The latest publication by Prof. Anthony J. Frendo titled How to Read Ancient Texts focuses on select Phoenician inscriptions from Malta.
The book foregrounds the principles of interpretation that scholars employ when reading ancient inscriptions. In order to better come to grips with Canaanite, such as Phoenician, inscriptions, we need to first understand how people wrote and read texts in the ancient Mediterranean world, including that of the Greeks and Romans.
Contents:
The book foregrounds the principles of interpretation that scholars employ when reading ancient inscriptions. In order to better come to grips with Canaanite, such as Phoenician, inscriptions, we need to first understand how people wrote and read texts in the ancient Mediterranean world, including that of the Greeks and Romans.
Contents:
- About the Author
- Contents
- Preface
- Chapter 1. Introduction
- Chapter 2. The Phoenicians: Who are They?
- Chapter 3. The Hallmarks of Writing and Reading in Antiquity: Prose and Verse
- Chapter 4. Verse in the Levant: Classical Hebrew
- Chapter 5. Basic Principles of Interpretation: General and Phoenician-Specific
- Chapter 6. Context as the Indispensable Criterion of Interpretation: The Case of CIS I, 123 and 123 bis
- Stela of Milk-Ba‘al
- Stela of an offering instead of an infant
- Stela of a sacrifice consisting of an infant
- Stela of a sacrifice of a lord
- Stela of a (human) sacrifice of one making (it)
- Stela of a sacrifice to Ba‘al (literally ‘of a sacrifice of Ba‘al’)
- Stela of one sacrificed to Ba‘al (literally ‘of a sacrificed one of Ba‘al’)
- Chapter 7. Reading and Interpreting Phoenician Verse: The Tal-Virtù Papyrus
- Chapter 8. Conclusions
- Bibliography
- Index
