The Abibaal Inscription

Background

The following Phoenician text was discovered by non-Foundation archaeologists in a site near the city of Tyre, Lebanon. It is credited to King Abibaal of Tyre, who is thought to have reigned sometime in the 10th century BCE. He is the earliest Phoenician King of Tyre attested to us.

King Abibaal is only mentioned in one other source - the writings of the historian Josephus, who claims Abibaal was the father of the much more famous Hiram I of Tyre. Hiram is credited with initiating Tyre's rise to the position of the dominant Phoenician city-state. As such, this inscription was considered highly valuable at the time of its finding, but was confiscated and censored by Foundation personnel after its contents were found to likely reference Foundation Groups of Interest and anomalous items or entities. Due to this, Foundation operatives in the Near East are advised to monitor all new findings related to King Abibaal.

Transcription

The following is a transcription of the Phoenician text. Sections of the inscription are damaged, and are signified by empty brackets in this transcription.

𐤀𐤍𐤊 𐤀𐤁𐤁𐤏𐤋 𐤌𐤋𐤊 𐤑𐤓
𐤈𐤍𐤏𐤕 𐤎𐤌𐤋 𐤆 𐤋𐤓𐤁 𐤑
𐤓 𐤋𐤌𐤋𐤒𐤓𐤕 𐤊 𐤉𐤕𐤍
𐤌𐤋𐤒𐤓𐤕 𐤋𐤌𐤇𐤍𐤕 𐤁𐤓
𐤊𐤕 𐤓𐤁𐤕 𐤋𐤀𐤂𐤃 𐤀𐤁
𐤊 𐤌𐤇𐤕 𐤔𐤓𐤃𐤍𐤌 𐤅𐤃𐤇
𐤕 𐤀𐤌𐤍 𐤅𐤄𐤐𐤊𐤕 𐤃𐤓
𐤅𐤋𐤒𐤇𐤕 𐤊𐤎𐤐 𐤅𐤇
𐤓𐤑 𐤅𐤌𐤁𐤓𐤀𐤌 𐤅𐤀𐤔𐤌
𐤌𐤒𐤓𐤕𐤌 𐤅𐤉𐤕𐤍𐤕𐤌
𐤋𐤇𐤃𐤃 𐤅𐤋𐤌𐤊𐤍 𐤅𐤋𐤌𐤋
𐤒𐤓𐤕 𐤅𐤋𐤔𐤓 𐤄𐤔𐤍 𐤁
𐤁[   ]𐤁𐤌𐤆𐤁𐤇𐤌

The rest of the inscription was not found. The bottom part of the pillar on which the inscription is written shows damage consistent with a sudden breaking of the pillar and subsequent erosion, allowing Foundation archaeologists to time the stone's breaking to within a few hundred years of its writing. A romanization¹ is provided below.

ʾNK ʾBBʿL MLK ṢR
ṬNʿT SML Z LRB Ṣ
R LMLQRT K YTN
MLQRT LMḤNT BR
KT RBT LʾGD ʾB
K MḤT ŠRDNM WDḤ
T ʾMN WHPKT DR
WLQḤT KSP WḤ
RṢ WMBRM WŠM
MQRTM WYTNTM
LḤDD WLMKN WLML
QRT WLŠR HŠN B
B[   ]BMZBḤM

Translation

The following translation of the above text. Some words are split between lines, as is characteristic of inscriptions of the time. As the text contains no clear sentence breaks, words are grouped based on shared clauses.

ʾNK ʾBBʿL MLK ṢR

The text begins with a usual declaration of the author's identity. This is quite simply the first-person pronoun, ʾNK, followed by the author's name, ʾBBʿL, then their title - MLK (king) of ṢR (Tyre). Put simply, this section reads "I, Abibaal, King (of) Tyre".

ṬNʿT SML Z

ṬNʿ is a well-attested uniquely Phoenician verb usually accepted as meaning "to erect". The word-final T hints that the verb is specifically in the past, singular, first person. SML is a common Canaanite word meaning "sign", or in this case "inscription". Z is the close relative pronoun, analogous to English's "this".

LRB ṢR LMLQRT

The prefixed L is a signifier of an action being done to or for something - in this case, to the RB (Lord) of ṢR (Tyre), to MLQRT (in English, Melqart).

Footnotes

1. Transcription into the Latin alphabet from a foreign script.