{{Short description|Phoenician and Semitic inscriptions}} {{Infobox artifact | name = Pococke Kition inscriptions | image = [[File:Inscriptiones Citienses - Pococke Richard - 1745.jpg |200px]] | image2 = | image_caption = The inscriptions | material = | size = | writing = [[Phoenician language|Phoenician]] | created = | location = ''mostly destroyed'' | id = |discovered_place=[[Cyprus]]|discovered_date=1738}}

{{Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions sidebar}}The '''Pococke Kition inscriptions''' were a group of 31 Phoenician and 2 non-[[Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions|Phoenician inscriptions]] found in [[Cyprus]] and published by [[Richard Pococke]] in 1745. In describing [[Kition]] (modern [[Larnaca]]), Pococke wrote: "the walls seem to have been very strong, and in the foundations there have been found many stones, with inscriptions on them, in an unintelligible character, which I suppose, is the antient{{sic}} Phoenician..."<ref>Pococke, v. II pg. 213</ref>

The Phoenician inscriptions are known as [[Kanaanäische und Aramäische Inschriften|KAI]] 33 ([[Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum|CIS I]] 11), KAI 35 (CIS I 46) and CIS I 57-85. They represent some of the most important finds in Phoenician and Semitic language studies, as they were used by [[Jean-Jacques Barthélemy]] in his decipherment of the Phoenician language.

Only one of the inscriptions still survives, in the [[Ashmolean Museum]] - all the rest were destroyed in construction work in 1749.<ref name="Thomasson2013">{{cite book|author=Fredrik Thomasson|title=The Life of J. D. Åkerblad: Egyptian Decipherment and Orientalism in Revolutionary Times|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NS8yAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA93|date=11 January 2013|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-23635-6|pages=93–}}</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/details/CorpusInscriptionumSemiticarumI1/page/n58/mode/1up CIS I], p.39, "Lapides interea ad aquaeductus molem struendam adhibuit vir turca insulae Cypro praefectus Beschir, circa annum 1749; ut monumenta ipsa reperiendi spes omnis linquenda sit, nisi aquaeductus ipse destruatur."</ref>

==Surviving inscription – KAI 35== [[File:Phoenician funerary inscription AN1974.325.jpg|thumb|The surviving inscription on display at the [[Ashmolean Museum]], AN1974.325]] The sole surviving inscription is a marble funeral stone, numbered "2" in Pococke's sketch, measuring 12 x 3 x 3 inches; the inscription is in memory of a deceased wife. The inscription was brought to England by a Dr. Porter of [[Thaxted]], and presented to Oxford University by [[Charles Gray (Colchester MP)|Charles Gray MP]] in 1751.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://collections.ashmolean.org/collection/browse-9148/per_page/25/offset/39025/sort_by/size/object/70553|title = Ashmolean}}</ref><ref name="Macray1868">{{cite book|last=Macray|first=William Dunn|title=Annals of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, A. D. 1598-A. D. 1867: With a Preliminary Notice of the Earlier Library Founded in the Fourteenth Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ic9IAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA162|year=1868|publisher=Rivingtons|page=162|quote=Charles Gray, M.P. for Colchester, presented… an inscription, in the Phoenician language, upon a white marble stone, which was brought, with many others, from Citium, in the island of Cyprus, by Dr. Porter, a physician of Thaxted in Essex. The stone measures twelve inches in length, by three in breadth, and three in depth. It has been frequently engraved: first by Pocock (Travels in the East, vol. ii. pl.xxxiii. 2); next by Swinton (Inscriptiones Citieae, 1750, and Philos. Trans. 1764); afterwards by Chandler, Barthélemy, &c; and, lastly, by Gesenius (for whom former copies were collated with the original, and corrected, by Mr. Reay) in his Scripturae Linguæque Phaenicia, Monumenta, published in 1837, where the inscription is described at pp. 126-133, part i., and engraved at pl. xi. part iii. It appears to be an epitaph by a husband in memory of his wife.}}</ref> It was published many times, first by Pococke, and then by John Swinton, [[Richard Chandler (antiquary)|Richard Chandler]], [[Jean-Jacques Barthélemy]], [[Wilhelm Gesenius]],<ref name="Macray1868"/> and [[Johan David Åkerblad]].<ref name="Thomasson2013">{{cite book|author=Fredrik Thomasson|title=The Life of J. D. Åkerblad: Egyptian Decipherment and Orientalism in Revolutionary Times|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NS8yAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA93|date=11 January 2013|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-23635-6|pages=93–}}</ref>

Today it resides at the [[Ashmolean Museum]], with accession number AN1974.325.<ref>[https://collections.ashmolean.org/object/308786 Marble block with Phoenician funerary inscription]</ref>

==Concordance== {| class="wikitable" ! Pococke !! 1 !! 2 !! 3 !! 4 !! 5 !! 6 !! 7 !! 8 !! 9 !! 10 !! 11 !! 12 !! 13 !! 14 !! 15 !! 16 !! 17 !! 18 !! 19 !! 20 !! 21 !! 22 !! 23 !! 24 !! 25 !! 26 !! 27 !! 28 !! 29 !! 30 !! 31 !! 32 !! 33 |- | CIS || 11 || 46 || 57 || 64 || 73 || 82 || 74 || 60 || NP || 81 || 79 || 68 || 80 || 78 || 67 || 76 || 70 || 66 || NP || 59 || 71 || 62 || 58 || 65 || 77 || 69 || 83 || 85 || 61 || 72 || 75 || 84 || 63 |- | || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || |- ! CIS !! 11 !! 46 !! 57 !! 58 !! 59 !! 60 !! 61 !! 62 !! 63 !! 64 !! 65 !! 66 !! 67 !! 68 !! 69 !! 70 !! 71 !! 72 !! 73 !! 74 !! 75 !! 76 !! 77 !! 78 !! 79 !! 80 !! 81 !! 82 !! 83 !! 84 !! 85 !! NP !! NP |- | Pococke || 1 || 2 || 3 || 23 || 20 || 8 || 29 || 22 || 33 || 4 || 24 || 18 || 15 || 12 || 26 || 17 || 21 || 30 || 5 || 7 || 31 || 16 || 25 || 14 || 11 || 13 || 10 || 6 || 27 || 32 || 28 || 9 || 19 |}

==Gallery== <gallery> File:Barthélémy Inscriptions phéniciennes.jpg|A page from [[Jean-Jacques Barthélemy|Barthélemy]]'s publication of his decipherment of Phoenician: "Inscriptions Phéniciennes, trouvées en Chypre par M Richard Pococke". No. 1 is Pococke's No. 2 (KAI 35), and No. 3 is Pococke's No. 4. The other two are Hebrew transliterations of the same inscriptions. File:Pococke Kition inscriptions in the Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum, with concordance.jpg|[[Concordance (publishing)|Concordance]] with the [[Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum]] (see table at bottom) File:The only surviving Pococke Kition inscription, as shown in the Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum (CIS I 46).jpg|The only surviving inscription, today at the [[Ashmolean Museum]] </gallery>

==Notes== {{reflist|35em}}

[[Category:1738 archaeological discoveries]] [[Category:Phoenician inscriptions]] [[Category:Archaeological artifacts]] [[Category:KAI inscriptions]] [[Category:Archaeological discoveries in Cyprus]]