The Pyrgi Tablets (dated ) are three golden plates inscribed with a bilingual Phoenician–Etruscan dedicatory text. They are the oldest historical source documents from Italy, predating Roman hegemony, and are rare examples of texts in these languages. They were discovered in 1964 during a series of excavations at the site of ancient Pyrgi, on the Tyrrhenian coast of Italy in Latium (Lazio). The text records the foundation of a temple and its dedication to the Phoenician goddess Astarte, who is identified with the Etruscan supreme goddess Uni in the Etruscan text. The temple's construction is attributed to Thefarie Velianas, ruler of the nearby city of Caere.
Two of the tablets are inscribed in the Etruscan language, the third in Phoenician.The specific dialect has been called "Mediterranean Phoenician" by Full bibliography of Pyrgi and the tablets The writings are important in providing both a bilingual text that allows researchers to use knowledge of Phoenician to interpret Etruscan, and evidence of Phoenician or Punic influence in the Western Mediterranean. They may relate to Polybius's report (Hist. 3,22) of an ancient and almost unintelligible treaty between the Romans and the Carthaginians, which he dated to the consulships of Lucius Junius Brutus and Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus (509 BC).Smith, C. J., "Recent approaches to early writing" in The Archaeology of Death: Proceedings of the Seventh Conference of Italian Archaeology held at the National University of Ireland, Galway, April 16–18, 2016 edited by Edward Herring and Eóin O’Donoghue. Archaeopress, 2018, p. 31 https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/10023/15876/Smith_2018_ArchofDeath_EarlyWriting_VoR.pdf?sequence=5&isAllowed=y
The Phoenician inscriptions are known as KAI 277. The tablets are now held at the National Etruscan Museum, Villa Giulia, Rome.
Pallottino has claimed that the existence of this bilingual suggests an attempt by Carthage to support or impose a ruler (Tiberius Velianas) over Caere at a time when Etruscan sea power was waning and to be sure that this region, with strong cultural ties to Greek settlements to the south, stayed in the Etrusco-Carthaginian confederacy.Pallottino, M. The Etruscans. Trans. J. Cremona. Indiana UP, Bloomington and London. 1975. p. 90 The exact nature of the rule of Tiberius Velianas has been the subject of much discussion. The Phoenician root MLK refers to sole power, often associated with a king. But the Etruscan text does not use the Etruscan word for 'king', , instead presenting the term for 'magistrate', (perhaps modified by a word that may mean 'great'). This suggests that Tiberius Velianas may have been a tyrant of the kind found in some Greek cities of the time. Building a temple, claiming to have been addressed by a god, and creating or strengthening his connections with foreign powers may all have been ways that he sought to solidify and legitimate his own power.Smith, C. "The Pyrgi Tablets and the View From Rome" in Le Lamine di Pyrgi eds V. Bellelli and P. Xella, Verona, 2016. pp. 203–221
Another area that the Pyrgi Tablets seem to throw light on is that Carthage was indeed involved in central Italy at this point in history. Such involvement was suggested by mentions by Polybius of a treaty between Rome and Carthage at about the same time period (circa 500 BC), and by Herodotus's accounts of Carthaginian involvement in the Battle of Alalia. But these isolated accounts did not have any contemporaneous texts from the area to support them until these tablets were unearthed and interpreted.Smith, C. "The Pyrgi Tablets and the View from Rome" in Le Lamine di Pyrgi, eds. V. Bellelli and P. Xella, Verona, 2016. pp. 203–221 Schmidtz originally claimed that the language pointed more toward an eastern Mediterranean form of Phoenician rather than to Punic/Carthaginian. But he has more recently reversed this view, and he even sees the possibility that the Carthaginians are directly referred to in the text.Schmidtz, Philip Ch. " Sempre Pyrgi: A retraction and a Reassessment of the Phoenician Text" in Le lamine di Pyrgi: Nuovi studi sulle iscizione in etrusco e in fenicio nel cinquantenario della scoperta eds. Vincenzo Bellelli and Paolo Xella. Verona, 2016. pp. 33–43
The text is also important for our understanding of religion in central Italy around the year 500 BC. Specifically, it suggests that the commemoration of the death of Adonis was an important rite in Central Italy at least at this time (around 500 BC), that is if, as is generally assumed, the Phoenician phrase "on the day of the burial of the divinity" refers to this rite. This claim would be further strengthened if Schmidtz's recent claim can be accepted that the Phoenician phrase means "at the death of (the) Handsome (one) [=Adonis]."Schmidtz, Philip Ch. " Sempre Pyrgi: A retraction and a Reassessment of the Phoenician Text" in Le lamine di Pyrgi: Nuovi studi sulle iscizione in etrusco e in fenicio nel cinquantenario della scoperta eds. Vincenzo Bellelli and Paolo Xella. Verona, 2016. pp. 33–43 Together with evidence of the rite of Adonia in the Liber Linteus in the 7th column, there is a strong likelihood that the ritual was practiced in (at least) the southern part of Etruria from at least circa 500 BC through the second century BC (depending on one's dating of the Liber Linteus). Adonis himself does not seem to be directly mentioned in any of the extant language of either text.Liber Linteus Zagrabiensis. The Linen Book of Zagreb: A Comment on the Longest Etruscan Text. By L.B. VAN DER MEER. (Monographs on Antiquity.) Louvain: Peeters, 2007
Phoenician text The Phoenician inscriptions are known as KAI 277. Following is a transcription with English translations.
,
For the Lady, for Astarte,
this is the holy place, which was made, and which was placed (by) Tiberius Velianas, king over Kasriye (= Caerites?),
.
during the month of the sacrifice to the Sun, as an offering in the temple.Zamora, José Á. "Pyrgi Revisited: An Analysis of the Structure and Formulae of the Phoenician Text of Pyrgi" in Le lamine di Pyrgi: Nuovi studi sulle iscrizioni in etrusco e in fenicio nel cinquantenario della scoperta. Editors: Vincenzo Bellelli e Paolo Xella. 2015–2016. pp. 69–79 Sel Studi Epigrafici e Linguistici sul Vicino Oriente antico Nuova Serie: Ricerche storiche e filologiche sulle culture del Vicino Oriente e del Mediterraneo antico
And he built a chamber (or -bn TW = "Tiberius Velianas built (it)"),Zamora, José Á. "Pyrgi Revisited: An Analysis of the Structure and Formulae of the Phoenician Text of Pyrgi" in Le lamine di Pyrgi: Nuovi studi sulle iscrizioni in etrusco e in fenicio nel cinquantenario della scoperta. Editors: Vincenzo Bellelli e Paolo Xella. 2015–2016. p. 77. Sel Studi Epigrafici e Linguistici sul Vicino Oriente antico Nuova Serie: Ricerche storiche e filologiche sulle culture del Vicino Oriente e del Mediterraneo antico because Astarte requested (this) from him, year three "3" of his reign, in the month of Krr, on the day of the burial of the divinity.
.
And (may) the years of the statue of the deity in her temple (be) years like (or "as numerous as") the stars.Transcription from Hildegard Temporini, Joseph Vogt, Wolfgang Haase. 1972. Aufsteig und Niedergang der Römischen Welt, vol. 2, part 25. P.201. Also, along with the original Phoenician letters, in Haarmann, Harald. 1996. Early Civilization and Literacy in Europe: An Inquiry into Cultural Continuity in the Mediterranean World. P.355Schmitz, P. 1995 "The Phoenician Text from the Etruscan Sanctuary at Pyrgi." Journal of the American Oriental Society 15:562.
Translation variants The Phoenician text has long been known to be in a Semitic, more specifically a Canaanite language (specifically North Canaanite; South Canaanite dialects include Hebrew, Moabite, and Edomite); hence there was no need for it to be "deciphered". And while most of the inscription can certainly reliably be read, certain passages are philologically uncertain on account of perceived complications of syntax and the vocabulary employed in the inscription, and as such they have become the source of debate among both Semiticists and classicists.For a relatively recent analysis of the inscription and summary of the various scholarly interpretations, see Schmitz, P. 1995 "The Phoenician Text from the Etruscan Sanctuary at Pyrgi." Journal of the American Oriental Society 15:559–575.
For example, other translations of the final line, besides that cited above, include: "And I made a duplicate of the statue of the goddess <Astarte> in her temple as do the Kakkabites [?Carthaginians]"; and "As for the red robe of the statues of the goddess <Astarte> in her temple, her/its red robe is like a those of the gods of the Kakkabites [Carthaginians]" (both of these from Krahmalkov's Phoenician-Punic Dictionary).Krahmalkov, C. R. Phoenician-Punic Dictionary Leuven, 2000. pp. 230, 475 Further, In Schmidtz's 2016 treatment of the text, he reinterprets the string bmtnʾ bbt (translated above and commonly as "as an offering in the temple") as bmt n' bbt to mean "at the death of (the) Handsome (one) [=Adonis]."Schmidtz, Philip Ch. " Sempre Pyrgi: A retraction and a Reassessment of the Phoenician Text" in Le lamine di Pyrgi: Nuovi studi sulle iscizione in etrusco e in fenicio nel cinquantenario della scoperta eds. Vincenzo Bellelli and Paolo Xella. Verona, 2016. pp. 33–43
Phoenician vocabulary
Much of the well known vocabulary (from the glossary by A. Bloch, 1890, unless otherwise indicated) of the text is, of course, religious, including rb-t "Lady," ʻštrt the goddess "Astarte," qdš "holy," ʼlm "divinity," bt "temple, house," zbḥ "sacrifice," qbr "burial"; or they involve the calendar or elements of the natural world: ym "day," yrḥ "month," šnt "year(s)," šmš "sun" (in this context, also a deity), kkb "stars." Common verbs include šmš "made," ytn "placed," bn "built," mlk "rule, reign." Most of the items below not covered in this list are grammatical elements, uncited claims, or reflect earlier scholarship that has now been superseded by newer studies.
Nouns in the text include: bt' , "house, temple" [Semitic *bayt- ], kkb , star [Semitic *kabkab- ] [hakkawkabīm/hakkawkabūm = the-stars], ʼlm , divinity [Semitic *ʼil- "god"], ʼšr , place, ʻštrt , Astarte [Semitic *ʻaṯtar- ], krr , Churvar [calendar month] [cf. Etruscan Χurvar], kyšryʼ , Caerites [a people], lmʼš , statue (But analyzed by some as the preposition lm "during" plus the relative pronoun ʼš "which"), mtnʼ, gift [Semitic *ntn 'to give'], qbr, burial, rbt, lady [cf. Akkadian rābu "grand, large"] [rabbu, female: rabbatu ], šmš, sun [Semitic *šamš-The Patterning of Root Morphemes in Semitic. 1990. In: On language: selected writings of Joseph H. Greenberg. Ed. Keith M. Denning and Suzanne Kemmer. P.379], šnt, year [šanot "years" – from: šanāt] , tw, aedicula [taw], yd, hand ym, day [Semitic *yawm-], yrḥ, month [Semitic *warḥu-] [Canaanite: yarhu], zbḥ, sacrifice
Verbs: mlk, to rule, to reign [Semitic *mlk], ʼrš, to raise, bn, to build [ bny ] [wayyiben = [and] he built], bn, to build [ bny ] [wayyiben = [and] he built], mlk, to rule, to reign [Semitic *mlk], pʻl, to make, to do [Semitic *pʻl], ::ytn, to give [Semitic *[y]-ntn] [ya-ntin[u]] he-gives / Hebrew: yittēn
Other: ʼš, which, who, that [rel.pron], ʼz, this [ ha-dha? ], ʻl, over, above [Semitic *ʻal-], b-, in, at, with, on [Semitic *bi-], bn, to build [ bny ] [wayyiben = [and] he built], k-, for, since [Semitic *ki-], km, like, as [ka-ma], l-, to, for [Semitic *la-], qdš, holy, šlš, three [Semitic *ṯalāṯ-], w-, and [Semitic *wa-]
Etruscan text