page_title: Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions
hierarchical_section_title: Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Sarcophage d'Eshmunazor II, roi de Sidon. Premier quart du Ve siècle avant J.-C. Nécropole de Magharat Tablun (caverne d'Apollon), Saïda, ancienne Sidon (Liban). Département des Antiquités orientales. Salle 17a. AO 4806. Louvre. Sarcophage de facture égyptienne. Le roi porte les attributs de la royauté en Égypte&#160;: le némes (coiffure), la fausse barbe&#160;; il est paré d'un pectoral dont les extrémités sont ornées de têtes de faucon. Le couvercle porte la plus longue inscription phénicienne d'époque perse connue. Louvre.fr
context_page_description: The Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions are the primary source for understanding of the society and history of the Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples. Semitic inscriptions may occur on stone slabs, pottery ostraca, ornaments, and range from simple names to full texts.
  The old Aramaic period saw the production and dispersal of inscriptions due to the rise of the Arameans as a major force in Ancient Near East. Their language was adopted as an international language of diplomacy, particularly during the late stages of the Neo-Assyrian Empire as well as the spread of Aramaic speakers from Egypt to Mesopotamia. Existing examples include the Kilamuwa Inscription, a record of Prince Kilamuwa's tribute to the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III and the Siloam Inscription, an account of the digging of a subterranean channel in 700 BC.
  Only 10,000 Phoenician-Punic inscriptions are known, such that "Phoenician probably remains the worst transmitted and least known of all Semitic languages." The only other substantial source for Phoenician-Punic are the excerpts in Poenulus, a play written by the Roman writer Plautus.
context_section_description: The Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions are the primary source for understanding of the society and history of the Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples. Semitic inscriptions may occur on stone slabs, pottery ostraca, ornaments, and range from simple names to full texts.
  The old Aramaic period (850 to 612 BCE) saw the production and dispersal of inscriptions due to the rise of the Arameans as a major force in Ancient Near East. Their language was adopted as an international language of diplomacy, particularly during the late stages of the Neo-Assyrian Empire as well as the spread of Aramaic speakers from Egypt to Mesopotamia. Existing examples include the Kilamuwa Inscription, a record of Prince Kilamuwa's tribute to the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III and the Siloam Inscription, an account of the digging of a subterranean channel in 700 BC. 
  Only 10,000 Phoenician-Punic inscriptions are known, such that "Phoenician probably remains the worst transmitted and least known of all Semitic languages."  The only other substantial source for Phoenician-Punic are the excerpts in Poenulus, a play written by the Roman writer Plautus. Within the corpus of inscriptions only 668 words have been attested, including 321 hapax legomena (words only attested a single time), per Wolfgang Röllig's analysis in 1983. This compares to the Bible's 7000-8000 words and 1500 hapax legomena, in Biblical Hebrew. One of the notable inscriptions was located at the ancient Etruscan port of Pyrgi in Latium (Lazio). The inscription, which was incised on a gold leaf together with two-leaf Etruscan equivalent, was a dedication by a king of Caere to the goddess Athtart (Uni in Etruscan).
caption: The Eshmunazar II sarcophagus was the first of this type of inscription found anywhere in the Levant (modern Jordan, Israel, Lebanon and Syria).
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