Vases, bones and two Phoenician inscriptions : an assessment of a discovery made in Malta in 1816

Abstract

Local and foreign antiquarians, travellers and collectors have always been attracted to the Phoenicians of Malta. A heady mixture of historical knowledge, lore, and tradition kept several of them busy throughout the nineteenth century, when antiquarianism was slowly being transformed into archaeology. This short paper considers the discovery of two Phoenician inscriptions in Malta in 1816 and the way that knowledge about them was obtained, exchanged and disseminated in the years that followed. Drawings and photographs, published and unpublished, are juxtaposed here for the first time. Finally, the significance of this discovery is considered in its central Mediterranean context, in particular against the background to which our honorand, Paolo Xella, has contributed widely over several decades of fine scholarship.