The Tabnit sarcophagus is the sarcophagus of the PhoenicianKing of SidonTabnit (ruled c. 549–539 BC),[1] the father of King Eshmunazar II. It is decorated with two separate and unrelated inscriptions – one in Egyptian hieroglyphs and one in the Phoenician alphabet. The latter contains a curse for those who open the tomb, promising impotency and loss of an afterlife.
At the beginning of 1887, Mehmed Sherif Effendi, the owner of a piece of land known as Ayaa, obtained a permit from the local authorities to quarry stone for the construction of a new building. On 2 March 1887, Cherif reported to the Kaymakam of Sidon, Sadik Bey, that he had discovered a well at the bottom of which there might be tombs. Sadik Bey examined the site and spotted a vault containing two sarcophagi through a hole in the eastern wall of the well. He escalated the matter to the Vali of the Syria vilayet, Rashid Nashid Pasha, and the Governor of Beirut Nassouhi Bey, and entrusted the well to the care of Essad Effendi from the gendarmerie of Sidon.[8]
According to the American missionary narrative, the tombs were discovered in 1887 by the American Presbyterian minister William King Eddy (the father of William A. Eddy). William Wright sent a letter to The Times with news of Eddy's discovery and imploring the British Museum to "take immediate measures to secure these treasures and prevent their falling into the hands of the vandal Turk". This alerted the new curator of the fledgling Istanbul Archaeological Museum, Osman Hamdi Bey, who arranged for a full excavation and the transfer of the sarcophagi to Istanbul.[9]
During the excavation, the workmen opened the Tabnit sarcophagus and found "a human body floating in perfect preservation in a peculiar fluid". Whilst Hamdi Bey was at lunch, the workmen overturned the sarcophagus and poured the fluid out, such that the "secret of the wonderful fluid was again hidden in the Sidon sand". Notably, after the "peculiar fluid" left the sarcophagus, the body started to become un-preservable.[10][2] Hamdi Bey noted in 1892 that he had kept a portion of the sludge that remained in the bottom of the sarcophagus.[11]
Sidon and Ayaa Necropolis (marked "1" in the top right corner)
Plan of Ayaa Necropolis
Cross-section of the Ayaa Necropolis. The Tabnit sarcophagus is at the bottom left.
The inscription is known as KAI 13. The Egyptian hieroglyphic inscription shows that the sarcophagus was originally intended for an Egyptian general named "Pen-Ptah" (pꜣ-n-pth).[12] Transcribed in equivalent Hebrew letters, the Phoenician text is readable by a modern Hebrew speaker, with a few distinctions: as is customary in Phoenician, the direct object marker is written אית (ʾyt) instead of את (ʾt) in Hebrew, and relative clauses ('which', 'who') are introduced with אש (ʾš) instead of אשר (ʾšr) in Hebrew.[13] Among less common words in modern Hebrew, the inscription uses חרץ for gold (Biblical חָרוּץ) and אר for the verb 'to gather' (אָרוּ 'they gathered', Biblical אָרָה).[14]
אנכ תַּבּנִת כהן עשתרת מֶלֶךְ צדנם בן אֶשמֻנעַזָר כהן עשתרת מֶלֶךְ צדנם שכב בארן ז מי את כל אדם אש תפק אית הארן ז אל אל תפתח עלתי ואל תרגזן כ אי אר לנ כסף אי אר לנ חרץ וכל מנם משד בלת אנכ שכב בארן ז אל אל תפתח עלתי ואל תרגזן כ תעבת עשתרת הדבר הא ואם פתח תפתח עלתי ורגז תרגזן אל יכן לך זרע בחים תחת שמש ומשכב את רפאם
I, Tabnit, priest of Astarte, king of Sidon, the son of Eshmunazar, priest of Astarte, king of Sidon, am lying in this sarcophagus. Whoever you are, any man that might find this sarcophagus, don't, don't open it and don't disturb me, for no silver is gathered with me, no gold is gathered with me, nor anything of value whatsoever, only I am lying in this sarcophagus. Don't, don't open it and don't disturb me, for this thing is an abomination to Astarte. And if you do indeed open it and do indeed disturb me, may you not have any seed among the living under the sun, nor a resting-place with the Rephaites.
Dating
Sarcophagus of Harkhebit ""Royal Seal Bearer, Sole Companion, Chief Priest of the Shrines of Upper and Lower Egypt, and Overseer of the Cabinet", 595–526 BC, Saqqara, 26th dynasty of Egypt.[15] It is very similar in style with the Tabnit sarcophagus.
^ abGubel, Eric (2003), "Phönizische Anthropoide Sarkophage by Katja Lembke", Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 332: 98–100, doi:10.2307/1357812, JSTOR1357812
^Torrey 1902, pp. 168–9 (footnote): "When the sarcophagus of Tabnit was exhumed, in the year 1887, and the lid was removed, the body of the king was found to be in a very good state of preservation. It was lying in a brownish-colored, somewhat "oily" fluid, which nearly filled the sarcophagus. The eyes were gone; the nose, lips, and the most prominent part of the thorax, which had not been covered by the liquid, had decayed away; in other respects, however, the corpse was like that of a man only recently buried. It was but slightly emaciated; plenty of flesh remained on both face and limbs, and the skin was soft to the touch. The vital organs and viscera had not been removed (a note-worthy circumstance), and were perfectly preserved. Dr. Shibly Abela, of Sidon, a physician of education and experience, remarked that the face showed traces of small-pox; it was not apparent, however, that the king had died of that disease. The color of the skin was described as somewhat "coppery," the tinge being perhaps due to the influence of some substance, or substances, held in solution by the enveloping fluid. The fluid itself may have been partly, or even wholly, rain-water, which finds its way into most of the tombs about Sidon; but in any case it is evident, from the facts just given, that the body of the king had been skilfully embalmed. I do not know that any similar case has ever been observed and reported. After the body had been removed from the sarcophagus and exposed to the sun. it decomposed and shrunk to withered skin and bones in a very short time. My chief authority for these facts is the Rev. William K. Eddy, of Sidon, a keen observer and cautious reporter, who was one of the few who saw and touched the body of Tabnit when it was first exposed to view. Mr. Eddy was positive in his opinion that the king, at the time of his death, had not passed middle life; the face, he thought, was that of a man of less than fifty years of age."
^Nitschke 2007, p. 71: "Three of these Egyptian sarcophagi manufactured during the twenty-sixth dynasty were apparently acquired by the Sidonians, perhaps as a result of Phoenician participation in Cambyses’ conquest of Egypt in 525 B.C."
^Hays, Christopher B. (January 2010). "Re-Excavating Shebna's Tomb: A New Reading of Isa 22,15–19 in its Ancient Near Eastern Context". Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft. 122 (4). doi:10.1515/ZAW.2010.039. The similarity of the inscription to that of Tabnit of Sidon (KAI1.13, COS2.56) is remarkable, extending even to the assertion that there are no precious metals within."
^Jessup 1910, p. 507a: "On the 14th of March a letter came from Mr. Eddy of a wonderful discovery in Sidon of ancient tombs, containing some white polished marble sarcophagi of exquisite beauty and marvellous sculpture. Mr. Eddy had been into the tombs hewn in the solid rock thirty feet below the surface and had measured and described all the sarcophagi of white and black marble with scientific exactness. On the 21st Dr. Eddy received from his son an elaborate report on the discovery which was intended to be sent to his brother Dr. Condit Eddy in New Rochelle. I obtained permission to make a copy for transmission to Dr. William Wright of London, and sent it by mail the next day. Dr. Wright sent it to the London Times with a note in which he expressed the hope that the authorities of the British Museum would "take immediate measures to secure these treasures and prevent their falling into the hands of the vandal Turk". The Times reached Constantinople. Now it happened that the department of antiquities at that time as now was under the charge of Hamdi Beg, a man educated in Paris, an artist, an engineer, and well up in archaeology. When he saw that article of Mr. Eddy's in the Times and Dr. Wright's letter, he said to himself (as he afterwards told us), "I'll show what the 'Vandal Turk' can do!"
^Jessup 1910, p. 507b: "One sarcophagus, when the lid was opened, contained a human body floating in perfect preservation in a peculiar fluid. The flesh was soft and perfect in form and colour. But, alas, while Hamdi Beg was at lunch, the over-officious Arab workmen overturned it and spilled all the precious fluid on the sand. The beg's indignation knew no bounds, but it was too late and the body could not be preserved, and the secret of the wonderful fluid was again hidden in the Sidon sand."
^Hamdi Bey & Reinach 1892, pp. 101–103:"Alors seulement nous pûmes enfin voir l'intérieur du sarcophage. Une couche de sable jaunâtre et humide de laquelle émergeaient la face décharnée, les clavicules, les rotules, ainsi que le bout des pieds auxquels manquaient les doigts, remplissait le fond de la cuve jusqu'à 25 centimètres de ses bords... Débarrassé du couvercle, je fis d'abord tirer de la cuve le corps du roi et j'ordonnai de l'étendre sur une planche pour l'emporter dehors et le confier au docteur Mourad Effendi, médecin municipal de Saïda, que j'avais chargé de le mettre en état d'être transporté à constantinople; car tous les muscles des parties postérieures ainsi que tous les organes internes du thorax et de l'abdomen étaient parfaitement conservés. Apres avoir fait vider la cuve, je conservai une portion de la boue formée de sable et de pourriture qu'elle contenait, et je fis passer le reste à travers un crible quand cette boue eut été, au préalable, délayée dans l'eau. Rien n'y a été trouvé, si ce n'est quelques fragments d'anneaux en argent."
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