Eshmunazar II sarcophagus

The Eshmunazar II sarcophagus is a 6th-century BC sarcophagus unearthed in 1855 in the "Phoenician Necropolis", a hypogeum (underground tomb) complex in the southern area of the city of Sidon in modern-day Lebanon. The sarcophagus was discovered by members of the French consulate in Sidon and was donated to the Louvre. The Eshmunazar II sarcophagus has two sets of Phoenician inscriptions, one on its lid and the other on its trough, under the sarcophagus head. The lid engraving was of great significance upon its discovery; it was the first Phoenician language inscription to be discovered in Phoenicia proper, the most detailed Phoenician text ever found anywhere up to that point, and is today the second longest extant Phoenician inscription after the one discovered at Karatepe.

Eshmunazar II (Phoenician: ', a theophoric name meaning 'Eshmun helps') was a Phoenician King of Sidon and the son of King Tabnit. His sarcophagus was likely carved in Egypt from local amphibolite, and captured as booty by the Sidonians during their participation in Cambyses II's conquest of Egypt in 525 BC.

More than a dozen scholars across Europe and the United States rushed to translate the sarcophagus inscriptions. French orientalist Jean-Joseph-Léandre Bargès noted the similarities between the Phoenician language and Hebrew. The translation allowed scholars to identify the king buried inside, his lineage, and construction feats. The inscriptions warn readers against disturbing Eshmunazar II's place of repose; they also recount that the "Lord of Kings", the Achaemenid king, granted Eshmunazar II the territories of Dor, Joppa, and Dagon in recognition for his services.

The discovery led to great enthusiasm for archaeological research in the region, and was the primary catalyst for Ernest Renan's 1860-61 '' Mission de Phénicie'', the first major archaeological mission to Lebanon and Syria.

Eshmunazar II

Eshmunazar II ( Phoenician: ', a theophoric name meaning 'Eshmun helps') was a Phoenician King of Sidon (), the grandson of king Eshmunazar I, and a vassal king of the Achaemenid Empire.
Eshmunazar II reigned after his father Tabnit I on the throne of Sidon, and died at the premature age of 14, whereafter he was succeeded by his cousin Bodashtart.

Discovery

The discovery of the sarcophagus of Eshmunazar II was announced on 11 February 1855 in ''The Journal of Commerce''. According to the paper, the hypogeum (underground tomb) containing the sarcophagus was discovered on 19 January 1855 when treasure-hunters were digging in the grounds of an ancient cemetery in the plains south of the city of Sidon, in modern-day Lebanon.

On 20 February 1855, Antoine-Aimé Peretié, the chancellor of the French consulate in Beirut and amateur archaeologist was informed by Alphonse Durighello, an agent of the French consulate in Sidon, of an archaeological find in a hollowed-out rocky mound that was known to locals as ''Magharet Abloun'' 'The Cavern of Apollo'. Durighello had taken advantage of the absence of laws governing archaeological excavation and the disposition of the finds under the Ottoman rule over Lebanon and had been involved in the lucrative business of digging up and trafficking archaeological artifacts. Under the Ottomans, it sufficed to either own the land or to have the owner's permission to excavate. Any finds resulting from the digs became the property of the finder. To perform digs in the site of the cavern, Durighello bought the exclusive right from the land owner, the then Mufti of Sidon Mustapha Effendi. Durighello, who is referred to as Peretié's "agent" in de Luynes' account, unearthed a sarcophagus of black amphibolite in an underground vaulted hypogeum and sold it to Peretié.

''Magharet Abloun'' was part of one of the royal necropolises of Achaemenid period Sidon; these consist of clusters of rock cut subterranean burial chambers accessible through vertical shafts. The hypogeum contains four rock-cut niches at the ground level the largest of which measures around wide and deep; the other niches measure around in width and are of the same depth. On the opposite cavern wall are two niches of smaller dimensions; next these lies the entrance to the main burial chamber where two steps are cut into the rock and lead to the point where the head of the main sarcophagus was located.

The sarcophagus of Eshmunazar II was discovered just outside of the ''Magharet Abloun'' mound; it was protected by a vault of which some stones still remain in place. One tooth, a piece of bone, and a human jaw were found in the rubble during the sarcophagus extraction.

File:The find spot of the Eshmunazar II sarcophagus from Renan's Mission de Phénicie.jpg, The region of Sidon in Renan's 1864 '' Mission de Phénicie.'' The findspot of the sarcophagus in Sidon's royal necropolis is highlighted with a red circle.
File:Magahret Abloun in the Phoenician Necropolis in Renan's Mission de Phénicie.jpg, The northwest area of the Nécropole Phénicienne, showing ''Magharet Abloun'' and the tomb of Eshmunazar II.
File:The tombs in Magahret Abloun in Renan's Mission de Phénicie.jpg, Six cross-sections of ''Magharet Abloun''; the Eshmunazar II sarcophagus is marked "T".
File:Tomb of Eshmunazar II in situ.jpg, Tomb of Eshmunazar II in situ.

Description

The Egyptian anthropoid-style sarcophagus dates to the 6th-century BC, it is made of a solid, well polished block of bluish-black amphibolite. It measures long, wide, and high.

The lid displays a relief carving of the figure of a deceased person in the style of the Egyptian mummy sarcophagi. The effigy of the deceased is portrayed as smiling, wrapped up to its neck in a thick shroud leaving the head uncovered. The effigy is dressed with a large Nubian wig, a false braided beard, and an Usekh collar ending with falcon heads at each of its extremities as is often seen at the neck of Egyptian mummies.

Two other sarcophagi of the same style were also unearthed in the Sidon necropolis.

Origin and dating of the sarcophagus

The Egyptian-style sarcophagi found in Sidon were originally made in Egypt for members of the Ancient Egyptian elite, but were then transported to Sidon and repurposed for the burial of Sidonian kings. The manufacture of this style of sarcophagi in Egypt ceased around 525 BC with the fall of the 26th dynasty. The sarcophagi are believed to have been captured as booty by the Sidonians during their participation in Cambyses II's conquest of Egypt in 525 BC. Herodotus recounts an event in which Cambyses II "ransacked a burial ground at Memphis, where coffins were opened up and the dead bodies they contained were examined", quite possibly providing the occasion on which the sarcophagi were removed and reappropriated by his Sidonian subjects.

Whereas the Tabnit sarcophagus, belonging to the father of Eshmunazar II, reemployed a sarcophagus already dedicated on its front with a long Egyptian inscription in the name of an Egyptian general, the sarcophagus used for Eshmunazar II was new and was inscribed with a full-length dedication in Phoenician on a clean surface. According to French archaeologist and epigrapher René Dussaud, the sarcophagus may have been ordered by his surviving mother, Queen Amoashtart, who arranged for the inscription to be made.

These sarcophagi (a third one probably belonged to the Queen Amoashtart), are the only Egyptian sarcophagi that have ever been found outside of Egypt proper.

Stylistic impact on local sarcophagi

The sarcophagi of Tabnit and Eshmunazar probably served as a model for the later sarcophagi of Sidon. After Tabnit and Eshmunazar II, sarcophagi continued to be used by Phoenician dignitaries, but with marked stylistic evolutions. These local anthropoid sarcophagi, built from the 5th century BC to the first half of the 4th century BC, continued to be sculpted in the form of a smooth, shapeless body, but used white marble, and the faces were progressively sculpted in more realistic Hellenic styles, possibly by Greek artists. It is uncertain whether they were imported from Greece or produced locally. This type of Phoenician sarcophagi have been found throughout the Mediterranean in the ruins of Phoenician colonies.

Inscriptions

The Egyptian-style sarcophagus was free from hieroglyphs, but it had 22 lines of 40 to 55 letters each of Phoenician text on its lid instead. The lid inscriptions occupy a square situated under the sarcophagus' Usekh collar and measure in length and width. A second inscription carved in more delicate and uniformly carved Phoenician characters than the first was found around the curvature of the head on the trough of the sarcophagus. It measures in length and consists of six lines and a fragment of a seventh line. As is customary for Phoenician writing, all the characters are written without spaces separating each word except for a space in line 13 of the lid inscription which divides the text in two equal parts. The letters are not evenly distanced ranging from no distance to a spacing of . The lines of the text are not straight and not evenly spaced. The letters in the lower part of the text (after the lacuna on line 13) is neater and smaller than the letters of the first part of the inscription.

The sarcophagus trough inscriptions correspond in size and style to the letters of the second part of the lid inscriptions. The letters are carved close together on the sixth line and the text breaks off on the seventh line, consisting of nine characters which form the beginning of the text that begins after the lacuna on the 13th line of the sarcophagus lid inscription. De Luynes and Turner believe that the inscription was free-hand traced directly on the stone without the use of typographic guides for letter-spacing and that these traces were followed by the carving artisan. The letters of the first three lines of the lid inscription are cut deeper and rougher than the rest of the text which indicates that the sculptor was either replaced or made to work more neatly.

The external surface of the sarcophagus trough bears an isolated group of two Phoenician characters. De Luynes believes that they may have been trial carving marks made by the engraver of the inscription.

The inscriptions of the sarcophagus of Eshmunazar are known to scholars as CIS I 3 and KAI 14; they are written in the Phoenician Canaanite language, in the Phoenician alphabet. They identify the king buried inside, tell of his lineage and temple construction feats and warns against disturbing him in his repose. The inscriptions also state that the "Lord of Kings" (the Achaemenid King of Kings) granted the Sidonian king " Dor and Joppa, the mighty lands of Dagon, which are in the plain of Sharon" in recognition of his deeds. The lid inscription is the second longest extant Phoenician inscription after the Karatepe bilingual, and according to Gibson it "offers an unusually high proportion of literary parallels with the Hebrew Bible

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