Peuples de la Mer, Phéniciens, Puniques

The volume contains studies dealing with Mediterranean history in the

first millennium B.C., based mainly on epigraphic data. Chapter I

concerns the Philistines and the kingdom of "terra firma", established

by "Sea Peoples" on the Lower and Middle Orontes and in the Aleppo area,

showing their Mycenaean background. Their obvious relations with the

Phoenicians lead to the presentation of the newly identified material

referring to the goddess Tanit, best known from Carthage, but coming

from the Levant. Information provided by classical sources is then

discussed in two chapters dealing with Herodotus and with later sources

giving some information on Phoenician and Punic law and jurisprudence.

The second part of the book consists in an analysis of Phoenician,

Punic, and Neo-Punic inscriptions which so far have not been fully

deciphered or interpreted. Most of them come from North Africa, but

inscriptions from Ibiza and Sardinia are examined as well. Some of them

offer the possibility of better understanding the molk-sacrifice

and its human implications, especially in the second and first centuries

B.C. Attention is paid also to the meaning and the implications of some

personal names appearing in those inscriptions.