Pyrgi Tablets


The Pyrgi Tablets are three golden plates inscribed with a bilingual Phoenician–Etruscan dedicatory text. They are the oldest historical source documents from Italy, predating Roman hegemony, and are rare examples of texts in these languages. They were discovered in 1964 during a series of excavations at the site of ancient Pyrgi, on the Tyrrhenian coast of Italy in Latium. The text records the foundation of a temple and its dedication to the Phoenician goddess Astarte, who is identified with the Etruscan supreme goddess Uni in the Etruscan text. The temple's construction is attributed to Thefarie Velianas, ruler of the nearby city of Caere.
Two of the tablets are inscribed in the Etruscan language, the third in Phoenician. The writings are important in providing both a bilingual text that allows researchers to use knowledge of Phoenician to interpret Etruscan, and evidence of Phoenician or Punic influence in the Western Mediterranean. They may relate to Polybius's report of an ancient and almost unintelligible treaty between the Romans and the Carthaginians, which he dated to the consulships of Lucius Junius Brutus and Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus.
The Phoenician inscriptions are known as KAI 277. The tablets are now held at the National Etruscan Museum, Villa Giulia, Rome.
Pallottino has claimed that the existence of this bilingual suggests an attempt by Carthage to support or impose a ruler over Caere at a time when Etruscan sea power was waning and to be sure that this region, with strong cultural ties to Greek settlements to the south, stayed in the Etrusco-Carthaginian confederacy. The exact nature of the rule of Tiberius Velianas has been the subject of much discussion. The Phoenician root MLK refers to sole power, often associated with a king. But the Etruscan text does not use the Etruscan word for 'king',, instead presenting the term for 'magistrate', . This suggests that Tiberius Velianas may have been a tyrant of the kind found in some Greek cities of the time. Building a temple, claiming to have been addressed by a god, and creating or strengthening his connections with foreign powers may all have been ways that he sought to solidify and legitimate his own power.
Another area that the Pyrgi Tablets seem to throw light on is that Carthage was indeed involved in central Italy at this point in history. Such involvement was suggested by mentions by Polybius of a treaty between Rome and Carthage at about the same time period, and by Herodotus's accounts of Carthaginian involvement in the Battle of Alalia. But these isolated accounts did not have any contemporaneous texts from the area to support them until these tablets were unearthed and interpreted. Schmidtz originally claimed that the language pointed more toward an eastern Mediterranean form of Phoenician rather than to Punic/Carthaginian. But he has more recently reversed this view, and he even sees the possibility that the Carthaginians are directly referred to in the text.
The text is also important for our understanding of religion in central Italy around the year 500 BC. Specifically, it suggests that the commemoration of the death of Adonis was an important rite in Central Italy at least at this time, that is if, as is generally assumed, the Phoenician phrase "on the day of the burial of the divinity" refers to this rite. This claim would be further strengthened if Schmidtz's recent claim can be accepted that the Phoenician phrase means "at the death of Handsome ." Together with evidence of the rite of Adonia in the Liber Linteus in the 7th column, there is a strong likelihood that the ritual was practiced in the southern part of Etruria from at least circa 500 BC through the second century BC. Adonis himself does not seem to be directly mentioned in any of the extant language of either text.

Phoenician text

The Phoenician inscriptions are known as KAI 277. Following is a transcription with English translations.
,
For the Lady, for Astarte,

this is the holy place, which was made, and which was placed Tiberius Velianas, king over Kasriye,
.
during the month of the sacrifice to the Sun, as an offering in the temple.

And he built a chamber, because Astarte requested from him, year three "3" of his reign, in the month of Krr, on the day of the burial of the divinity.
.
And the years of the statue of the deity in her temple years like the stars.

Translation variants

The Phoenician text has long been known to be in a Semitic, more specifically a Canaanite language ; hence there was no need for it to be "deciphered". And while most of the inscription can certainly reliably be read, certain passages are philologically uncertain on account of perceived complications of syntax and the vocabulary employed in the inscription, and as such they have become the source of debate among both Semiticists and classicists.
For example, other translations of the final line, besides that cited above, include: "And I made a duplicate of the statue of the goddess in her temple as do the Kakkabites "; and "As for the red robe of the statues of the goddess in her temple, her/its red robe is like a those of the gods of the Kakkabites ". Further, In Schmidtz's 2016 treatment of the text, he reinterprets the string bmtnʾ bbt as bmt n' bbt to mean "at the death of Handsome ."

Phoenician vocabulary

Much of the well known vocabulary of the text is, of course, religious, including rb-t "Lady," ʻštrt the goddess "Astarte," qdš "holy," ʼlm "divinity," bt "temple, house," zbḥ "sacrifice," qbr "burial"; or they involve the calendar or elements of the natural world: ym "day," yrḥ "month," šnt "year," šmš "sun", kkb "stars." Common verbs include šmš "made," ytn "placed," bn "built," mlk "rule, reign." Most of the items below not covered in this list are grammatical elements, uncited claims, or reflect earlier scholarship that has now been superseded by newer studies.
Nouns in the text include: bt' , "house, temple", kkb , star, ʼlm , divinity, ʼšr , place, ʻštrt , Astarte, krr , Churvar, kyšryʼ , Caerites, lmʼš , statue, ''mtnʼ, gift, qbr, burial, rbt, lady, šmš, sun, šnt, year
, tw, aedicula, yd, hand ym, day, yrḥ, month, zbḥ, sacrifice
Verbs: mlk, to rule, to reign, ʼrš, to raise, bn, to build he built], bn, to build he built], mlk, to rule, to reign, pʻl, to make, to do, ::ytn, to give -ntn], ʼz, this, ʻl, over, above, b-, in, at, with, on, bn, to build he built], k-, for, since, km, like, as, l-, to, for, qdš, holy, šlš, three, w-, and

Etruscan text

This partial English translation is generally speculative, following van der Meer, except where noted. Line breaks are indicated with / with line numbers in superscript immediately following. Note that Schmitz has pointed out that "Etruscologists...dispute nearly every word in the Etruscan texts." Other proposed translations are presented in a 2022 article by M. Ivanković.

First plate

'
This temple and sacred buildings have been requested by Juno Astare...having been built at his own cost,

Tiberius Velianas...has given as an offering, wishes )
'
custodian of the place of the cella
'
during the feast of Tuler
'
when three years full from the day of Tesiamet
'
on the feast of Alsasa
'
when the of the magistrate great.

Indeed, in this sanctuary, the years are as many as the stars.

Second plate

When Tiberius Velianas had built the of
he dedicated an offering during the month of Juno.
The yearly offerings for the temple were eternal stars.

Translation variants

Wylin translates as "has ratified the offering of the temple." However, Steinbauer has challenged this assumption and, considering that it seems to be positioned at the beginning of a series of phrases within the contexts of a step-by-step instruction in the Liber Linteus, proposed that simply means "then." The second to last word,, is clearly a plural, so would match the plural 'star-s' of the Phoenician text in this location. It also occurs in one of the supplementary texts below, as well as in the inscription in the Golini Tomb, but in the latter context, this meaning does not seem to fit.
A minimalist 'translation' drawing only on well established meanings of Etruscan words, and not depending on the Phoenician text has been presented by Adiego:

Etruscan vocabulary

Much of the more certainly defined vocabulary of the text is again, of course, religious, including references to the god uni "Juno," nouns like tmia "temple," vacal "offering, libation," and ilucve "festival"; or they involve the calendar or elements of the natural world: tiur "month, moon," avil "year," pulum-χva "stars". Other well attested words in the text include the number "three" ci, and some common verbs such as turu- "give" and am- "be," and the well known term for "magistrate" zilac-. Most of the rest of the words are contested or uncertain.

Supplementary Etruscan Texts

Inscription on a bronze tablet at Pyrgi

These were much more damaged than the gold tablets above.
Cr 4.3:
Cr 4.2
Deities mentioned here include, and.

Inscriptions on vessels found in the sanctuary at Pyrgi

Side 2:
Notes: Words also occurring in the gold Pyrgi Tablets are in bold: "star?; "sacrifice/libation", or "then"; "when."
Words and sequences recurring within the text include: ?; ? ; "to offer"; "offering" "some" ; "beautiful"; ; "be"; ; ; ?.

First printed edition

Colonna, G. – Garbini, G. – Pallottino, M. – Vlad Borrelli, L., '"Scavi nel santuario etrusco di
Pyrgi. Relazione preliminare della settima campagna, 1964, e scoperta di tre lamine d’oro inscritte in
etrusco e punico”, ArchCl 16, 1964: 49–117.

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