Benhisa inscription explained

The Benhisa inscription, CIS I 124, is Punic funeral inscription found in Malta in 1761. It mentions the name Hannibal, which garnered significant scholarly interest.^[1]

It is engraved on a block of stone measuring approximately 26 cm x 26 cm, containing four lines of which the end is missing (the left part was broken on its transfer to Paris).^[1]

It was sent to Paris in 1810 and it remains in the Cabinet des Médailles of the National Library.^[1]

Discovery

The inscription was discovered in the region of Bengħisa (archaically spelt Benhisa), just south of Birżebbuġa, at the south-eastern tip of the island. It was found in a cave-vault with whitewashed walls, dug in a rock, the stone on which was engraved the text in Phoenician characters in a niche carved in the rock, in the interior part of the cave, where also lay a corpse, near which a lamp had been discovered.^[1]

Publications

Multiple sketches were published:^[1]

• Book: Abela, G.F. . Malta illustrata... del commendatore F. Giovanfrancesco Abela,... corretta, accresciuta, e continovata dal conte Giovannantonio Ciantar,... con le piante di Malta, e della sua antica citta'... . per F. Giovanni Mallia . Malta illustrata... del commendatore F. Giovanfrancesco Abela,... corretta, accresciuta, e continovata dal conte Giovannantonio Ciantar,... con le piante di Malta, e della sua antica citta' . 1772 . it . none. (pages 198-199 and 465–466)
  • Ciantar's copy was studied by Jean-Jacques Barthélémy, the decipherer of Phoenician, in Journal des Savants, December 1761, p. 871-872
• Swinton, John. “An Attempt to Explain a Punic Inscription, Lately Discovered in the Island of Malta. In a Letter to the Reverend Thomas Birch, D. D. Secret. R. S. from the Reverend John Swinton, B. D. of Christ-Church, Oxon. F. R. S. and Member of the Etruscan Academy of Cortona in Tuscany.” Philosophical Transactions (1683-1775) 53 (1763): 274–93. http://www.jstor.org/stable/105734.
• Book: Castello, Gabriele Lancillotto . Gabriele Lancillotto Castelli

. Gabriele Lancillotto Castelli . Siciliae et objacentium insularum veterum inscriptionum nova collectio, prolegom. et notis illustrata . cajet. Mar. Bentivenga . 1769 . la . none. (pages 293 and p. 318 in the 1784 edition)

• Book: Drummond, Willian . William Drummond of Logiealmond

. William Drummond of Logiealmond . An Essay on a Punic Inscription Found in the Island of Malta . A.J. Valpy [and] sold by W.H Lunn . 1810 . none.

It does not appear in the Kanaanäische und Aramäische Inschriften or Cooke's Text-Book of North-Semitic Inscriptions.^[1]

Bibliography

• An Eye for Form
• ^[2]

Notes and References

1. Sznycer Maurice. Antiquités et épigraphie nord-sémitiques. In: École pratique des hautes études. 4e section, Sciences historiques et philologiques. Annuaire 1973-1974. 1974. pp. 131-153. www.persee.fr/doc/ephe_0000-0001_1973_num_1_1_5852
2. Book: Caruana, A.A. . Report on the Phoœnician and Roman antiquities in ... Malta . 1882 . none . 36-37.