed with important information, serving as border demarcations, milestones, funerary monuments, or, as here, an inscribed monument dedicated to a divinity (god). T
A cippus is an ornamental pillar,he cippi of Malta are carved into white marble measuring 3’ 5” high (1.05m), 1’ 1” wide (0.34), and 1’ thick (0.31m).

The two cippi at the Louvre and the Maltese Museum of Archaeology are unusually constructed in two parts, a rectangular base with inscriptions in Greek and Phoenician on the front, and a pillar that may represent a ‘candelabrum,’ decorated with carved acanthus leaves. The Louvre’s cippus is broken off at the top. Their importance is the bilingual inscription on the base, in Greek and Phoenician,

Phoenician is the oldest verified alphabet, the first widely used script in which one sound was represented by one symbol, which meant that there were only a few dozen ‘letters’ to learn. This simple alphabet was easier to use than others of the time, such as cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphs, which were difficult to learn. It is thought to have been developed by Tyrian sailors using simple written symbols to cope with different languages when travelling. The Phoenician’s reach was tremendous, and their success spread the use of the alphabet to parts of North Africa and Europe. Arabic, Hebrew, Latin, and Greek scripts are all descended from Phoenician which highlights the huge significance of decoding the Phoenician alphabet through Malta’s cippi.

In 1782, one of the two cippi was presented to King Louis XVI by the Grand Master of the Order of the Knights Hospitaller, Fra Emmanuel de Rohan-Polduc. Today, it is found in the Louvre Museum in Paris while its twin is at the National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta, Malta.

The bilingual inscription of three lines of Greek script and four lines of Phoenician script records a dedication to Melqart by the brothers Abdosir and ‘Osirshamar. The Greek text with its alternative names for the brothers, Dionysos and Serapion, sons of Serapion of Tyre and dedicated to the Greek God Heracles, strengthens the inter-cultural connection.

Although found in 1694, it was not until 1758 that the great 18th-century scholar Fr. J.-J. Barthélémy started deciphering Phoenician texts by using the Greek alphabet, decoding 18 of the 22 letters of the Phoenician alphabet.

The inscription reads:
To our lord Melqart, Lord of Tyre, dedicated by
Your servant Abd’ Osir and his brother ‘Osirshamar
Both sons of ‘Osirshamar, son of Abd’ Osir, for he heard
Their voice, may he bless them.

The Phoenician inscription on the Louvre Cippus thanking Lord Melqart for having heard their voice and asking for his blessing could mean that the cippi were religious offerings in gratitude for prayers heard.

These two cippi definitely deserve the status of being Malta’s own version of the Rosetta, as the study of the Phoenician inscription on the base of the Louvre cippus was the foundation of all later Phoenician and Punic studies, at a time when very little was known about the Phoenicians and their civilization apart from their mentions in the Bible and Greek texts.

REFERENCES:
Louvre Collection:cippus from Malta https://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/cippus-malta
Cartwright, Mark. “Melqart.” Ancient His tory Encyclopedia . Ancient History Encyclopedia, 6 May 2016. Web. 13 Aug. 2016. http://www.ancient.eu/Melqart/
Kelpla. “The Cippi of Melqart and Heracles.” The Daily Beagle . The Daily Beagle, 20 May 2013. Web. 13 Aug. 2016. https://thedailybeagle.net/2013/05/20/the-cippi-of-melqart-and-heracles/
Livius. “Tyre, City, Temple of Melqart.” Livius: Articles on Ancient History . Livius, 22 Dec. 2015. Web. 13 Aug. 2016. http://www.livius.org/articles/place/tyre/tyre-photos/tyre-city-temple-of-melqart/
Sussle. “Cippi of Melqart.” Sussle Visual Encyclopedia . Sussle Visual Encyclopedia, 2016. Web. 13 Aug. 2016. https://sussle.org/t/Cippi_of_Melqart
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