The Pyrgi Tablets: An Ancient Translation into Phoenician!


Probably not many of you have heard of three ancient engraved golden plaques known as the Pyrgi Tablets.
This unusual find was excavated in 1964, in what is nowadays Santa Severa in Italy, a port of the ancient Etruscan town of Caere (or modern-day Cerveteri). These tablets were made to record the dedication of a temple to the Phoenician goddess of fertility, Ishtar (also known as Astarté, Ashtarout, and Ashtoreth).
What makes those tablets special is the fact that they are bilingual: the original Etruscan text marking the occasion was actually translated into Punic/Phoenician, which has enabled researchers to use their knowledge of the Semitic Phoenician language to read and understand the otherwise undecipherable Etruscan. Etruscan is still one of the most mysterious world languages as it cannot be grouped within the Indo-European languages, despite the fact that its speakers were European-based.
Moreover, these tablets provide evidence of the spread of the Phoenician/Punic cultural influence in the Western Mediterranean in pre-Roman eras, and show just how revered were the Phoenician deities in that part of the world. The battle of Alalia where the allied Etruscan-Punic (Phoenician) fleet defeated the Greek ships, is one of the clear indicators of the bonds between those two ancient Mediterranean peoples.
Back to the Pyrgi Tablets, the other funny thing, according to Charles Krahmalkov, a professor of ancient Near Eastern languages and the author of a book on Phoenician-Punic grammar, is that the translator of the tablets was probably an Etruscan whose Phoenician language was not very fluent, since he/she was translating literally from Etruscan!
I have copied and pasted an English translation found on the Internet of the Phoenician text.
To the speakers of Arabic among you, I have transliterated into Arabic letters some of the Phoenician words engraved on the tablets. You will notice that these words are almost identical to certain Arabic words used in our modern times.
Please note that the Phoenician script did not use vowels, so one should guess how certain words are pronounced.

L-rbt l-ʕštrt.
To the lady Ashtaret.للربّة- عشترت
ʔr qdš ʕz, ʕš pʕl, w-ʔš ytn Tbryʔ Wlnš mlk ʕl Kyšryʔ.
This is the holy place, which was made, and which was donated by Tiberius Velianas who reigns over the Caerites.
قدوش/قديش (مقدس) فعل (صنع) ويعطن (أعطي - قدّم) ملك
B-yr zb Šmš, b-mtnʔ b-bt, wbn tw.
During the month of the sacrifice to the Sun, as a gift in the temple, he built an aedicula.
ذبح - شمش (شمس ) معطنة (عطية - هبة) بيت - وبنى
K-ʕštrt ʔrš b-dy l-mlky šnt šlš, b-yr Krr, b-ym qbr ʔlm
For Ishtar raised him with her hand to reign for three years in the month of Churvar, in the day of the burying of the divinity.
بديا (بيدها) لملكي (ليملك) شنات شلاش(سنوات ثلاث) - يوم - قبر - إيليم/عاليم؟ (الآلهة))

W-šnt lmʔš ʔlm b-bty šnt km kkbm ʕl.
And the years of the statue of the divinity in the temple [shall be] as many years as the stars above.
وشنوت (سنوات) إيليم (جمع إيل.؟ آلهة) بالبيت (الهيكل) كما، كوكبيم (كواكب) عل (العلى))

1 comments:

Konstantinos said...

Do you know what does "Pyrgi" mean? Well, it's a greek word which means "small castle" and "pyrgos" is the main word.In order to discover more about greek language, take a look at this site
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Modern_Greek/Restructuring