Carpentras Stele Explained

Carpentras Stele
Material:Stone
Writing:Aramaic
Created:4th century BC[1]
Discovered:1704
Location:Bibliothèque Inguimbertine
Id:KAI 269; CIS II 141

The Carpentras Stele is a stele found at Carpentras in southern France in 1704 that contains the first published inscription written in the Phoenician alphabet, and the first ever identified (a century later) as Aramaic.[2] It remains in Carpentras, at the Bibliothèque Inguimbertine, in a "dark corner" on the first floor.[3] Older Aramaic texts were found since the 9th century BC, but this one is the first Aramaic text to be published in Europe.[4] It is known as KAI 269, CIS II 141 and TAD C20.5.

It is a funerary dedication to an unknown lady called Taba; the first line of the image depicts her standing before the god of the underworld with her arms raised and the second, her lying down, dead, being prepared for burial. The textual inscription is typical of Egyptian funerary tablets in that she is described as having done nothing bad in her life, and wishes her well in the presence of Osiris. A long-running scholarly debate has focused on the language of the inscription, and whether it was written as prose or poetry.

It was the first Northwest Semitic (i.e. Canaanite or Aramaic) inscription published anywhere in modern times (the Cippi of Melqart inscriptions, reported ten years earlier in 1694, were not published in full at that time).[5]

It was considered to be Phoenician text at the time of its discovery.[6] [7] Scholars later argued that the inscription was "Aramaic" or "Chaldean".[8] Since the early 19th century the language of the inscription has been considered to be Aramaic.[9] [10]

It was first translated in full by Jean-Jacques Barthélemy in the 1760s, and then by Oluf Gerhard Tychsen in 1802; the two translations were subsequently compared and critiqued by Ulrich Friedrich Kopp in 1821, who was in turn quoted by Wilhelm Gesenius in his widely published Scripturae linguaeque Phoeniciae.[11] Kopp criticised Barthélemy and other scholars who had characterized the inscription and some coins as Phoenician, with "everything left to the Phoenicians and nothing to the Arameans, as if they could not have written at all". Kopp noted that some of the words on the stele corresponded to the Aramaic in the Book of Daniel, and in the Book of Ruth.

Initial publication

The stele was first published in 1704 by Jean-Pierre Rigord in an article focused on Rigord's description of the hieratic script; the article represented the first recognition of a non-hieroglyphic Egyptian script in modern times. Rigord wrote that "I have in my Cabinet an Egyptian Monument that I have sketched here, on which there are historical figures, above a Punic inscription."[9] [12] [13]

Rigord had a number of plaster casts made and distributed to others in the academic community, mostly in Southern France.[14] The stele was subsequently reviewed by Anne Claude de Caylus, Bernard de Montfaucon[15] and Jean-Jacques Barthélemy.[16] Barthelemy's review ended an early dispute about the language of the inscription – a consensus formed that the inscription was Phoenician; this consensus was to last until the beginning of the 19th century.[17]

Poetry

A number of scholars have suggested that the inscription should be translated as a poem, i.e. in metric form. This was first proposed in 1868 by Joseph Derenbourg.[18] [19]

The inscription, in poetic form, was translated by Charles Cutler Torrey as follows:[20]

Blessed is Taba, daughter of Tahapi, devotee of the god Osiris;

She, who to none did aught of evil, by whom no slander whatever was spoken.

Before Osiris be thou blest, before him take the gift of water;

Be thou (his) worshipper, my fair one, and among his saints be thou complete.

Images

In the top part of the stele, Egyptian god of the underworld Osiris sits on the throne, recognizable with his characteristic crook and flail.[3] Behind him is a goddess dressed in a long skirt; it could be Isis or Maat.[3] At the table a lady, perhaps the deceased, stands with her arms raised in an adoration pose. In the lower image, the deceased is shown lying on a lion-bed. The embalming god Anubis is shown, assisted by the falcon-headed Horus.[3] The four canopic jugs with the entrails of the deceased are under the bed, with lids likely designed as heads of four sons of Horus: Imset (human head), Hapi (baboon), Duamutef (jackal), Qebehsenuef (falcon). Nephthys kneels at the feet of the dead, and Isis is shown at the head.[3]

Popular culture

The stele featured in three of the letters written by Vincent van Gogh in 1889 to his brother and sister.[21]

Bibliography

External links

Notes and References

  1. http://mnamon.sns.it/index.php?page=Esempi&id=2&lang=en Aramaic - 10th cent. B.C. - today
  2. Book: Caputo . C. . Lougovaya . J. . Using Ostraca in the Ancient World: New Discoveries and Methodologies . De Gruyter . Materiale Textkulturen . 2020 . 978-3-11-071290-2 . The earliest of the Aramaic finds known to us is the so-called "Carpentras stele"... . 147.
  3. [:de:Rudolf Jaggi|Rudolf Jaggi]
  4. http://mnamon.sns.it/index.php?page=Esempi&id=2&lang=en Aramaic - 10th cent. B.C. - today
  5. Book: Gibson, J. C. L.. Textbook of Syrian Semitic Inscriptions: II. Aramaic Inscriptions: Including Inscriptions in the Dialect of Zenjirli. 1975. OUP Oxford. 978-0-19-813186-1. 120. The Carpentras stele: The famous funerary stele (CIS ii 141) was the first Syrian Semitic inscr. to become known in Europe, being discovered in the early 18 cent.; it measures 0.35 m high by 0.33m broad and is housed in a museum at Carpentras in southern France..
  6. Book: Gibson, J. C. L.. Textbook of Syrian Semitic Inscriptions: II. Aramaic Inscriptions: Including Inscriptions in the Dialect of Zenjirli. 1975. OUP Oxford. 978-0-19-813186-1. 120. The Carpentras stele: The famous funerary stele (CIS ii 141) was the first Syrian Semitic inscr. to become known in Europe, being discovered in the early 18 cent.; it measures 0.35 m high by 0.33m broad and is housed in a museum at Carpentras in southern France..
  7. Book: Daniels, Peter T.. Rebecca Hasselbach-Andee. A Companion to Ancient Near Eastern Languages. https://books.google.com/books?id=LFbPDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA2. 2020. John Wiley & Sons. 978-1-119-19329-6. 7–8. The Decipherment of Ancient Near Eastern Languages. Barthélemy was not done. On 13 November 1761, he interpreted the inscription on the Carpentras stela (KAI 269), again going letter by letter, but the only indication he gives of how he arrived at their values is that they were similar to the other Phoenician letters that were by now well known… He includes a list of roots as realized in various languages – and also shows that Coptic, which he conjectured was the continuation of the earlier language of the hieroglyphs, shares a variety of grammatical features with the languages listed above. The name "Semitic" for those languages lay two decades in the future, and the group "Aramaic," which from the list includes Syriac, Chaldaean [Jewish Aramaic], and Palmyrene, as well as the Carpentras stela, seems to have been named only about 1810 though it was recognized somewhat earlier (Daniels 1991).
  8. Nova Acta Regiae Societatis Scientiarum Upsaliensis. De LINGVÆ PHOENICIÆ ET HEBRAICÆ MUTUA ÆQVALITATE. 1815 . Almqvist & Wiksells. 87–. Vix itaque mente concipi posset, quî factum, vt cl. Barthélemy sepulcralem inscriptionem Carpentoractensem lingua chaldaica & litteris partim assyriacis, partim phœniciis exaratam appellare potuerit inscriptionem phœniciam, nisi linguam phœniciam suisse affinium dialectorum centonem credidisser. . Oluf Gerhard Tychsen. Oluf Gerhard . Tychsen. la. Also at Biodiversity Library
  9. Book: Pope, Maurice. Maurice Pope (linguist). The Story of Decipherment: From Egyptian Hieroglyphs to Maya Script. 1999. Thames and Hudson. 978-0-500-28105-5. 43. Rigord's article was illustrated with plates of an ordinary hieroglyphic inscription, a specimen of the mummy text, and another stone inscription from Egypt from his collection. With the aid of the passage about Egyptian writing in Clement, he identified the first as 'symbolical hieroglyphic', the second as either 'hieratic' or as 'cyriological hieroglyphic', and the third as 'epistolographic'. He thought that this last one, written from right to left, was probably Phoenician. The script was said to have been in public use, and Phoenician might have come in as a mercantile language with the Shepherd Kings. The divergence of the language from Hebrew (the original tongue of mankind) had obviously reached the point of unintelligibility in Joseph's day for an interpreter to have been considered necessary between him and his brothers, and Jerome had said that Phoenician was half-way between Hebrew and Egyptian. Finally, Rigord suggested that the language might have been the same as Punic..
  10. Shea, W. (1981). The Carpentras Stela: A Funerary Poem. Journal of the American Oriental Society, 101(2), 215–217. ; Allen, D. (1960). The Predecessors of Champollion. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 104(5), 527–547. Retrieved August 19, 2020, from ; Book: Porten. Bezalel. Yardeni. Ada. Textbook of Aramaic documents from ancient Egypt: Ostraca & assorted inscriptions. 1999. Hebrew University, Dept. of the History of the Jewish People. 978-965-350-089-1. ; Web site: Aramaic – Examples of writing. Mnamon: Ancient writing systems in the Mediterranean. en. .
  11. Book: Gesenius, Wilhelm . Scripturae linguaeque Phoeniciae monumenta quotquot supersunt edita et inedita . 1837 . 1–3 . none . Wilhelm Gesenius.
  12. Book: Pope, Maurice. The Story of Decipherment: From Egyptian Hieroglyphs to Maya Script. 1999. Thames and Hudson. 978-0-500-28105-5. 43–44. ...it contained two new ideas of great importance. The first was that hieroglyphic was not a secret script at all but the opposite, a public one for use on public monuments, devised for the benefit of those who were illiterate and unable to read the (Hebrew-derived) alphabetic script. The temple-entrance inscription in Clement, which Rigord realized to be the same as that presented without a translation in our manuscripts of Plutarch, was given by him a totally non-mystical interpretation: in the context, 'God hates Impudence', could only mean 'one must approach a Temple with the reverence due to the presence of God'. Rigord's second novel suggestion, which was to remain dormant until Champollion, was that the meaning of 'first elements' (protastoicheia), referred to by Clement as being used to express words in 'cyriological hieroglyphic', must be alphabetic letters..
  13. Rigord, M., "Lettre de Monsieur Rigord Commissaire de la Marine aux journalistes de Trevoux sur une ceinture de toile trouvée en Egypte autour d'une Mumie." Mémoires pour l'histoire des Sciences et les beaux Arts, Trevoux 4 (1704): 978–1000: "D'ailleurs ce qui doit avoir le plus contribué à introduire ce langage et ce caractere en Egypte, c'est la Dynastie des Rois bergers. C'étoient des Bergers Pheniciens lesquels conquirent l'Egypte, & qui y regnerent pendant quelques siecles: ils dûrent y introduire le langage Phenicien. Car ces Rois traiterene l'Egypte en païs de conquête, ils brûlerent les Villes, abbatirent les Temples, massacrerent un nombre infini de gens et firent generalement tout ce qu'ils purent pour détruire la nation: il leur fallut donc nécessairement faire venir beaucoup de Pheniciens pour s'assurer contre les naturels du païs; qui ne pouvoient être que très-mal intentionnez. Il seroit surprenant que la langue Phenicienne ne se fût pas introduite dans l'Egypte lors qu'elle étoit gouvernée et toute occupée par des Pheniciens. Il y avoit même encore du tems d'Herodote aux environs du Temple de Protée à Memphis un endroit où demeuroient les successeurs des Pheniciens: c'est ce que l'on appelloit le camp des Tyriens. On pourroit m'opposer que Joseph dans la Genese ne parle à ses freres que par interprete, pour nė se pas faire connoître à eux: mais quelque ressemblance qu'il y ait entre les langues, elles changent considerablement pour peu qu'elles s'éloignent de leur source. Le Grec litteral par exemple n'est pas entendu par les Grecs d'aujourd'hui, quoi que ce soit la langue mere. Pour venir à la langue Punique, on voit que cette langue doit avoir une grande ressemblance avec l'Hebreu litteral. En effet, tous les sçavans qui ont voulu expliquer la scene Punique qui est dans Plaute, ont recours aux racines Hebraiques; et ce n'a été qu'à force de reflexions qu'ils en sont venus à bout. Ainsi le langage du public en Egypte pouvoit fort bien être Punique originairement, sans être entendu par des bergers Pheniciens. J'ai dans mon Cabinet un Monument Egyptien que j'ai fait graver ici, sur lequel il y a des figures historiques, et par dessus de l'Ecriture Punique; ce qui paroît une preuve assez solide du sentiment que je viens de proposer."
  14. [:de:Rudolf Jaggi|Rudolf Jaggi]
  15. Montfaucon, Père Bernard de, "Le corps d'Osiris avec une tête de Monstre", L'Antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures. Suppl. II, Paris 1719, pp207ff
  16. Jean-Jacques Barthélemy. none. Barthélémy . Explication d'un bas-relief égyptien, et de l'inscription phénicienne qui l'accompagne (1761). Histoire de l'Académie royale des inscriptions et belles-lettres . 1768 . 32 . Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres (France) Auteur du . 725 ff . FR. CE bas-relief exécuté sur une pierre dont la longueur est d'environ un pied six pouces, et la largeur d'un pied huit lignes, possedé d'abord par M. Rigord de Marseille, ensuite par M. de Mazaugues, Président au Parlement d'Aix, est aujourd'hui conservé dans la bibliothèque de M. l'évêque de Carpentras... Voici des raisons pour prouver que nous devons ce bas-relief à des Phéniciens; I.° l'inscription est dans leur langue, et les lettres ressemblent pour ia plupart à celles que nous voyons sur les médailles frappées par des Phéniciens, soit en Chypre, soit dans les pays voisins; 2.° Osiris paroît aveo ses attributs sur les médailles que ce peuple frappoit dans l'île de Malte; 3.° on ne trouve point en Égypte de pierres sépulcrales ornées d'inscriptions et de bas-reliefs, tandis qu'il est prouvé, par les marbres de Chypre et de Malte, que cet usage étoit connu des Phéniciens..
  17. [:de:Rudolf Jaggi|Rudolf Jaggi]
  18. [:de:Rudolf Jaggi|Rudolf Jaggi]
  19. Derembourg, Joseph, Notes épigraphiques sur l'inscription de Carpentras in Journal asiatique 11, Paris 1868, p227; Shea, William H. "The Carpentras Stela: A Funerary Poem." Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 101, no. 2, 1981, pp. 215–217. Accessed 4 Oct. 2020.
  20. Torrey, C. (1926). A Specimen of Old Aramaic Verse. Journal of the American Oriental Society, 46, 241–247.
  21. http://www.vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let753/letter.html 753: To Theo van Gogh. Arles, Friday, 29 March 1889, note 8

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