Читать книгу A Companion to the Achaemenid Persian Empire, 2 Volume Set - Группа авторов - Страница 102

In the other parts of the Persian Empire, the Phoenician inscriptions are much less numerous. In Syria, inscribed weights come from Homs and a short inscription dated from the fourth century was found in Karkemish. In Israel, ostraca, bullae, short inscriptions, and stamps on pottery were found in Hazor, Khirbet el‐Kom, Wadi Daliyeh, and Sichem. A bronze situla from Har Mispeh Yamim bears a votive inscription to Ashtart. The ostraca of Tell el‐Kheleifeh near Elat testify to Phoenician trade in the Red Sea during the Persian period. Small Phoenician inscriptions were also discovered in Egypt: in Memphis, Tell el‐Maskhuta, Abusir, and Elephantine.

There are several inscriptions which originate from antiquities markets whose provenance is unknown. Some Phoenician inscriptions dated from the Persian period were also found outside the Persian Empire, in the Greek world and in the western Mediterranean. In the Near East, the great number of inscriptions dated from the Persian period shows that writing was widespread during this period, and not only reserved for professional scribes. The graffiti on pottery and coins were made by anybody who had an appropriate writing tool available. Most of the inscriptions are engraved on hard supports such as stone, metal (bronze, lead, silver, gold), ivory, and ceramics. A few only were painted in black or red on pottery. In general, the writing has a cursive character, except in monumental inscriptions which are not numerous. The monumental inscriptions are votive, funeral, or commemorative; none is a political decree, so numerous in Greek cities. Other categories of inscriptions are economical (archives, tariffs, lists), fiscal, monetary, magical, personal seals, indications of ownership, weights, letters, workshop marks, tokens, bullae, abecedaries … As no corpus of all the Phoenician inscriptions from the Persian period exists as yet, and since their historical information is scarce and scattered, it is necessary for the historian to use them extensively, but as a complement to other kinds of sources.