base
- Museum number
- 118300
- Description
-
Bronze L-shaped statue base or box incised with Phoenician characters on all four sides; cast and hammered; the inscription records a dedication to Reshef Mikal by a person whose name is reconstructed as Adbsasom, son of Osiraddir.
- Production date
- 300 BC-200 BC (?)
- Dimensions
-
Width: 1.60 - 3.30 centimetres
-
Height: 2.45 centimetres
-
Length: 4.90 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Despite the mention of a votive statue in the text, there are no signs on the base that a figure was attached to it. It is possible therefore that the original merely sat on the base. The reason for the shape of the base is also unclear.
Some of the inscised characters are difficult to read so the name of the dedicant is uncertain. See Caquot and Masson 1968, 302-6 for a full presentation and analysis of the Phoenician text; also Senff 1993, Appendix 2, 87-8 for the other Phoenician inscriptions from the Apollo-Reshef sanctuary at Idalion and its broader archaeological context. Dietrich 1978 and Bennett 1980, 330-3 discuss the significance of Mikal and its relationship with epithets of Apollo.
Bibliography:
Bennett C. 1980, The cults of the ancient Greek Cypriotes, Unpublished University of Pennsylvania PhD thesis.
Caquot A. and Masson O. 1968, 'Deux inscriptions phéniciennes de Chypre', Syria 46, 295-321.
Dietrich B.1978, 'Some evidence from Cyprus of Apolline cult in the Bronze Age', Rheinisches Museum für Philologie 121/1, 1-18.
Senff R. 1993, Das Apolloheiligtum von Idalion. Architektur und Statuenausstattung eines zypischen Heiligtums. SIMA XCIV (Jonsered).
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1872-1873
- Department
- Middle East
- BM/Big number
- 118300
- Registration number
- 1873,0320.328
