Les Pheniciens a Malta d' apres les temoignages epigraphiques

Abstract

A brief analysis of the part played by these inscriptions towards a better understanding of the Phoenicio-Punic settlement in Malta and Gozo. This paper gives an inventory of the various data found on the one hand, in the writings of Greek and Latin authors about the colonization of the Maltese archipelago, and, on the other, in contemporary publications about archaeological discoveries. This paper underlines the fact that, until 1963, there had been only sporadic excavations and a great confusion in "Phoeniciomania" . But from 1963 onwards the excavations carried out by the Italians produced evidence of the importance of the Phoenician influence in Malta. The main theme of the paper is to underline the great importance of epigraphy in supplementing the recent archaeological data. At Tas-Silg, for example, which one would expect to have a sanctuary of Melqart, an epigraph dedicated to Astarte shows that this is not so. Furthermore, the large number of inscriptions, 136 found at Tas-Silg at of the type L 'STRT ("to Astarte") as opposed to only three of the type LTNT ("to Tanit"), covering the 3rd-lst cents. B.C., indicates that the people in Malta worshipped the Phoenician goddess Astarte, rather than the Carthaginian goddess Tanit, as late as that period. Further data provided by inscriptions in Malta and Gozo, and the famous bilingual cippus in the Louvre and in the National Museum in Valletta, also give evidence of the close spiritual links between Malta and Tyre, a feature specifically Maltese in the Carthaginian period.