Batnoam sarcophagus

Sarcophagus of a Phoenician royal

Batnoam inscription

The Batnoam inscription is a Phoenician inscription (KAI 11 and TSSI III 26) on a sarcophagus. It is dated to c. 450-425 BCE.

It was published in Maurice Dunand's Fouilles de Byblos (volume I, 1926-1932, numbers 1142, plate XXVIII).[1]

## Text of the inscription[edit]

The inscription reads:[2][3]

B’RN ZN ’NK BTN‘M | In this coffin I, Batno‘am,

|

’M MLK ‘ZB‘L MLK GBL |  mother of King Azbaal, King of Byblos,
BN PLṬB‘L KHN B‘LT |  son of Pilletbaal, Priest of Baalat
ŠKBT |  lie,
BSWT WMR’Š ‘LY | wearing a garment and a head-piece on me,
WMḤSM ḤRṢ LPY |  and a muzzle[4] of gold on my mouth
KM ’Š LMLKYT ’Š KN LPNY |  like those of the queens who were before me.

## Bibliography[edit]

* Christopher Rollston, "The Dating of the Early Royal Byblian Phoenician Inscriptions: A Response to Benjamin Sass." MAARAV 15 (2008): 57–93.
* Benjamin Mazar, The Phoenician Inscriptions from Byblos and the Evolution of the Phoenician-Hebrew Alphabet, in The Early Biblical Period: Historical Studies (S. Ahituv and B. A. Levine, eds., Jerusalem: IES, 1986 [original publication: 1946]): 231–247.
* William F. Albright, The Phoenician Inscriptions of the Tenth Century B.C. from Byblus, JAOS 67 (1947): 153–154.

## References[edit]

1. ^ Dunand, Maurice (1939). Fouilles de Byblos: Tome 1er, 1926-1932 [The Byblos excavations, Tome 1, 1926–1932]. Bibliothèque archéologique et historique (in French). Vol. 24\. Paris: Librarie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner.

- (1937). Fouilles de Byblos, Tome 1er, 1926–1932 (Atlas) [The Byblos excavations, Tome 1, 1926–1932 (Atlas)]. Bibliothèque archéologique et historique (in French). Vol. 24\. Paris: Librarie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner.
2. ^ Donner, Herbert; Rölig, Wolfgang (2002). Kanaanäische und aramäische Inschriften (5 ed.). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. p. I, 2.
3. ^ Krahmalkov, Charles R. (2000). Phoenician-Punic Dictionary. Leuven: Peeters / Departement Oosterse Studies. ISBN 90-429-0770-3.
4. ^ maḥsom: a funerary object to seal the lips of the deceased.