| Pococke Kition inscriptions | |
|---|---|
 The inscriptions | |
| Writing | Phoenician |
| Discovered | 1738 Cyprus |
| Present location | mostly destroyed |
ThePococke Kition inscriptions were a group of 31 Phoenician and 2 non-Phoenician inscriptions found inCyprus and published byRichard Pococke in 1745. In describingKition (modernLarnaca), Pococke wrote: "the walls seem to have been very strong, and in the foundations there have been found many stones, with inscriptions on them, in an unintelligible character, which I suppose, is the antient [sic] Phoenician..."[1]
The Phoenician inscriptions are known asKAI 33 (CIS I 11), KAI 35 (CIS I 46) and CIS I 57-85. They represent some of the most important finds in Phoenician and Semitic language studies, as they were used byJean-Jacques Barthélemy in his decipherment of the Phoenician language.
Only one of the inscriptions still survives, in theAshmolean Museum - all the rest were destroyed in construction work in 1749.[2][3]
The sole surviving inscription is a marble funeral stone, numbered "2" in Pococke's sketch, measuring 12 x 3 x 3 inches; the inscription is in memory of a deceased wife. The inscription was brought to England by a Dr. Porter ofThaxted, and presented to Oxford University byCharles Gray MP in 1751.[4][5] It was published many times, first by Pococke, and then by John Swinton,Richard Chandler,Jean-Jacques Barthélemy,Wilhelm Gesenius,[5] andJohan David Åkerblad.[2]
Today it resides at theAshmolean Museum, with accession number AN1974.325.[6]
| Pococke | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CIS | 11 | 46 | 57 | 64 | 73 | 82 | 74 | 60 | NP | 81 | 79 | 68 | 80 | 78 | 67 | 76 | 70 | 66 | NP | 59 | 71 | 62 | 58 | 65 | 77 | 69 | 83 | 85 | 61 | 72 | 75 | 84 | 63 |
| CIS | 11 | 46 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | NP | NP |
| Pococke | 1 | 2 | 3 | 23 | 20 | 8 | 29 | 22 | 33 | 4 | 24 | 18 | 15 | 12 | 26 | 17 | 21 | 30 | 5 | 7 | 31 | 16 | 25 | 14 | 11 | 13 | 10 | 6 | 27 | 32 | 28 | 9 | 19 |
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Charles Gray, M.P. for Colchester, presented… an inscription, in the Phoenician language, upon a white marble stone, which was brought, with many others, from Citium, in the island of Cyprus, by Dr. Porter, a physician of Thaxted in Essex. The stone measures twelve inches in length, by three in breadth, and three in depth. It has been frequently engraved: first by Pocock (Travels in the East, vol. ii. pl.xxxiii. 2); next by Swinton (Inscriptiones Citieae, 1750, and Philos. Trans. 1764); afterwards by Chandler, Barthélemy, &c; and, lastly, by Gesenius (for whom former copies were collated with the original, and corrected, by Mr. Reay) in his Scripturae Linguæque Phaenicia, Monumenta, published in 1837, where the inscription is described at pp. 126-133, part i., and engraved at pl. xi. part iii. It appears to be an epitaph by a husband in memory of his wife.
