Marseille Tariff

Marseille Tariff
As shown in the Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum
Writing	Punic
Discovered	1844

The Marseille Tariff is a Punic language inscription from the third century BCE, found on two fragments of a stone in 1844/45 at Marseille in Southern France. It is thought to have originally come from the temple of Baal-Saphon in Carthage. It is one of the earliest published inscriptions written in the Phoenician alphabet, and one of the longest ever found.

It was first published by Jean-Joseph-Léandre Bargès, and is known as KAI 69 and CIS I 165.^[1]

It is held on display in Marseille at the Musée d'archéologie méditerranéenne.^[2]

Discovery[]

In June 1845, workers demolishing a house in the old town of Marseille, not far from the Marseille Cathedral, found two fragments of an inscription in the rubble. The inscription was said to be engraved on Pierre de Cassis, such that it was considered to have been locally produced. The mason offered the stones to the director of the museum, who immediately purchased them for ten francs. The French newspapers announced that the text discovered was of such perfect preservation and of such length that no other Phoenician epigraphic monuments then known could compete in importance with this one.^[3]

The inscription[]

The tariff regulated the payments to the priests for performing sacrifices and described the nature of the victims.^[4] All victims are male animals, and females are not mentioned.

Bibliography[]

• Van den Branden, A. (1965). LÉVITIQUE 1-7 ET LE TARIF DE MARSEILLE, CIS I. 165. Rivista Degli Studi Orientali, 40(2), 107-130. Retrieved August 21, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/41879572
• Jean-Joseph-Léandre Bargès (1868), Inscription phénicienne de Marseille: nouvelles observations, historique de la découverte et description exacte de la pierre, le tout accompagné de pièces justificatives et d'une planche lithographique
• Jean-Joseph-Léandre Bargès (1847), Temple de Baal à Marseille ou grande inscription phénicienne découverte dans cette ville dans le courant de l'année 1845, expliquée et accompagnée d'observations critiques et historiques

References[]