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[German version] A small island at the mouth of the Wādī Tafna (Latin Siga) in western Algeria, R. is the site of the extensive necropolis of the Mauretanian Punic city of Siga and, on the southern side, of a small Punic merchant settlement dating to the 7th-5th century BC; according to the finds, there were particularly close links with Phoenician factories on the southern coast of Spain. Syphax Niemeyer, Hans Georg (Hamburg) Bibliography …

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[German version] Syrian (western Semitic) god, attested in the area between Ebla, Mari, Byblus and Ugarit from the 3rd millennium BC. In the Phoenician world of the Mediterranean, R. merged syncretistically with Melqart (cf. the votive inscription KAI II 88 f. of Ibiza, 5th/4th cent. [1]). As Smiting God adopted from Egypt in the well known pattern of 'the king striking dead his enemies', he inspired the iconography of fighting deities in the Medi…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Sardinia et Corsica | | Etrusci, Etruria | Colonization | Phoenicians, Poeni (Θάρρος/ Thárros; Latin Tharrus). Phoenician settlement (founded shortly before or c. 700 BC) on the western coast of Sardinia on the Sinis peninsula, which encloses to the west the Gulf of Oristano, between two indigenous nuraghic settlements; There are records of contacts with the Orient from the 2nd millennium BC onwards. Rich finds in the necropoleis (gold jewellery) and the topheth (vot…

[German version] The peninsula, which bounds the gulf of Tunis to the east, extensively covered with fertile horticultural land (Diod. Sic. 10,8,3-4; Pol. 1,29,7), was probably as early as the 5th cent. BC part of the Carthaginian chora and protected by coastal fortifications (Aspis/ Clupea, modern Kélibia, Ras ed-Drek [Hermaia? Str. 17,3,16], Ras el-Fortass). The almost completely e…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Phoenicians, Poeni | Punic Wars (Dar es-Safi/Tamzerat). Carthaginian ‘provincial’ city on the east coast of Cap Bon, founded in …

[German version] The anchor as a device for tying up a ship in shallow water is an essential prerequisite for the development of advanced seafaring. In the Bronze Age, simple, roughly hewn stone anchors with pointed ends are known; they have one to three holes through their flat part for fixing the anchor rope ( ancorale) and an anchor stock (?). Perhaps invented by the Phoenicians, a wooden anchor becomes common in the early 1st millennium BC, which has the shape of a so-called admiralty anchor with wings/paddles and, at the other end, an anchor st…

[German version] (Ἔβουσος; Ébousos). According to archaeological finds, the larger one of the two  Pityussae (‘Spruce islands’), Ibiza and Formentera, was settled around the middle of the 7th cent. BC, initially under the name of ybšm by Phoenician colonists from the Straits of Gibraltar. The founding of a settlement by Carthage reported in Diod. Sic. 5,16,1-3, evidently refers to an expansion carried out by the north African metropolis some 100 years later. Thanks to its prominent position, the town of E. became an important Pu…

[German version] Prehistoric Tartessian, fortified proto-urban settlement with a harbour at the ancient junction of the Río Guadalete and the Bahía de Cádiz, now a hill in the alluvial land east of the port of Puerto de S. Maria, since the 8th cent. BC obviously with a large proportion of Phoenician settlers and a cultural strongly Oriental profile to match. From the necropolis ( …

[German version] Small Mauretanian rural town (3rd to 1st cents. BC) at Tétouan (in Morocco) near the coast (of the Mare Ibericum…

[German version] The c. 550 m high massif over the eastern shore of the bay of Tunis holds between its two distinctive peaks (Verg. Aen. 1,162f. vastae rupes geminique minantur [1]) an important sanctuary of Saturnus Balcaranensis (Punic Baal Qarnēm, ‘Baal of the two horns’), from the Roman imperial period but based on Punic tradition. Picture-steles ( c. 600 preserved) of dedication basically belong to two different groups: either popular-‘neo-Punic’ with symbolic pictures or conventional Roman sacrificial scenes. Niemeyer, Hans Georg (Hamburg) Bibliography 1 H.…

[German version] King of Tyre ( Tyrus) ( c. 962-929 BC). The name is shortened from the Phoenician Aḥīram (‘my brother is exalted’); known primarily for the trading expeditions sent as ‘joint ventures’ with King Solomon of Jerusalem to Ophir (India? East Africa? 1 Kg 9:26-28) and Tarsish (in the west of the Iberian peninsula,  Tartessus; 1 Kg 10:22, cf. Ez 27:12) [1. 251]. According to reliable surviving reports, including Josephus (Ap. 1,109-121), he was an active urban builder in Tyre and erected new temples f…

[German version] Usual name (Lat., Greek bursa, ‘cow hide’) for the acropolis of  Carthage, supposedly as a reminder of Dido's legendary purchase of land (‘as much as a cow hide can cover’) for the foundation of the town, or oldest place name (Serv. Aen. 1,70: Carthago ante Byrsa, post Tyros dicta est), as a result of misunderstanding the Phoenician toponym bir-ša (‘Sheep's well’). Niemeyer, Hans Georg (Hamburg) Bibliography E. Lipiński, B., in: Actes du IVe colloque international sur l'histoire et archéologie de l'Afrique du Nord. Strassbourg 1988, 1990, 123-130. Id., in: DCPP, s.v. B., 83f.

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[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Colonization (Μαινάκη/ Mainákē?; Lat. M(a)enaca, Maenoba?). Modern name of a Phoenician settlement to the west of Torre del Mar (province of Málaga in Spain) at the mouth of the Río de Vélez, with a protected harbour; a pass leads into the highlands and the mining regions around Jaén. Excavations (1964-1986) discovered a trading post founded c. 730 BC by the Phoenicians. The settlement, which flourished in the 7th cent., extended to the Cerro del Peñón (94 m) to the west, where at a moderate elevat…

[German version] Large rural sanctuary to Juno/Astarte on the Gulf of Marsaxlokk in the southeast of Malta (Melite [7]), originally dedicated to the mother goddess of the indigenous megalith culture of the Copper Age (3rd millennium BC), from no later than the 8th/7th cent. the site of a Phoenician cult of …

[German version] A cult cave on the north-eastern slope of Monte Gallo near Palermo ( c. 180 m above sea-level) used since prehistoric times. According to Punic inscriptions and paintings (5th-1st cents. BC, among these Tinnit symbols) on the walls, underworld and fertility gods were worshipped here.  Tinnit Niemeyer, Hans Georg (Hamburg) Bibliography G. Coacci Polselli, M. G. Guzzo Amadasi, V. Tusa, Grotta Regina ─ II, 1979.

[German version] This item c…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Phoenicians, Poeni Finding-place of two high archaic Phoenician inscriptions (8th cent. BC) at the mouth of the Temo on the western coast of Sardinia. Apparently mentioned in Ptol. 3,3,7 and in It. Ant. 83,8. Niemeyer, Hans Georg (Hamburg) Bibliography DCPP, s.v. B., 77.

[German version] A settlement which was founded in the 8th cent. BC on an indigenous Nuragic Age sit…